Flickr user Andrew Hitchcock
You’ll earn much more during an internship than just a paycheck or college credits. The internship skills, lessons, and insights you’ll gain are invaluable for both life and your future career. Here are some of the many benefits an internship will give you:
Business Communication
Whether through emails, phone calls, or face-to-face meetings, an internship will see you communicating with others in your organization. Communication is often one of the underappreciated internship skills and one that greatly affects the working world.
Through an internship, you’ll gain an understanding and appreciation for clear business communication through meetings, messages, and/or training.
Networking
Ever heard the saying “It’s not about what you know, it’s about who you know?” That’s networking in a nutshell. An internship gives you contacts within your potential career field. Those connections can help you get your foot into the door when it comes to a full-time career, either through the contact recommending a particular company or colleague, recommendation letters, or passing your name along to a business associate.
Multi-Tasking / Prioritizing
You’ll likely have a number of responsibilities when it comes to your internship. You’ll need to learn how to prioritize your tasks by order of importance or workload, as well as juggle a few different tasks at once. This is key for both life and work.
Working World Experience
Working in an internship is oftentimes vastly different from any previous part-time job you’ve had before. You may be working in an actual business office, and find the atmosphere a bit different than retail or customer service positions. Through an internship, you can start to understand company attitudes, policies, and inner workings through a new lens.
Punctuality
This may go without saying, but you have to show up for work on time. Punctuality is as much about courtesy and respect as it is about timeliness. A responsibility like an internship will teach you how to fix your schedule and leave extra cushion time to allow for unexpected delays like traffic or long coffee lines.
Problem Solving
Hate to say it, but your internship likely won’t be smooth sailing the entire time. You’re going to come across problems—whether a question about how to do something, or a computer glitch, or a novice mistake. Problem-solving is a universal skill and one you’ll learn a lot about during your internship. How do you fix a situation? How do you roll with the punches? Ask questions, do research, ask for help, trial and error attempts, etc.
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