Many students are looking forward to gaining some work experience before kicking off their career upon graduation. It is needless to say there are many pros that tag along with internships. However, with only a few summer and winter breaks on hand, students may struggle to explore further on fields that they are interested in or have the time to dive into the job. Hence, this is where term-time internship sets in.
Difficulties with Term-Time Internship
- Study Workload
Students that are actively looking for internships are usually those that are pursuing highly competitive degrees. While they are looking forward to getting their hands dirty and exposing themselves to realistic business scenarios, they find it hard to strike a balance between work and study. For instance, while your study group is discussing possible essay questions and meeting up to practise for presentations, you are stuck in the office, handling duties and tasks assigned to you. After a long exhausting day of work, you have to catch up with the school work and make sure you don’t miss any of the deadlines.
Students that are participating in a term-time internship will struggle with excelling with both work and study. This is particularly true when mid-terms and finals are just around the corner. Even if you happen to strike that delicate balance, it is still inevitable that you have to deal with immense pressure and be forced to make sacrifices.
2. Variety of Term-Time Internship
Let’s be honest, most employers do not hire interns for social corporate responsibilities or public image. They hire people to get things done and this implies unequivocally to interns. You may be assigned with easier and more mundane tasks but managers still expect results. These managers/ supervisors have a long to-do list where caring for internships’ timetable, anxiety level, job satisfaction and takeaways are simply not their priority. Thus, they are more reluctant to hire part-time interns who can’t dedicate 100% of their energy and time in the work. For instance, a price list has just been submitted by a supplier and it is your job to validate and consolidate accordingly. Nonetheless, you are only here for work from Monday to Wednesday and this task could only be fulfilled next week.
As a result, not many companies would offer part-time internships for students that are still pursuing a degree in full time. This significantly reduces the functions and natures of the internships available in the market where your job becomes more or less mundane and unimportant. If the internship could only provide a shallow overview of the business/ industry, it may not justify the sacrifices made and stress endured throughout the semester.
3. Time Management
Most employers would need a minimum of two (2) full days from part-time interns. Nonetheless, not everyone could enrol into ideal timeslots and end up with a perfect timetable. It is more often and true that we may end up with a broken timetable with lessons scattered across the week. The one to two hours between classes is not enough for term-time internships. It would be hard for you to communicate with your colleagues to get things done throughout the day. Ineffective communication and inefficient workflow don’t bring results and employers don’t want to see resources dissipated in such sense.
Usually, part-time interns would need to devote in at least 12–16 hours per week. Not only has it been hard for students with significant study workload to squeeze that many hours out, but it is also challenging to allocate bigger time blocks (e.g. one full day or a consecutive of five hours) for the job. Therefore, even you exhibit all the qualities companies are looking for in an employee, you wouldn’t rise above and fulfil your role with a terrible timetable. Again, you are faced with problems like minimal takeaways and unnecessary tension and inconvenience caused to your daily lives.
5 Steps of Getting Your Term-Time Internship
1. Decide What Kind of Internship Do You Want
Once you have accepted the offer, you are expected to stick to it for at least a few months. With that amount of time and effort dedicated, you better choose something you genuinely like and interested in. There are a few questions you can ask yourself:
- what do you want to learn from the internship — practical skillsets, general understanding of the industry, operational experience, decision making?
- what role do you want to play — personal assistant of the executive/ C-level manager, operational assistant handling printing and faxing, a part-time who handles the same task as the full-timers, student helper?
- what sort of tasks would you not like to do — printing, faxing, writing minutes, cold calling and direct sales?
- what kind of work pace, hierarchy, communication style are you the most comfortable with — fast paced, flat hierarchy, direct reporting to the founders, weekly instead of daily catch-ups?
2. Get Your Timetable Sorted Out
When you are applying for a job, you are often asked about your availability. It is recommended to have a clear overview of your learning timetable, extra-curricular activities or other part-time jobs. Fortunately, remote working is gaining its popularity among employers, especially for startups and this certainly provides more flexibility to full-time students.
On the other hand, as classes are conducted online, you may also consider skipping class at its destinated time but catch up later on at night or during the weekend so as to create bigger time blocks for the internship.
Time management is probably the biggest lesson I have learnt from my term-time internships. You need to and have to be very wary with the time you spent out of your internship and lesson. Set up your schedule book and calendar to make sure you don’t miss any deadlines or run out of time for studying for your mid-terms and finals. Ask for help from your classmates, friends, professors if necessary.
You attend school to learn, not to study. If you learn faster and greater from internships, go for it. Don’s mess up the logic and become an answering machine to the educational system.
3. Prepare a Cover Letter and Resume
Resume is an one-page document that reveals your academic and career achievements. For instance, what is your field of study in university, which society have you joined, what is your role, what is your hobby, what is your previous job about.
Be descriptive and concise when describing your experiences. Provide numbers such as “150% growth in sales with my amendment in BD funnel”, “my marketing campaign has a 20%+ conversation rate”. Showcase your work on the paper and get the employers interested enough to offer an interview opportunity.
Cover Letter is a letter you write to the HR manager or the founder (this is more common for startups). You highlight your key achievements and most importantly, explain why do you want to apply for the job. The tip is make reference to the job description and elicit one or two experiences of yours that can address those needs. Nonetheless, you should be aware of your tone — you don’t want to sound too cocky or over-confident. After all, you are a university student and you are asking for a learning opportunity. You would rather come off too humble instead of too arrogant.
4. Prepare for Interviews
Different companies have their own way of hiring. Some require aptitude test, online assessment, technical ability test if you are applying for some skill-savy positions. Yet, one thing that is inevitable is interview. If you nail the interview, it is highly likely you are going to get the job.
On the other, interview is a chance for you to get to know the company. Interviewers would usually provide an overview of the company and be ready to answer any of your questions. You can ask for descriptions of the working culture, remuneration, reporting style, product/ service information or any other thing would help you to understand the company and decide whether it is a favourable environment for you to learn.
The most common session in an interview is self-introduction. You will be asked to describe yourself in 45–60 seconds. The key is to enunciate properly and confidently. It should be a summary of your resume — who are you, what are you studying, what is your biggest achievement (relevant to the job), why do you want to apply for the job, what are you interested in this field of work.
When you are asked something you don’t know, be honest. It is better to reveal your lack of experience or understanding instead of spurling out something inaccurate. The interview is the expert in the field — they know when you lie. Nonetheless, don’t sit there and simply say “I don’t know”. Provide as much intel as possible, show that you have done your research and you are keen to learn more. That would do the justice.
Therefore, it is highly recommended to do some background checks of your interviewer. For instance, what is his field of expertise, what is his position, which school did he attend and etc. These details help you to gain an understanding of the person that is going to decide whether to give you a job. Look up on LinkedIn or simply Google that person to see if they have done any interviews with local media or podcast. Get the person to like you, despite you don’t have many relevant work experiences. This is especially true if you are applying for your first internship.
The above is just tip of the iceberg of why should you get a term-time internship and how could you secure an offer. Later on I will share with you more on my internship experience and what I have learnt from working for startups.
