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A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Internships

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In the dynamic and competitive landscape of the professional world, internships stand as the gateway to a transformative and enlightening experience for aspiring professionals. The journey from academia to the workforce is often paved with uncertainties, and internships emerge as a crucial stepping stone that not only bridges the gap between theory and practice but also opens doors to unparalleled learning and growth.

We are about to embark on the mid-year crisis part of college life now. First-year students who have just gotten the jist of college life will now start wondering about hopping onto newer opportunities other than college societies; second-year students will go down a spiral of dread wondering how time flies and that they are so close to graduating; and third-year students will do anything in the world just to add more things to their CV. The answer to all these people’s quests will be internships. Here’s the perfect guide to deciding what might work best for you:

If we lived in a utopian world where we had endless amounts of time and people did things only for the experience and new adventures, I’d ask you to do internships for the sake of it. But let’s be real: nobody has the time to add extra things to their already busy schedule just for fun unless it benefits them in the long run. To put it simply, think about your life goals. If you are someone who will start looking for a job after graduation, an internship will surely help you. College internships don’t give you a lot of exposure, but they do make you familiar with a “work environment” and get you connections with some of the renowned names in the industry. If you wish to pursue a postgraduate degree, then, depending on what discipline you master, you can decide if you should spend time at the graduate level on internships or allocate that time to preparing for competitive exams. Most people who go for CAT consider it necessary for applicants to have internship experience. Many colleges, especially foreign ones, include a stipulated work experience requirement for applicants. It is often hard to pinpoint right now the job that you are sure to love in the future, but I have found it helpful to at least eliminate options that you are not at all inclined towards. It helps to narrow your horizons and helps to get a clear understanding of your interests.

When you are working as a full-time employee, the company needs you as much as you need it. But the paradigm shifts in the case of interns. Interns find themselves needing the company a lot more than it needs them. Interns can be easily replaced by anyone from the hundreds of others seeking that position, willing to work for free. Thus, the demand for a stipend, however meagre, is always silenced in exchange for the value the intern adds to the company. Most internships are unpaid, and while the prospect of them doesn’t seem very attractive, some of them might be worth it. Internships at startups usually offer excellent work environments, but the work may be a little overbearing at times. Since the people at startups are closer to your age, they tend to understand your situation better and offer a curated, personalised work environment for you. An internship at an NGO is one for a great cause, but it has the worst clauses. NGOs require your physical availability, and most of the work there is based on networking and social media content creation. The work undertaken by NGOs is fueled by an unwavering dedication to altruism, a selfless devotion that transcends personal ambition. The most popular unpaid internships are government internships, and the chance of anyone getting in is minute because they are open to students across all colleges for all years. However, they are known to shine the brightest on anyone’s CV. The idea here with both government internships as well as internships at big companies is that they’ll filter you out from a series of rigorous rounds and interviews, and at the end of the day, internships do not matter as much as where you intern does.

After you have figured out which type of internship suits you best based on time constraints, interest, and pay, it’s time to start looking for one! The first place for you to go is your own college’s placement cell page. Here, you are bound to find one that might work for you, plus if this is your first internship, it will be easier for you to navigate through the recruitment process with the help of the people from your college. If you have a particular company or organisation in mind, you’ll have to be on the lookout for their posts on LinkedIn as well as their other social media handles. There are some apps and websites like Internshala and LetsLearn that have a great set of opportunities for students and also assist with CV and resume building. All year long, volunteering opportunities are offered by organisations such as PETA, UNESCO, and others that provide internships in event management and outreach programs. Many YouTubers would also tell you a hack to email your resume and cover letter to any organisation and gaslight them into thinking that they did put out an internship opportunity and you’ve sent in your response. I’m not sure if that has ever worked for anyone, but what’s the harm in trying?

