For over 80% of students, an internship is one of the first steps on the way to a career

What can the internship really teach and how does it realistically translate into later professional success?

Like Robert De Niro in the “Apprentice” company, you can choose an internship at any age, but usually we associate with it people who have just graduated or are still in the process of studying. And this is probably the best time to try your hand at your chosen profession. Experience is not everything, nowadays it is energy, enthusiasm for work and a creative, fresh look that young people often bring to the company. The apprenticeship will come with time, which is more and more emphasized by employers.

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The book trainee, after several months of internship, knows what the job for which he is trained is, he gets to know the realities of the market and learns professional nomenclature. However, hard, professional skills are not everything that an internship gives. Equally important are soft skills, to which employers attach more and more importance and which they try to develop more and more, especially in young people. The main feature of soft competences is their versatility – having them is extremely useful in every industry and in every company.

Experts list a few examples of universal skills that are worth cultivating at home at the beginning of a career. Here are a few of them:

1. Asking for help – it’s worth taking advantage of your position as a trainee here, which in a way gives you a reduced fare. Thanks to it, there is a good chance that our requests will not be treated as an attempt to get rid of duties, but will be met with understanding from older colleagues. If we cannot cope with the task entrusted to us – let us ask, let us look for answers, let us use the experience of others. Skillful asking for help will certainly be useful in the later stages of your career, when the discounted tariff will end.

2. Working in a group – working with others broadens the perspective, enhances creativity and teaches how to rationally allocate responsibilities. It also helps to deal with feedback. Both praise and criticism may be awkward for a new employee. Working in a team, sooner or later, will teach novices how to accept compliments skillfully so as not to show arrogance and how to deal with less pleasant words in order to learn constructively from them.

3. Testing your skills in the profession – it is said that it is never too late to change. However, it is much better to develop in the industry that interests us and the one with which we associate our future. And we will not verify it better than by trying our hand at the profession. The sooner we start, the more time we have to correct any mistakes. An internship is also an ideal time to try. The education obtained does not always go hand in hand with the future job. In this situation, internships in the industry we are interested in may prove helpful in finding an idea for a career.

4. Responsibility – professional life requires us to be responsible in many respects. We must be responsible for the tasks we carry out. Make sure that they are performed in a timely and reliable manner. It is also a responsibility to skillfully weave an internship into the rest of our lives, which often, apart from work, also consists of education. Even if we work part-time, it will be a good introduction to learning to manage your time responsibly.

The first step to success

Many well-known and appreciated people in their industries started with an internship. Before he built his own fashion empire, Tom Ford worked for a year as an intern at Chloé. And although he himself admits that his tasks were not the most ambitious, the internship encouraged him to focus on fashion and create his brand. On the domestic market, we also have examples of spectacular career paths that began with an internship. Janusz Daszczyński, president of the board of Telewizja Polska in 2015-2016, started his work in the mid-1970s as an intern at the Television Center in Gdańsk. The potential and opportunities offered by the internship are noticed even by those who are at the beginning of their career path.

See also: Internship and apprenticeships – how do they differ and should they pay for them?

– The internship definitely made my start in my professional life easier. Employers pay attention to CVs and look favorably on people who have completed this type of internship. Thanks to the hours of internship, I have learned many valuable skills and continue my education, now as a junior specialist. – comments Filip Kulisz, student of public relations and marketing at the University of Warsaw. Experts share Filip’s opinion and add that thanks to the internship, you can also gain the trust of an employer who is more likely to promote a proven and implemented intern than to hire an outsider for a similar position.

An internship is a great first step towards a career. However, you have to remember that such a road looks more like a bumpy and twisted path than a five-lane highway. To achieve success, you need to show hard work, outstanding skills and perseverance. But it is possible!