Internships can create opportunities, accelerate your career growth, and prepare you for your first post-college role. They aren't about making coffee runs and photocopying documents – they're like personal brand-building boot camps. Landing an internship and making the most of it can open doors, supercharge your career growth, and forge lifelong connections with business movers and shakers in pathways that matter to you.
So, what is an internship and who is it for?
An internship is temporary gig that lets you dip your toes into the real-world work experience pool. Usually aimed at college students or freshly minted grads, internships can be paid or unpaid, but they all can pay off in the long run. Many colleges offer course credit for the knowledge you gain in an internship, and some organizations require that you be enrolled for course credit so that you’ll have additional incentive to perform at a high level of excellence. Your internship might even include an opportunity to spend a semester living in a different city. Jeffrey Lackey, CEO of JKL Advisors, notes that “smart companies are pipelining talent with organizations like Year Up and Skills for America’s Future—where they enter zip codes where great talent exists but the opportunity divide is great. Specialized internships here may be different from your typical Junior in college, but the benefits have proven to be outstanding for the multi-generational impact on the families of the intern.”