These "internship" articles discuss internships and placements for student and graduate interns in further detail, mainly in relation to getting graduate jobs. These articles should help you to find out more about internships or placements, what they are, why interning is so useful and how you might go about getting an internship and becoming an intern.
The following articles on internships should be helpful to anyone considering work experience or a placement:
For more information on internships, placements and graduate jobs visit:
Getting a graduate job in finance is a highly competitive process. It is extremely important to have some sort of experience, if possible an internship at a financial services firm, if you want to stand a good chance of getting a graduate job in the industry.
Most large investment banks and financial organisations offer short-term internships or placements. Getting such as internship is extremely competitive, the reason being:
More specifically, internships offer students a range of great benefits, such as:
Completing an internship gives candidates a great advantage when applying for full graduate jobs, particularly in investment banking, accountancy & professional services and IT.
For many students, an internship is a first opportunity to get to know an industry, a job role and the working culture of a company, whilst making contacts and applying skills developed during university. It is important to consider internships and make applications to companies you both want to work at and believe will provide you with a good platform for getting a graduate job upon graduation.
When making applications you will usually be expected to apply for one particular business area. It is important to spend time exploring the different divisions and career opportunities that are available to you, before submitting your applications. Try to attend as many company presentations as possible, network with other students or graduate trainees you may know and use careers websites such as WikiJob to help you in your research.
The application deadline for many internships is the end of January, but many end earlier. It is a good idea to apply early for internships; if recruiters receive many good applications very early, they may offer, and fill, positions before the final application deadline. Do not leave your applications too late.
When making internship applications, consider your particular skills and competencies and how they might be relevant to the role you’re applying for. If you haven’t got any previous work experience, think about skills you’'ve picked up in other ways, for example during extracurricular activities or during academic project work.
Employers like to see that applicants have done their research and can explain why they are interested in a career in their particular sector. Academic qualifications alone will probably not be enough to get you an internship; it is important to show you have an aptitude for business, enthusiasm for the industry you are applying to and strong general, as well as industry specific, commercial awareness.
Recruiters want to know that you are enthusiastic and motivated for the industry and job role you will be working in. It is essential that you effectively research what you will be doing in the position you are applying for; recruiters frequently ask questions such as:
Recruiters are looking for a realistic understanding of what’s involved in the role you are applying for and for your answers to suggest what strengths, skills, competencies and personal attributes you have to enable you to complete the role more effectively than other candidates.
Internships are hard work, but work that could lead to an offer of full time employment from the company you are interning at, or a job offer from another firm who are impressed by your internship experience.
Make the most of your time: ask questions when and where appropriate, try to be involved in a mixture of work tasks (not just one area) and be friendly - if people like you, there is a greater chance you will be offered a full-time graduate job.
Try to impress colleagues, HR and managers as much as possible: stay late when possible, try to look for work tasks rather than waiting to be allocated things to do and make sure you offer to make the tea (or coffee) from day one!
Generally speaking, the terms "placement" and "internship" have the same meaning - a period of pre-career full-time work experience at a company a person has an interest in working for, held during or just after an undergraduate or post-graduate degree course. However, the terms do have a subtle difference in meaning and each generally refers to work experience held in specific types of industry.
The term "internship" is usually used by city firms such as accountants, investment banks and management consultancies. An "internship" usually last from a week to 12 weeks and may involve some travel. "Internships" are usually offered to students and graduates outside of university term time (placements are usually held during university term time). "Internships" are usually focussed on learning almost as much as working, although internships at some city firms (such as investment banks) usually also involve a great deal of tea and coffee making and errand running, for more senior graduate trainees!
The term "placement" is usually used to refer to long or extended periods of internship held by students during a four-year university degree course, that has been specifically designed to accommodate a year "in industry". Four year degree courses with a vocational element are becoming increasingly popular and consequently more and more employers are now offering "placements", including accountancy firms.
Both placements and internships are great features for your CV. In fact, any experience of working within an organisation in the industry you wish to work in is incredibly worthwhile and is a great indicator that you have career motivation and strong commercial awareness.
A "summer internship" is a very good opportunity to get crucial work experience in your summer holiday period, whilst developing industry contacts, making new friends and even earning reasonable money. Summer internships are available to any undergraduate student, but will require candidates to undergo a strenuous application, interview and assessment process.
Summer internships are particularly useful because they provide students with a taste of an industry, an employer and a particular job role is really like. Even in the worst case scenario, a summer internship that you do not enjoy will not be detrimental to your studies or your future employment prospects in any way. Instead, it will provide an extra incentive for an employer to call you for interview when you start applying for graduate jobs - you will have learnt many important workplace skills during your internship, which are important to an employer.
On the other hand, if you do enjoy your internship, it is highly possible your employer will offer you a full-time job upon graduation, or the chance to interview for a full-time job.
The process involved with getting a summer internship is fairly similar to that of applying for graduate jobs. It is likely there will be an online application, online aptitude tests, formal interviews and an assessment centre. However, candidates for internships will not be expected to know about careers, industries or specific job roles in as much detail as their graduate job candidate counterparts.