Internships play a pivotal role in shaping the professional journey of college students. Beyond providing a first-hand glimpse into the workings of industries and companies, internships offer invaluable opportunities for skill development, networking, and personal growth. They bridge the gap between academic knowledge and real-world application. What sets apart a “good” internship opportunity from another is how well-suited it is for the individual. The idea of an internship is to give you a chance to experiment with the real world, and if you don’t allow yourself to fail, no internship can ever be worth your time. So, breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, and breathe out!

You got this!

Read Also: Unpaid Internships: Are they Worth it?

Image Credits: People Matters

Saanvi Manchanda

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DUB Speak

Tu Jhooti Main Interviewer

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Persuasion has always been a fundamental skill set in building corporate rapport. However, just as easily, the lines of persuasion can blur into exaggeration. Is the romanticised representation of your accomplishments ethical or is it a necessary aptitude to survive against corporate homogeneity?

All’s fair in love and war.

This famous proverb, attributed to John Lyly’s Eupheus, dubiously justifies our moral transgressions. In some sense, every one of us experiences a situation resembling a battleground. The perpetual stress and restlessness over the outcome? Check. The constant side glances towards your opponents and likewise updating your strategy and standing? Check. The continuum of sleepless nights and anticipated phone calls from anxious families desperately praying for pleasant news? Unfortunately, college does not spare us the opportunity of escaping from the wrath of war. The student force is compelled to practice the tactics of war in the context of their respective careers and aspirations.

Perhaps, there is no greater battleground in college than the society elections and placement season. The stealthy rivalry consumes every student, regardless of how desperately we wish to maintain symbiotic relations. The tedious application process and the proceeding interviews determine who will continue the legacy and the golden crown of a sparking CV. However, in such an academically rigorous space, the preliminary process that constitutes these selections is eliminative rather than selective. Therefore, a huge emphasis is placed on the interview rounds. A selective verbatim is already memorised by the students appearing for these interviews.

“I am an incredibly passionate and detail-oriented individual…”

“I am a good candidate for this position because…”

“I align myself to the vision of the company and I want to…”

The use of these saturated phrases is often used to project an overenthusiastic zeal for the position. Whether the students are genuinely passionate about the position or if it is just a persuasive mechanism to imitate the idea of interest is where the art of lying takes place. Do interviewers see through this fallacy? In the United States, the Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988 (EPPA) prohibits private employers from conducting lie detector tests. Unfortunately, such a law does not exist in the Indian constitution and let us hope interviewers remain blissfully ignorant of this provision.

The interviewers are also acquainted with this verbatim. They have also developed a skill set to truly extract students who have considerable respect and passion for the position. However, a wide grey area exists where the interviewers may genuinely not have enough understanding to filter out overtly convincing students.

However, the exaggerated interests expressed by the students can be sympathised with. The rat race is an intrinsic part of the culture that dominates interview season and any opportunity to distinguish yourself is far too precious to let go of. To an experienced eye, the repeated exaggerations may appear tedious but the desperation of the students to crack an interview is far too painful to ignore.

People do tend to stretch it a bit when they are interviewing for any position or organisation. The world is so competitive right now. You go on LinkedIn and you see people doing this and doing that and you think ‘What am I doing at this moment?’ So, you want that position at any cost and in order to achieve that, you just end up selling yourself in front of the interviewer. People also do end up lying about a lot of things. I remember this individual didn’t complete an internship and they said that they were a part of that organisation for a month or two, which I think is not ethical enough considering the fact that you need to get an internship certificate for completion. Quantity nowadays is much more valuable than quality. The more and more projects you have under your CV, the more and more chances are there for getting selected for a position

-recounting her experiences of interviewing students, Himasweeta Sarma, the ex-editor-in-chief of DU Beat said

Interviews are an unusual predicament for most students. In Gen Z’s flair of self-deprecating humour, suddenly the opportunity of presenting yourself as a desirable candidate is a humongous challenge. Striking the right balance between self-doubt and arrogance is an incredibly delicate skill set to master. However, in an environment competing with the best of the best, how do you even distinguish yourself and make a difference? Your CV only plays a minimal role in the interview process because various other candidates have credible accomplishments backing up their positions. This is exactly where the idea of presenting yourself as an ideal candidate comes forward. The interview process, in a sense, is a facade of the accomplishments you employed and they are only deemed to be valuable if you present them as so. Persuasion, or glorified manipulation in certain cases, is truly an art form that needs to be mastered to dictate your success. However, in the process of persuasion, the boundaries of accuracy are blurred. Your accomplishments are heavily overestimated in the process, conveying a false sense of capability.

