Guest blog by Select Jobs

Internships have received a bad press in the past but overall the benefits they can bring makes them worth it. The opportunity to gain experience, build connections and get your foot in the door. In this blog Select Jobs bring you their 4 reasons why you should look for an internship after you graduate.

 

1. Become noticed and considered more than ever.

Everyone loves a free trial. Whether you’ve jumped on a Spotify free trial, taken the jump to the Amazon Prime Trial or you’re giving Office 365 a try, we feel great. We’ve got something for free, that usually costs money. For this reason, we invest time, focus and energy into these things to utilise our free period.

While we’re engaging, we might stop to think. “Okay, fair enough, this is pretty decent” . A week later, we’re thinking, “not sure how i’ll cope without this”. At the end of your free trial we’re scrambling around to enter our card details in the fear that we may not have that service moving forward.

Recruiters, when it comes to jobseekers, are exactly the same. When Recruiting, and paying a new employee – there’s a risk it might not work out, or you may not receive what you thought. But if you get a free trial? No brainer.

By sending your CV and Cover Letter to a Recruiter, you may be one of hundreds of candidates that are reviewed. If you send this across, with a little note that says: “Hey, i’m pretty awesome. You don’t know it yet either. How about I show you for two weeks, unpaid, what I can offer?”.

We both know that you’ll be the candidate standing out, and if, on paper, you have a good set of skills and qualifications they require, there’s no real rejection a Recruiter could offer if you apply early enough.

 

2. Rubbing shoulders with the bees knees.

Rubbing shoulders with knees could be pretty difficult, if again, we weren’t being metaphorical here. When working through a free period with your organisation of your choice, you’ll be mingling with some of your industry’s best leaders and managers, gaining experience, skills and contacts with the best of the best.

Even if your period doesn’t end in full-time employment, you can leave knowing you’ve gained some excellent contacts that your competing graduates might not have.

Not only this, your CV now looks even more awesome. “I’ve worked alongside XYZ, the Managing Director of ABC”. “We worked on implementing the skills of XYZ on the ABC project”.

Filling your CV with professional case studies, the odd name-drop, and experience at successful organisations is critical at the start of your career.

 

3. The odds are seriously in your favour.

On average, 6/10 interns are offered full-time, paid positions after their period of free employment. That’s right. 60%. You may have graduated from university but it doesn’t take a senior scientist to know that if you get your foot in the door, work for free for a short period of time, you’re going to seriously increase your chances of finding your first step in your chosen career pretty quickly.

Not only this, but you’ve had the chance to train, gain experience and contacts within your chosen company and can hit the ground running when you get paid. You never know, you might even be offered your annual review from the start date of your internship.

Many Graduates may have certain expectations on what they should be earning from day one. If you place any egotistical-driven expectations on the back burner for a couple of weeks, the chances are you could be that applicant that ends up with their foot in the door, and their hands firmly on the career ladder.

 

4. Key Tip: Offer the internship, don’t just apply.

Here’s something many graduates won’t consider. When starting your job search, you may come across internships, full-time, paid positions, and junior vacancies. If your dream organisation doesn’t seem to offer an internship, submit your application with a line like we’ve covered with point 1. above. You’ll raise eyebrows, they’ll ask some questions internally, and there’s a chance you may be taken up on your offer. You don’t ask, you don’t get.

Not only this, but you’re demonstrating your ability to be proactive, and not just having the term as an empty phrase on your CV.

Who else in their inbox will be demonstrating their skills before they’ve started their role?

Getting ahead of your competition is key within business and personal life – this is the primary reason why internships will offer you a substantial leg-up on your competing graduate jobseekers.

 

Select Jobs currently list 350,000 live UK Vacancies, including graduate & intern roles. Start your job search today.