The Importance of Internships

What’s an Internship?

An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization or company to give individuals, typically students or recent graduates, practical and professional training in a particular field or industry. Internships can be paid or unpaid and can last for a fixed period of time, usually a few weeks to a few months, or even up to a year. Interns are often assigned tasks and responsibilities that are similar to those of regular employees, but with more guidance and mentorship to help them learn and develop their skills. The main goal of an internship is to provide hands-on learning experiences and to give interns a chance to apply their academic knowledge in a real-world setting.

Why’s an Internship Important?

Internships are important for college students for several reasons. First, internships allow students to apply the skills and knowledge they learned in the classroom to real-life professional environments. This provides them with valuable hands-on experience that can help them develop and hone their professional skills and gain industry-specific skills related to their field.

Secondly, participating in internships can provide students with exposure to their chosen field, allowing them to “test drive” a career and decide whether to pursue it further.

Thirdly, internships provide students with the opportunity to establish critical networking connections, which can help them to secure additional opportunities within the same organization, including full-time employment.

Finally, internships provide students with coveted work experience, which can help them to put their education into practice, develop leadership skills, and give them a competitive advantage as they pursue a permanent position.

Employers also benefit from offering internships, as they can reap immediate rewards without a hiring commitment, evaluate up-and-coming talent, expose young professionals to their brand, and learn from students’ fresh perspectives.

In a study called, “The Value of University Internships”, it was found that internships are an effective tool for university students to improve their employment opportunities and integration into the labor market. In the study, an indicator was created to identify successful internships based on the time it took for graduates to find work after completing their degree and whether they continued in the same company where they did their internship. The study found that students who did internships had a more favorable entry into the labor market than those who did not.

Check out this story by Kathryn West to discover more about current available communication internships.

Testimony of Media Internship

Libby Weihsmann, 2014 Graduate of UNC-Charlotte Mass Media Studies, speaks on her internship experience at WCCB, Charlotte’s CW affiliate and the Charlotte 49ers Athletic Department. It’s clear that Weihsmann’s internship experience was invaluable in preparing her for a career in sports journalism. Weihsmann learned important skills such as shooting, editing her own footage, pitching story ideas, and hosting their own show. Weihsmann was given the opportunity to shoot an NBA basketball game and report on a national televised football game, which helped boost her demo reel.

Hear from an ONU Grad!

As a media professional, utilize your versatility. You don’t have to do one thing all of the time. You can get a job doing something that is fun or good for you but isn’t your dream job necessarily and then you can go out and do your dream job on your own.

Kelli (Neal) Pitera

Kelli Pitera, a 2022 ONU graduate, interned as a development intern at Roserock Films on the Warner Bros lot. She learned about the production pipeline and gained insight into what producers look for in scripts and how projects get funded. Pitera did a lot of script coverage, which helped her understand what is considered marketable and what producers are looking for in a script.

Pitera said she was too shy during her internship and wishes she had talked to more people on the lot, wanting to expand in her networking. Despite this, she still learned a lot from her experiences; while she originally wanted to write and direct, her internship helped her realize that working in development wasn’t entirely for her. However, she considers her internship a success because she gained a better understanding of what she is passionate about and what fulfills her. Overall, her internship taught her a lot about the industry and helped her in her own writing endeavors.

Neal’s Advice for Future Graduates