In our college, there is a formula most seniors preach. ‘It doesn’t matter if you don’t have experience or expertise or if you think someone deserves this more than you. Tell us why you are the superior candidate and the position is yours,’

Bhavya Nayak, a first-year student from SRCC observed.

On the flip side, the success of your accomplishments may sometimes need to be compromised. Specifically for college societies, interviewers place extremely stringent conditions that are often extremely demanding and strenuous for the candidates. Students often need to underestimate their accomplishments or blatantly disregard their leadership positions during interviews in order to falsely exhibit a commitment towards the position.

In a sense, the interview process may seem futile since the outcome is so heavily influenced by factors beyond our control. It may also raise the question of the validity of such a demanding process. Can you really determine if a candidate is capable of performing the job through a 10-minute, carefully fabricated process? However, an even greater question needs to be addressed. Does it even matter who gets the position if the work is getting done?

The quality of the recruitment process greatly determines how societies will function for the upcoming tenure. In this regard, there are greater implications that arise in terms of how the interviews are carried out. Oftentimes, there exists a wide gap between the expectations held by seniors and the actual result delivered by the newly recruited students.

Especially in societies like the Entrepreneurship Cell and the Placement Cell, they have a big recruitment process with several steps so they try to sift as much as possible. But even through that, something that depends upon college to college, crowd to crowd is that they have a mindset that they need to get more people on board than the quality of the people they are hiring. Because of this reason, the quality of work received by the placement cell, especially in my department, social media content writing, was not up to the mark,”

remarked Aayat Farooqui, a second-year student from Deshbandu College.

On the moral high ground, there are ethical considerations that need to be understood. The recruitment process is often incredibly taxing to both the student and the interviewer. Interviewers have no definite way of knowing the intentions of the interviewers. A student may appear to be enthusiastic about the position because of the spark it lends to their CV. However, the responsibility that comes with these positions are incredibly demanding and students are expected to fulfil their responsibilities in promised ways. If a student is apathetic towards the work, it derails the morale of the workplace and leads to dissatisfaction.

As Benjamin Franklin once famously stated, “Would you persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.” The romanticisation of interviews is inherently connected to this notion of persuasion. In a sense, the art of exaggerating is a requisite in surviving today’s competitiveness. However, the illusion of passion should not later become a liability to the ethos of the organisation. The balance needs to be struck. So while you’re nervously shaking for your next interview, just remember to be proud of your accomplishments and grateful for this opportunity, regardless of the outcome.

 

Image Credits: Sakshi Education

Sri Sidhvi Dindi

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Campus Central

DU Invites Applications for Second Edition of Vice Chancellor Internship Scheme

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Delhi University opens online applications for paid internship opportunities at its departments and centres for summer 2023. Last date of applying on the university website is May 17, 2023.

Dean Students’ Welfare Office, Delhi University has launched the second iteration of the Vice Chancellor Internship Scheme – Summer Internship 2023 on its official portal. Undergraduate and Postgraduate students of the university are invited to apply for a multitude of paid opportunities. Applications are open till May 17, 2023, on the university website.

All regular bonafide students of DU, irrespective of their course or stream – excluding First Year and Semester 2 students, are eligible to apply for the Summer Internship 2023 program. This opportunity can be availed by students only once during their course of study at DU, therefore, students who had already availed VCIS-2022 cannot apply for this edition of VCIS: Summer Internship 2023.

