An internship is a temporary work placement, normally but not always undertaken in the university summer holidays. The aim is for the student to pick up experience of a given job or employment sector, and to develop an appreciation of what it might be like to work in the company and role to which they aspire. For the company, it is a fantastic way to garner interest from young graduates and to test their skills in a working environment. This is increasingly preferred to final year application as a method of recruitment.
Internships can last for as little as a few days (a ‘mini pupillage’ at a barristers chambers is normally just three) to most of the summer (investment banks and management consultancy firms normally have eight or ten week internship programmes). Most are paid, and normally very well; an investment banking intern can expect to earn nearly £900 a week at the top firms. Students should be aware that interns at barristers chambers and in politics, journalism and the charitable sector are normally not paid anything more than expenses.
Some will be very clearly structured, with defined roles, while others take the form of a more generalised work experience period. Those in financial services will lead on to a firm graduate job offer if the intern performs well. It therefore goes without saying that internships represent the best route into the country’s most coveted graduate positions.
Though most of internshipHelp’s content is aimed at summer internships, students are reminded that it can pay to be aware of those which run at other times, such as investment bank spring schemes for first year students and law firms' Christmas internships. These schemes prove the underlying rule that the best way to get ahead in the modern graduate job market is to get in early. The best way to do that is through an internship.