Internship is an exposure towards work culture

By: Samarth Agarwal

The theoretical and practical knowledge gives opportunities to student to learn and apply the same in the real world. Internship plays a crucial role in the overall development of a person.

As we all know, "Practical is too different from theory", which means what we learn from our books is not sufficient for survival in the real world. Sometimes the theoretical knowledge is quite helpful while in other situations we have to tackle it with intelligence and experience.

When the student gets enrolled in their desired branch in the college and joins the lectures about the high placement's packages then they often start dreaming about a good office and high salary, etc. From the very first year of graduation, the faculties at the university instead of teaching about learning, grasping knowledge, being a responsible citizen of the country, etc. they only show their college placement, pass-out students who were recruited in the reputed companies, technologies and labs they have, etc. Most of the colleges and their management focus only on the placement so that they could increase their number of admissions and hence, could make maximum profit through this strategy.

According to the faculty, the higher the percentage, higher would be the chances of getting recruited in a multi-national company with a six-digit salary. Due to this, the students prepare to get ready for the exams so that they score high from the start to maintain their position and build an impressive resume to show it to the interviewer at the time of recruitment. They are unaware of the fact that many of such documents are not even read by the employer completely. All they have to do is to develop an interest which is in sync with the market and is specialised in the same. Not only this much, but they need a physical exposure rather than the virtual experience of the organisation.

Students need to ask a few questions to themselves that "Will they able to get a job based on marks only?", "At the end of their graduation, are they prepared for the job and the work atmosphere of the organisation?". The answers to these questions would measure the preparation and capabilities of students for the work culture.

Hence, internships are being allotted to every student in the three to four-year course. The internships are the short-term programme in which students from various departments irrespective of the branch are associated with companies. In our college, a total of eight months' internship is mandatory for each student of any department from which a two months' internship held after completion of the second year  (May 20 - June 20) and six months of internship in the eighth semester (Jan – June).

These internships are provided by the college itself and one could even choose their interest too. In the internship, the student gets to know about the work culture and procedure of every activity conducted in that particular company. They are assigned a task by the Coordinator of the respective organisation to perform and keep in touch with them for any further doubt or query. The project could be related to the Production Department or Software Developing or anything, it depends upon the organisation’s decision and the number of vacancies they have in various departments.

The students have a chance to learn time management, leadership qualities, handling the situation, setting of the short-term and long-term goals by the company, code of conduct and many more which would benefit them in future. Each student needs to submit a report at the end of the internship which consists of a project completed by them in their associated companies. The internship not only has credit in the student performance but also the student could add this in their resume as an experience.

In the final year, our college placement cell plays an important role for students to know which company is coming for the campus recruitment. Not only in-campus but the students of our university are also encouraged for off-campus placement. They are informed by the mail or any means of communication so that they will not miss any opportunity in this competitive world.

The knowledge of both books and practical is essential for us and hence, without one we are incomplete.

About the Author:

Samarth Agarwal is pursuing B.Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineeringfrom ICFAI University, Dehradun. He is doing research work on 5G antennas and has published one research paper in a UGC approved journal. He is also a content writer and freelance antenna designer.