The internship demands a flexible time commitment of 15-20 hours per week. The program will run over a period of two months – tentatively June and July 2023. It has also been informed that the attendance requirement in the candidate’s enrolled UG/PG course will not be relaxed during the internship tenure. The university is offering a stipend of Rs.10,000 per month, drawn from the University Student Welfare Fund.  Students completing the internship tenure will be awarded an experience certificate from the Dean of Students’ Welfare, subject to an appraisal report from the concerned employing department, centre, or institution.

All university institutions, departments, and centres, including the VC’s office, Office of Dean of Colleges, Registrar’s Office, the central reference library, departmental libraries, departmental labs, the admissions branch, and the Equal Opportunity Cell, will be covered by the program. The selection process involves filling up an application form, stating three domains of interest, uploading a letter of recommendation (LOR) and no objection certificate (NOC) from their head of department/college, and an interview round.

VCIS was launched in the 2022-23 academic year with the objective to “impart training on soft and hard skills by integrating cognitive knowledge with experiential learning”. The program is said to achieve the objectives of “Samagra Shiksha” (holistic education) as enlisted in NEP 2020. For the 110 openings in its paid internship program last year, the university got more than 3,800 applications from undergraduate and postgraduate students. All further information will be shared on the DSW website.

Read Also: What To Expect From Your First Internship

Featured Image Credits: Anshika for DU Beat

Bhavya Nayak

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Campus Central

Summer Internships and the COVID-19 Breakout

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The global lockdown is particularly inconvenient for students considering the upcoming summer internship season.

2020 will turn out to be relatively hard for students because many companies have stopped campus recruitments till the pandemic subsides. Ideally, most summer internships begin in the month of April but amid the Coronavirus lockdown, many organisations have revoked offer letters, or have cut down on the duration of the internship from 8 weeks to 5 weeks depending on the duration of the lockdown. This is posing to be problematic for students from Business-schools (B-Schools) considering how internships are important for students.

Several companies have resorted to offering virtual internships. Many students have a postponed joining date. International internship projects have been cancelled until further notice. Many companies that usually offer summer internships are considering postponing the internships to autumn months.

Tejasvi, a student of Lady Shri Ram College said, “First year students have limited options in terms of internships opportunities, and with the ongoing lockdown, students may find it harder to find internships for a few months, but many colleges of Delhi University have Internship Cells that are actively working to bring forth opportunities for students.”

Students in first and second year are actively seeking internships but many companies are providing short term internships with extremely low stipends. Many students of B-schools as well as Delhi University reported a deferred joined date. Sectors like banking, insurance and financial services witnessed a delay in offers made to graduates.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has taken a step forward by requesting all branches of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) to conduct special recruitment drives to assist students who may have lost their jobs or who may lose their jobs due to the COVID-19 breakout.

Students can seek internships or short-term projects on LinkedIn by connecting with representatives of various companies. Apart from LinkedIn, there are several platforms for students providing internship opportunities.  Many recruiters are stepping forward to help students to provide them with internships in these stressful times.

Feature Image Credits: Devdiscourse

Suhani Malhotra

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DUB Speak

Internship Woes: Finding the Right One

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Internship is devil’s own word. It materialises during first year, solidifies in your second year, and makes you question your whole existence in the third year. In short, it is the experience you get, which makes you decide that you don’t want to do a particular kind of work if you don’t enjoy it, or you want to do it for the rest of your life because it was fun.

While interning there are several woes that a person faces which are not only downright exploitative, but also back-breaking in the amount of work and energy one has to put into it, while getting the bare minimum in return. So, an internship should not be done for the sake of doing something, you need to evaluate your interests, choices and the nature of the work before taking any decision.

The worst kind of internships are those which pay the bare minimum and stress you out so much that instead of learning anything, you feel completely drained out and exhausted. The best thing to do if you are feeling completely worn out and low is to skip it instead of holding onto it and ruining your whole summer.

The tragedy of internship situation here is that there is no fair renumeration for the work and time you put into it. Instead of learning about the organisation, you learn that the corporate world is maybe not for you.

“I joined a company, they promised me a certain amount by the end of the month. Even though some days I was unable to cope with the work pressure, they still promised to pay me the whole amount but in the end,  they backed out of the deal and didn’t even pay me the half of it.” Says a student from Kamala Nehru College.