Summer internships usually last for eight weeks. Some summer internships may include periods spent abroad, on secondment, or in more than one office in the UK.
An "internship" is an opportunity offered by an employer to potential employees, called "interns", to work at a firm for a fixed, limited period of time. Interns are usually undergraduates or students, and most internships last for any length of time between one week and 12 months. Internships (also called "placements", "work placements" or "industrial placements") may be part-time or full-time. They are usually part-time if offered during a university semester and full-time if offered during the summer, winter or Easter holidays, when they typically last 4-12 weeks. Placements are usually full-time, and take place irrespective of term time or holiday time.
Internships offer students a period of practical experience in the industry relating to their field of study. This experience is valuable to students as a means of allowing them to experience how their studies are applied in the "real world", and as work experience that can be highly attractive to potential employers on a candidate's CV.
Interns are usually university students, or university graduates who have not yet found employment. Interns are less frequently college students (under 18) or older "career changers".
An intern is someone who works in a temporary position for an employer who operates in an industry they are interested in working in. Unlike conventional employment, internships have an emphasis on training, rather than employment itself.
An internship provides a great opportunity for prospective employees to gain experience in a particular field or industry. determine if they have an interest in a particular career, create a network of contacts, or gain university module credits. Interns may also have the possibility of putting themselves forward for forthcoming opportunities for paid work, during their internship.
Companies offer students internships for a variety of both short and long-term reasons.
Short-term
In the short-term, internships provide employers with cheap (and sometimes even free) labour, for what is usually low-level office based tasks, such as photocopying, filing or report drafting.
Long-term
Long-term, employers can use internships as an effective way of advertising their graduate jobs and/or schemes to students. Graduate job surveys suggest that almost half of all graduate employers hire at least 20% of their ex-interns for graduate jobs and training schemes. It is highly likely that graduates will return to the organisation that hired them as an intern for full-time employment after leaving university.
The prospect of hiring ex-interns after graduating is also very appealing to employers because these graduates already understand the company and the job they will be doing. Ex-interns require little or no training.
An internship may be paid, unpaid or partially paid.
Paid Internships
Paid internships are most common at engineering, legal, business (especially accounting and finance), technology, medical, science, and advertising sectors. Internships in the media (radio, television, print) and non-profit organizations are often unpaid.
Unpaid Internships
Many employers in the highly sought after professions, such as TV and politics, demand that graduate level job candidates undergo a period of unpaid "work experience" before being able to get paid work. In most cases this "work experience" is actually simply unpaid work and is contrary to the Minimum Wage regulations if unpaid. Such is the demand for this kind of work that very few complaints are made about this, and so the practice continues albeit illegally.
A research internship (also sometimes known as a "dissertation internship") is usually undertaken by students that are in their last year of academic study. For a research internship a student will undertake research for a particular company. The company may have something that they feel they need to improve, or the student may be able to choose a topic within the company themselves. The results of the research study will need to be accumulated in to a formal report and presented to the company and to the university institution the student is studying at.
Internships are a great way for students to test their skills in real-life situations, explore career options and gain an insight into a company or organisation. Internships provide an unrivalled opportunity to find out about different areas of a business and to network with other professionals and like-minded ambitious students.
Taking an internship can also significantly increase your chances of getting a full-time graduate job. It is not at all unusual for employers make full-time job offers to a large proportion of their interns.
Some candidates will find they do not actually enjoy the job they do during their internship. This is also useful because it is much better to discover this during an internship than after you’ve graduated and accepted a permanent job offer.
A research internship (also sometimes known as a "dissertation internship") is usually undertaken by students that are in their last year of academic study. For a research internship a student will undertake research for a particular company. The company may have something that they feel they need to improve, or the student may be able to choose a topic within the company themselves. The results of the research study will need to be accumulated in to a formal report and presented to the company and to the university institution the student is studying at.
Student and graduate "internships" are very important, because they substantially increase the chance of graduates finding employment. To an employer, a candidate who has spent time working for a firm within a particular industry shows dedication to a particular career, enthusiasm for a particular job and importantly, has experience.
Internships are also very useful to interns themselves as they offer the chance to find out what working for a particular company, or within a certain industry, is really like. Internships also allow interns to make contacts with managers and recruiters, which can later be used to negotiate full-time employment.
Companies also usually pay interns for their time during an internship, and salaries can be very good indeed. The highest recorded pay for an internship in 2008 was £800 a week, offered to interns at BarCap.
Internships can be highly competitive, in fact most internships receive more applications than employer's graduate schemes themselves. Often candidates are required to visit companies for interviews and/or assessment days where they must impress recruiters sufficiently in order to be offered the internship.
It is not unusual for graduates to return to the organisation who hired them as an intern, for full-time employment. Graduate recruitment surveys have found that almost half of all employers convert at least a fifth of their interns into permanent staff members.