When weighing options for an internship, many young job seekers gravitate toward big-name organizations like Google or Amazon.
But here’s something to consider: the underdogs of the market, emerging startups, may actually provide a more valuable experience for young professionals.
Startup-sized companies aren’t usually students’ first choice. In fact, a recent Looksharp report suggests only 7.4% of students prefer to work at startups.
Maybe it’s the unknown factor — far fewer people have heard of startups like Magic Leap and Product Hunt and know what exactly they do. Working at a well-known brand also alleviates students’ apprehension about their yet-to-be-defined career identity; they might not know exactly what they want to do, but they do know it won’t hurt having an eye-catching name on their resume. There’s also a (sometimes misguided) perception among students that bigger organizations have more to offer in terms of perks or experience.
However, the above perceived “negatives” aren’t always hard and fast truths. Here are a few reasons to consider interning at a startup instead of at shiny, widely recognized organizations.
1. Responsibilities carry more weight and there’s real potential for impact
At a company like Google, you won’t be cleaning out the filing cabinet during your internship, but you also won’t be doing much that affects the bottom line. Working at a startup requires interns to take on significant responsibilities they might not have at a large organization.
For example, an event management startup might put interns in charge of designing brochures, marketing collateral and managing social media accounts. Interns may even get to suggest and carry out advertising tactics — something normally handled by the department leader in a large organization.
That said, what interns get to do exactly will depend on the startup. Some are willing to let students build ebooks, code live web pages and run events. Others aren’t. Potential interns seeking these types of experience should do research and ask questions during interviews to find out which startups promote such an work culture.
Interns at a startup also have the chance to play an important role in nurturing an organization to success early on. As the business grows, even years after an intern’s term, they can look back at the work they’ve done to tangibly shape the brand and grow its customer base, such as templates they helped develop, photos they took for the website, or ideas they developed that are still in use.
2. Acquire marketable skills to land a full-time job faster
The majority (73%) of students in the Looksharp survey say the most important internship attribute is the opportunity for career advancement. If skills that lead to career advancement are a priority, it’s easy to see why startups are a better choice than large corporations.
While an internship with Google might boast more possibilities of a job opportunity after interning, that possibility pales in comparison to the skills interns are able to develop at a startup.
Because startups operate on a skeleton structure, employees wear multiple hats throughout the day. Interns learn how to do a little bit of everything to help out; in one day, they may go from graphic designer to IT person to decorator to field marketing representative.
Coming out of an internship like this, a young professional will be a jack-of-all-trades with a proven track-record, which tells employers he or she is ready to make an impact.
3. Plenty of behind-the-scenes action
The Looksharp survey found internships help more than 77% of students decide what they truly want in their future careers. In this case, the more authentic and involved internship experience, the better.
At a startup, interns are exposed to plenty of behind-the-scenes business actions — like buying advertising space, handling budgets and managing the brand image hands-on. Larger companies typically have multiple, higher-level roles to manage these tasks separately (or they outsource them completely).
4. Work more closely with a mentor
More than 60% of students say access to executives and mentors is important to them in an internship. Yet, at larger organizations, interns rarely get to see upper management, and only work directly with supervisors part of the time. Usually, supervisors will give interns tasks they can work on independently.
On a tight-knit startup team, interns will likely be working alongside the founder and CEO every day. In fact, the higher-ups will probably be the people who hired the interns, and may choose to directly supervise them. Interns get to see first-hand what it’s like to run a company, and they absorb entrepreneurial training as a side-effect.
Startups have more to offer interns that many students may think, including greater challenges faced early on, which lead to more experience and preparation for the workforce. Those accomplishments and proven abilities are often worth more than a name everybody recognizes on a resume.
Have you interned at an emerging startup? Tell us about your experience in the comments.
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