Don’t get me started on the unnecessary promotional work that they make you do, which is not even in your job description. To all the freshers starting out, there are lot of attractive pseudo-internship offers that are nothing but companies making you do elaborate promotional work. If you are into marketing, carefully choose the company that you want to  work for. It should be authentic and legit. Your time should be valued, taken seriously and directed at things you enjoy doing.

Another student elaborates, “The work they make you do is sometimes completely opposite to what you were supposed to do. They will assign you menial chores and make you do work like filling excel sheets and documents due to which your confidence really takes a blow. At the end of the day, you don’t even feel like you have done anything productive.”

The situation is not that bleak. If you find your calling and right atmosphere, you will grow in the field that you love, while doing the work that nurtures your skills and puts them to right use. Don’t get dejected when one internship crumbles and falls apart. It just means that it wasn’t meant for you, look for another.

Feature Image Credit: Fastweb

Antriksha Pathania
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Beyond the Obvious of Delhi University Colleges

An Aspiring Intern Cyber-bullied by a Company Associated with Internshala

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On 15th May, 2019, a girl named Paridhi (@the_centaur on Instagram) posted a series of stories, revealing the cyber harassment one of her friends faced while applying for an internship on Internshala.

Internshala is one of India’s largest website providing students with ample opportunities for internships at different companies across the country. As of 2018, the platform has 3.5 million students registered and 80,000 companies associated with them.

On 15th May 2019, a girl named Paridhi uploaded stories talking about the kind of cyber harassment one of her friends underwent with regards to an internship offer from a company named Zvaari.com. Paridhi’s friend went on Internshala to look for an internship, and was contacted by a person from the aforementioned company, who made claims about working with graphics for Nike, Facebook, and Apple. But, to her, these did not add up to the information present on the website. The person also asked her for a deposit of INR 2,400 to provide her with a secure laptop for work purposes, claiming that the money would be refunded. After realising that this offer did not sound safe, the girl decided not to go for the internship.

Thereafter, she received explicit and inappropriate images and messages on her WhatsApp. After multiple such complaints were reported to Internshala, they mailed applicants an advisory note to inform them that they have blocked the company from using their platform as the company “violated their policies”. Unhappy with such a response, Paridhi used her Instagram account to post her disgust for this issue and she gathered support from her followers to repost her stories so that Internshala would take some concrete action.

Part 1 of the stories shared by Paridhi. Image Source: Instagram account of Paridhi
Part 1 of the stories shared by Paridhi.
Image Source: Instagram account of Paridhi
Part 2 of the stories shared by Paridhi. Image Source: Instagram account of Paridhi
Part 2 of the stories shared by Paridhi.
Image Source: Instagram account of Paridhi

Paridhi’s stories garnered an immediate outrageous reaction and Kavya, a worker from Internshala, went ahead to message a private apology to her. She updated her on the situation and told her the actions Internshala is willing to take to further strengthen their verification procedures, in order to avoid anything like this in the future.

When DU Beat contacted Kavya, she responded by stating, “This is a very unfortunate incident and no student should have to experience this. We deeply apologise to the students for the extremely poor experience. We have a huge sense of moral responsibility towards our students and while we are handling this issue, we are also looking on ways to strengthen our internship authentication process further so as to avoid any such issue in the future.” She also went on to elaborate the verification procedure undertaken by Internshala, and added that in this particular case, the employer had registered from an official email address, had provided a functional website link, Facebook page, and his phone number was verified via a one-time password (OTP) so that he could be traced if required. Kavya went on to add that Internshala has acknowledged the student’s complaint and, as per the standard operating procedure, has blocked the employer account on the platform and sent an advisory email to all the other applicants of the same internship. She also stated that given the gravity of the situation, they are also exploring possible legal actions that can be taken against the employer and have informed the student about the same. She stated, “We are deeply pained by this incident and are committed to providing all necessary support to the affected students.”

