Over 10 lakh students gave their Class XII Board exam this year. The rush for entrance exams is almost over and the wait for college days begin. It is common for most students to be anxious and uncertain about their career choices post school. Gone are the days when students just chose to make a career either in engineering or medicine. With the advent of the Internet, India's 600 odd million millennials are opting for off-beat career options.
Management: If you are an aspiring entrepreneur or have a knack to network and lead, then a Management internship can help you go a long way. Finance, operations, HR, sales, and marketing are the basic fields in which you can intern. At the same time, fields like digital marketing, brand management and strategy are seeing a boost. As organisations are tapping the youth through online mediums, digital marketing, in particular, is a hot field to intern at. You would not just learn the basics but would develop soft skills and understand different aspects of business, even before stepping into your college.
Science: If science has always fascinated you then an internship can help you gain valuable experience. In fact, you will get to assist professors and conduct experiments. You would get to research, develop e-learning content on the subjects and teach school students. Recently, a student from VIT University, Rishikesh Vibhute interned with Prof HC Verma and created teaching concepts of Physics.
Commerce: If you like to juggle with numbers, maintain accounts and discuss taxation, then you should look no further an internship in Commerce. You can get a chance to dabble with accounts, learn basics of tally, audit and finance. Many of you might want to pursue Chartered Accountancy and an internship can help you get insight into the subjects. Moreover, you do not have to wait for CA Articleship to gain professional experience now.
Engineering: An internship in web or app development can help you gain an upper-hand on your batch mates from the first semester itself. You can start building your profile on Github and participate in competitions like Hackathons, Coding contests early on.
Media: Have you spent more time reading books from your library than your school booksIJ If writing is your hobby or you have a keen interest in journalism, then go for an internship in Media. You can intern in content or creative writing profiles, social media marketing, journalism, blogging or videography. An internship in Media can help you hone your soft skills which would be very handy for you in your college.
Design: Are your school notebooks filled with doodles and sketchesIJ While scrolling through websites, have you noticed different logos and colour combinationsIJ If you are creative and have a good design sense, there are a plethora of opportunities available for you to explore your passion. Graphic design is a hot career and is much in-demand as online businesses require a clean, user-friendly interface and social media posts.
The writer is Sarvesh Agrawal, founder-CEOof internshala.com