Many times in my life I have received advises from people about my career and one common advice offered to me is to definitely do an internship while I am in college. An internship is one of the most different experiences in my life as a college student. In a year and a half of college I’ve done two internships, the first one was at a law firm. It made me realize that interest in your work was a lie we taught ourselves. On a serious note, it also taught me how to work hard, fast and pay attention to detail.
My second internship, which happened this past month, was at one of India’s best ad agencies Ogilvy and Mather. Ogilvy makes ads for the BJP, BMW, Seagram’s and a variety of other companies. The creative challenge of advertising, its pleasant work environment and the intense stories of my seniors drew me to this line of work. The work environment was very relaxed, creative and ‘chill’; quite in contrast to the law firm (which is also true for the work). The law firm had a very strict dress code, however here I could wear anything (as long as I wore something). The work there was pretty intense, but there were also moments when everyone in the office would sit and chat with each other. The best part about an ad agency is the spending the day looking at videos on Youtube is considered legitimate as it is ‘research’ and ‘creative liberty’.
The idea of doing an internship appeals to me on a certain level, it gives you a glimpse of the world outside of college, it prepares you mentally for ‘the big bad world’ and it gives you a sense of independence not found in much places. I really think everyone should try and intern at some place at least once, even if you don’t know what you want to do in the future. I honestly don’t know if I’ll be a lawyer, an ad man or something else; but the experiences I got will stay with me forever. For even if this knowledge I gained has no purpose, it is still, in all senses of the word, knowledge.
Ashish Matthews
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