This form of cyber bullying and harassment has increased over the years. Girls receive explicit images, texts, and even rape threats on their personal mobile numbers. For it to happen via a seemingly secure platform, popular among the youth, like Internshala speaks a lot about the lack of cyber security, as well as the sexually violent and frustrated mindsets of men who feel safe enough to harass girls under the veil of technology. Such acts of oppression against females are examples of power struggle and hypermasculinity girls all over the world are fighting against.

Social media, in such cases, has turned out to be a boon in some cases by empowering the violated ones to speak about the problems. These people, or their well wishers, have fortunately come up, sharing their stories of such unfortunate instances on their social media platforms and garnered support from people. More power to these young women who are not shying away from taking a stand, going out there and telling their stories. It is a jarring world and support does change things.

Feature Image Source: Instagram account of Paridhi (@the_centaur)

Sakshi Arora

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Campus Central

What To Expect From Your First Internship

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When we go for our first internship, chances are we would be nervous plus excited about the work and the atmosphere of our workplace. It is beneficial to arm yourself with the knowledge of what to expect out of the internship so that you are not caught off guard. Here is a list of the same.

  1. To learn some ‘inside tricks’

If you are interning in a particular field, you will inevitably learn some tricks that only the professionals in that field are aware of. A layman or a college society would not be able to teach you these ‘inside tricks’. For example, hacks on how to identify and tackle a company’s jargon as a journalist.

  1. To grow your network

You must expect to grow your network from your first internship. You now in contact with the people of the company that you are interning with. Your network has already grown. You will also create contacts with the ‘customers’ of these companies. For example, you might get in contact with a known industrialist who needs to be interviewed for the newspaper you are working with.

  1. To be heavily overloaded

Expect to be slogging at your first internship if you take it seriously. This your the first experience of being in an office and contributing to run a company. Whatever work you will be given would feel like a ‘burden’. This will happen particularly for two reasons. One, the task will be new to you as you try to figure out what exactly is expected out of you. Two, the work might be more than what a typical college student can do.  Nevertheless, go on even when you want to quit the most and you’ll be the proudest at the end of this tunnel!

  1. To get freelancing/permanent job

If you work well, the company wouldn’t hesitate to give you freelancing or even a permanent job if you are in the last year of your college. It is so because they have invested their money, time, and energy in you and have made you capable of the output that is expected out of you. It is definitely more feasible for them to continue with you rather than going through this process all over again with somebody else. Therefore, if you do the work well, chances are you might get hired!

  1. To take a certain pride

This is your time to take pride in yourself! Expect your first internship to fill you with a confidence you have not seen before. You must earn your first stipend for this internship. To be able to show off the economic value of your services will definitely make you feel good about yourself! However, even if you don’t earn from your internship, your contribution to the company in the form of your work, ideas, and initiatives will also be a badge you can wear on your sleeve. The social validation will make you smile. Not to mention the fact that your CV will love it, too!

Feature Image Credits: Lets Intern

Khyati Sanger

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DUB Speak

How to Dress for an Internship

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Dressing for an internship is nothing short of a challenge for a college student. The perfect balance between dressing according to ones age while also looking professional is something most people are unable to master. Read on to find out how to dress appropriately for your internship, based on where you are working.

An internship is a sticky sartorial situation: you have to look professional and put-together but maintain a college student’s style and budget. An internship, for most students, is the first step into the professional world. It is easy to feel lost in this new world and looking the part is a tried and tested way to feel more confident. Read on to find out how to navigate through the complicated world of dressing appropriately for work.

DRESSING FOR A HIGHLY FORMAL SETUP

While interning at an investment bank, a consulting firm, a government agency or a big-time company- In the aforementioned work environment, you will see a lot of people in suits. However, suits can be stuffy and look unnecessarily formal for an intern. Since you’re not a full time employee, you don’t need to walk around looking like Hilary Clinton every day. If you are buying a three-piece suit, ensure that you coordinate it with polished-separates and keep your accessories simple and professional.

