blog Internship | 4min Read
Published on July 26, 2021
6 Ridiculous Internship Myths That Everyone Needs To Debunk
Most students know that an internship can be a valuable boost to their resume and a great way to make professional contacts, but there are several myths around these positions. You must’ve heard all the ones listed, I’m sure: Interns just have to fetch coffee for their seniors; their time is not paid; their colleagues and supervisors treat them poorly. Instead of allowing you to keep up with such misunderstandings, I’m here to debunk these rumors as an intern myself.
- Myth 1: You Can’t Get An Internship As A High School Student.
- Myth 2: You Should Only Take An Internship In The Field You Want To Pursue.
- Myth 3: You’ll Be Getting Coffee All Day Long.
- Myth 4: You Should Intern At An Established Company
- Myth 5: All Interns Are Either Unpaid Or Poorly Paid
- Myth 6: Internships Always Happen During The Summer.
Myth 1: You Can’t Get An Internship As A High School Student.
Reality: Interns today are hired by their passion and willingness to work. You just have to dig and find one! I know that today, even getting an internship requires some amount of experience. Luckily, you can get that through working under the same department that you wish to work under at non-profits that are more than willing to have you on board. Once you acquire that skill, you’re as good as any other college-level intern, to apply. At the Big Red Education, I see it happening every day and hence, I couldn’t disagree with this myth more.
Myth 2: You Should Only Take An Internship In The Field You Want To Pursue.
Reality: Interning in unrelated fields just adds to your skillset and prepares you for a wider range of tasks. More often than not, sticking to this mindset wouldn’t let you discover your true potential or passion. Many a time, we come across tasks that we did not expect to have an interest in. However, on getting our hands dirty with them, we find them to be more enjoyable than any other task, hence, discovering our new interests. Moreover, if you’re a budding entrepreneur, this acquired skill range of yours would come in handier than any other when you’re starting out and you’re your own strategist and marketeer at the same time.
Myth 3: You’ll Be Getting Coffee All Day Long.
Reality: Long gone are those days! Interns today work toe to toe with full-time employees, often bagging a permanent place for themselves. In the beginning, Interns might do beginner-level tasks, but that is only when they’re needed to go through it to require essential skills for an intermediate task. As an intern at the Big Red Education, I get to partake in tasks and activities which are far from beginner level. This also encourages me to put in extra efforts to learn skills of higher levels faster, helping me participate more.
Myth 4: You Should Intern At An Established Company
Reality: Interns working at start-ups or small businesses have shown to have gained more skills and hands-on experience than those working at big companies and sticking to their niche. Having worked at a start-up as well as an established company, I can assure you that employees learn more while they’re connected to a start-up. The reason being, with a smaller team, you get to work on possibly everything in any department and have to go through a much more rigorous process which gives you a steeper learning curve. On the contrary, at bigger companies, due to a big number of employees, you only get to contribute to a very specific niche, hence hindering your overall growth.
Myth 5: All Interns Are Either Unpaid Or Poorly Paid
Reality: With increasing awareness, the trend of unpaid internships has started coming to an end around the world, with companies offering highly competitive stipends along with many other cool perks. Of course, this also involves an aspect of an essential skill, which is that of negotiating. In any profession, you’ll encounter several points where you have to come to a middle ground that is beneficial to both parties. In such cases, you put your skills to use and portray yourself as an invaluable candidate that the employee needs.
Myth 6: Internships Always Happen During The Summer.
Reality: There are year-round opportunities for internships. The “Summer Internships” offered by many big names make it seem like they’re the only set of opportunities available to the students. On the contrary, around the rest of the year, fewer students are looking for internships and succeeding more due to the lower competition rate.
Overall, there’s no point in wasting time assuming the many obstacles you might encounter while interning. Instead, get up, find an internship, and discover the truth for yourself!
Big Red Education and our Ivy Early Entrepreneur Program
In our entrepreneurial workshop – Ivy Early Entrepreneur, students go through the process of business development and leave the entrepreneur program having completed a business model canvas, competitive analysis, financial model, minimum viable product, and a pitch deck.
Students get an opportunity to learn from successful entrepreneurs who are alumni of reputed universities and are experts in their respective industries.
These experts serve as coaches guiding students through the processes of developing a business concept. Risk-Taking, Decision Making, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, Communication &
Storytelling, Design Thinking & Innovation, and Opportunity Recognition are a few of the key learning areas of our program.
On successfully completing the entrepreneur workshop, the guaranteed internship will be extended to all the students within our partner firms and with most of the mentors teaching the program. Students will be provided with a certificate of participation by Big Red Education. This certificate can be used for your college portfolio.
Ivy Early Entrepreneur
11th – 17th Jan 2022
Idea Generation | Market Research | Design Thinking | Pitching
