Benefits and Challenges of an Internship

Every student, every future specialist in any field goes through an important and worrying period in his studies which is called internship. Internship is the method when students apply their knowledge practically. It is an exchange of experience between a student and organization where he do his practical work. The internship is accompanied both with benefits and challenges. I would like to speak about challenges and benefits of the internship from the point of view of my own experience.

I spent last four weeks doing my internship as a teacher of French. And I can say that the greatest benefit of it, in my opinion, is that after the internship students loose their fear towards the future profession, as it happened to me.  Studying at the University one can doubt if he chose the suitable profession. Such thought as for example “what if I will not cope with it” probably came to everybody. But little by little, practicing day by day, trying to do all your best, you finally realize that there is nothing frightening and become more confident in what you are doing.

Moreover there are people who help you. So, there comes another benefit – you work with more experienced people who teach you the peculiarities of the profession. They share their experience with you, point out your mistakes, so that you don’t repeat them in the future, and encourage you. Their help and pieces of advice enrich your knowledge and contribute to your experience in the chosen field.

One more benefit is that you apply your knowledge in a real-life situation. There are things that you simply can’t be taught in the University.  You will work with real people and there might happen situations and problems the solution of which you will learn only working practically.

And finally, internship is your time to demonstrate all your abilities, all your potential, all your strength, and not only to others, but in the first instance to demonstrate all these to yourself.

However, how it was mentioned in the beginning, the internship has challenges as well. So far, I can name the one, which bothers me. The internship doesn’t assure that after graduating you will get a job. The organizations which receive students as their interns in most cases can’t offer them a job. It would be really good if you continue to work in the place you practiced. But the truth is that it is almost impossible and a lot of really well-prepared young specialists remain without a job.

In conclusion I can say that in spite of some bad sides of an internship every student should use his chance to do it, because only during this time he can apply all knowledge acquired for three or four years in the University and decide whether the chosen profession is his vocation or not.