Corporate Dressing while interning at a high-flying company like Ernst and Young. A pencil skirt or a pair of trousers in the summer, and an added jacket of bold color in the winter would add a pop of color without looking too garish. It is important to stick with simple cuts and solid colors, and not to go too crazy with the accessories. A neutral side bag and a simple watch to keep the bold jacket under control would look impressive.
Heels aren’t necessary to compliment your corporate image. Instead, remain firmly planted on the ground with a pair of loafers. Black or nude closed toe kitten heels are another comfortable and stylish alternative.

DRESSING FOR A SEMI-FORMAL SETUP/ BUSINESS CASUAL

Business casual styles of dressing are typically seen in office environments like that of marketing, public relations, management, advertising, education. Business casual can be tricky for new interns since there are no set guidelines to this dress code. In general, however, business casual can be understood as a slightly less formal version of professional dress.
Unlike in a corporate environment, a business casual dress code gives you the chance to display your personal style. But that doesn’t mean you can waltz into the office in your worn-out denims. Khaki’s and button downs paired with loafers or a formal dresses and neutral shrugs are safe bets that can help you ace the business casual look.

Business Casual Styles while interning with the media– For an internship in the field of journalism and the media, you need to be prepared for a fast-paced work environment in which you will have to deal with deadlines and researching. You can get the business-casual look by wearing something casual like jeans, and pairing it with something a bit more structured, like a tailored jacket in winters. For the summer, a simple white shirt worn in a relaxed state by keeping the top button undone or wearing a more casual knit tie with it, along with trousers or semi-formal skirts is ideal. What is also useful about this combination is that it can be elevated to business attire for a last minute meeting with the addition of a tie kept in your desk drawer and a blazer thrown over top. Flat sandals are acceptable but interns need to stay away from the rather informal flip-flops.
DRESSING FOR A CASUAL SETUP

Casual and comfortable clothing can be worn while doing research, working in start-up or while working with kids- With a casual dress code, you can wear denim, flats, and skirts, but it is not true that all the rules go out of the window. Interns would still need to keep their look polished if you they to be taken seriously on the job.

Casual work outfits while interning with NGOs- In such casual work environments, the focus is on your job and not your wardrobe, and you will probably be working long hours. However, casual doesn’t mean sloppy. A comfortable pair of jeans and a casual shirt or t-shirt would make you appear put-together for the job in summers, without appearing stuffy. In winters, the addition of a dark coloured lightweight jacket would make you appear ready to embrace the nuances of work that come with a casual-work environment.


Feature Image Credits: MM LaFeur
Vaibhavi Sharma Pathak
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The Vitality of an Internship

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Almost all of us at the University of Delhi face the question of whether we should go in for an internship for the sake of work experience or not. It is an important choice to be made on the basis of the trade-offs like losing out on social life, college attendance, holidays, and so on.

While all of us entered the varsity with more or less the same percentages, what makes us stand out at the end of our graduation is the amount of experience and learning we had gained. In order to notch up our networking skills, decision making, or just being responsible, we delve into various opportunities to improve our CV. An internship allows you to develop your existing skill-set, learn beyond your field,  gain prior familiarity and compatibility of the job environment,  and form a network of professionals. Whether it is paid or unpaid, an internship offers you experience and prepares you for the ‘big bad world’.

There are more chances of companies hiring you if you have interned already in their organisation or have prior work experience than someone who is just a novice. There is always a cost-benefit analysis involved while grabbing any internship opportunity. You have to cut your time off from outings with friends so as to attend office or meet deadlines at work and even lose out on going home during semester breaks. It is true that college life comes only once and maybe, right now, we are too young to live a mundane lifestyle. We have to compromise on our college attendance, internal assessments and even, semester exams’ prep while interning. What is required is ‘fine-tuning’ of college life and internships.

Another important thing is to be aware of our career choices. For an MBA aspirant or one who wants to seek placement, an internship will make a mammoth difference in your CV while for a UPSC aspirant, it may not be of much use.  Work-from-home internships are better to do during semesters. At the same time, remember that you are in college who is supposed to have fun with your peers and make memories. Choose wisely and decide the right time for venturing out on a new internship.

