Benefits of an Internship Program for Students and Employers

Article and Video by Victoria Geske, Arizona State University (ASU) Student

 

As the summer comes to an end and school starts again, we wanted to look back on the Summer internship we had here at Scottsdale Arizona video production company D-MAK Productions and discuss the benefits of an internship program for students and employers. So, we spent the last week of Summer interviewing us interns and our bosses, and this was what we had learned.

Internships are very valuable for the intern and the employer. Interns are given the opportunity to learn skills that will help them in their future careers in an environment that is failure-friendly; if you make a mistake in an internship, it isn’t the end of the world. The employer’s gain from an internship is being able to mentor someone. They say that the best way to learn is to teach, so hiring interns can help you as an employer develop and practice your skills.

For this internship at D-MAK Productions, us interns learned a lot. We not only learned how to use many applications, such as Final Cut and Adobe Premiere, but we also learned several marketing strategies. These learning opportunities in internships are vital in this day and age. Employers want to hire people that already have the skillset needed for the job.

Over the summer, we had the incredible opportunity to work for NBCUniversal and Discovery Channel for their show Skywire Live with Nik Wallenda. Being able to see what goes on behind the scenes to make a live broadcast was a great experience and a great networking opportunity.

Being an intern, it’s important to keep an open mind and be willing to learn new things. Your boss may ask you to do something that you think is not beneficial to you, but you will soon find that you can learn from everything and use every experience later in your career.

As an employer creating an internship, remember that the purpose of an internship is to help the intern, not get the busy work for the company done. Make sure to provide hands-on experience and projects that will help the intern gain that experience that they need before they enter the workforce.

And as a student seeking an internship, remember that it is better to get an internship with a lesser-known company getting real experience, than with a prestigious company running errands and getting coffee for the employers. Your goal is to get experience that will help you in your future career, so look for internships in the field you’re interested in.

If you find the right internship, you will be able to increase your chances of getting your dream job. And if you create a good internship for your company, you will be able to help your company as well as polish your skills that you already have learned.

Here are some links to help college students find summer internships, paid internships, and local internships if you’re a student, and some sites to advertise your internship if you’re an employer.

www.internships.com

http://college.monster.com/education