The Benefits of an Internship
Through my internship here at Mickle Communications, I have learned numerous things. While it’s not necessary that you intern specifically at Mickle, even though it’s really fun, I think having an internship or getting work experience is very important.
While I haven’t been getting paid or haven’t been putting in a full day of work every day of the week, I feel I have gotten a lot of insight into the real world. Getting to work in a quiet office setting and apply things I have learned in school has been really cool. Applying language skills and writing techniques into the different articles I write or doing a bit of research for an article of specific task has been really fun. I have thoroughly enjoyed writing about things that I like to write about, as opposed to in school when we are given specific topics or themes to do an essay or paper on. Using my editing skills to refine my own writing and write in a more informal setting is more practical than what I am used to doing in school.
In a way, doing an internship is like doing a lab experiment in a science class. With a lab, you have to apply what you’ve learned in the chapter, like osmosis (the diffusion of water from a high to low concentration), and apply it to your lab to test it. Internships are pretty much the same concept. I’ve been able to apply what I’ve learned to make content for others to read and enjoy. The amount of times I’ve felt myself setting up a five paragraph essay like I would do for an in class essay or a book analysis is weird but also strangely helpful. Writing a paper, almost, about a topic that I chose has been very different and very fun. Not having rules, a deadline, or a grade to worry about has made writing a lot less stressful and/or terrifying. I also feel like my informal writing style has improved because that’s not something I usually get to practice. Writing an article in print or online is very different than writing an essay or paper in class and takes a different mindset, almost.
An internship also looks good on a college app or resume. Having work experience before or during college might make you more appealing to an employer over someone else. Being in the work field previous to getting a job will make you more appealing to someone than if you’ve never been in the work field before. Having a workplace reference or simply the fact you have experience working somewhere will help you with your future.
Others in my internship class might not have been able to have been as interactive or involved as I have, such as a student helping at a hospital or physical therapy clinic. However, I still think those internships can be beneficial. One’s interest in something can change drastically and I think doing an internship or work study can help with preventing that. Exploring a career field for a brief period of time can give great insight if you could see yourself doing that in the future. For example, being a nurse in the future might interest you in high school, but until you actually see and know what it’s like personally, you can’t be sure that you’re interested in this field. Many people in college change their majors, so getting experience in something that interests you might help you to solidify your major or minor choice. I’ve always liked English class and love writing and reading (if the topic interests me), so this internship has helped me strengthen my decision for majoring in English. Even though I went into this internship with a plan to edit writing and fix grammar, I found myself get more interested with writing. Because of my usual school essays and papers, I never really experimented with writing for fun and now that I have, I feel like I have more career opportunities. And I’m not saying an internship will make you fall in love with a career or field. It could do the complete opposite and make you realize you lack interest in a job you thought you loved. Changing your major isn’t difficult, but it can be stressful, so trying to narrow down options early on can help your choice.
If your high school or college has an internship program, I strongly encourage you to get involved in it because it will help you in the future. Thanks to Mickle Communications for letting me have this great opportunity and letting me make content for you that I’m interested in.