 

Feature Image Credits: Blush

Oorja Tapan

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My Experience As An Intern At Teach For India

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1st July, 2016 was the day when I stepped through the mirror into the ‘Looking Glass House’, just like Alice did in ‘Through the Looking Glass’. And yes, just like Alice I also felt that I had stepped into a world which was similar to mine but, with several strange differences. I cannot describe my Teach for India (TFI) experience without lending images from this wonderful text by Lewis Caroll. Alice becomes a different person after her journey through the Looking Glass and so did I, after this internship.

The world I had stepped into was unlike anything that I had ever seen. All my life I thought I knew everything about the impoverished and marginal community of our society, the people living in slums. I thought I was aware about the challenges they face. I thought I knew about the educational inequity and loopholes in our education system. But little did I know that ‘I thought’ too much and hence, assumed ‘I knew’. Everything that ‘I thought I knew’ just came crumbling down the moment I stepped into 4th grade classroom of MCD School in Saraipipal Thala.

I expected the worst; the unruly kids, lazy government school teachers and yes, dirt everywhere! Alas! I was wrong about a lot of things. Here’s how my one month went as TFI intern.

1st and 2nd July were Friday and Saturday. The attendance was low, with only 5 and 6 kids present each day. The class teacher told me that the kids will definitely come from Monday and, they did. The moment I in stepped in class, I was wished by a chorus, “Good Morning, Didiiiii”. I was taken aback by their enthusiastic, happy response.

This first week was the hardest week; I was stripped off all my pre-conceptions. Every time I saw something which was not what I had believed, it confused me even more and felt as if everything I knew was a lie. Each day of this week I heard a new child’s story which made me feel a little more grateful of my life and childhood.

Now with all the kids present, the teaching began. As my TFI fellow had pointed out, “If you don’t have a plan for the kids, they’ll have a plan for you.” The kids in my class had unlimited energy, constructive as well as destructive. I was assigned to teach English and Science. My first foray into teaching began with a poem. This poem gave me an insight of the level of the kids. There were kids in the class who were unaware of the basic sound and letter recognition and hence, were unable to read. Thus, I made it my goal to teach them sounds and basic reading before my one month gets over.

My days flew thinking, planning, talking about just my kids. I didn’t know when I started referring to them as ‘my kids’ but, I did. All the things in my life faded into insignificance. With my BOY assessment, my days were spent assessing each child on a motley range of criteria’s and my nights were spent filling the tracker.

This assessment further helped me in recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of my kids. As my assessment came to end, so did my internship. I could not teach all my kids to read. All of them had different learning capacities; some could only learn letter sounds, some 3 letter words and some to read sentences. But, with each little milestone that my kids achieved, I smiled little more and felt a little more alive.

I may not have done much, but I did what I could in one month. Change is a slow process. One could not expect to move mountains but, it’s the baby steps that count and the will to continue. It’s all about ‘one child at a time’. Being with these kids for one month taught me to smile in the face of adversity. Their happiness and zeal was infectious. And yes, their lack of resources showed me what today’s privileged kids are losing, with their lives heavily dependent on technology.

I learnt that my biggest flaw was that my opinions about the education system were based and influenced by what I had read in newspapers, heard from others and seen on television. We often go through life forming opinions, passing judgements over our flimsy assumptions, but it’s the first experience and in-depth insight that really matter and help. I realised that most of the policies fail because the real situation is misconstrued by the policy makers. Though this TFI internship was short, I stepped into an alternate reality. However, I wish that there was no disparity between, my kids and my reality. In the kids company, I learnt to unlearn. Before I met them, I thought they needed me, but it was I, who needed them!

One should definitely work with TFI as an intern if, planning to join the fellowship. An intern does most of the things that a fellow is expected to do and gets a peek inside TFI culture as well!

Featured Image Credits: Zeba, TFI

Nidhi Panchal
[email protected]

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