Internships: What Did These School Students Learn On the Job

Internships are the best way to enhance one's skills and can be done by high school students to those who have completed their post graduation. Careers360 had a conversation with two high school students interns and this is what they had to say.

Anuj Kaushik, Patna

I am 17-years-old and have just cleared Class 12 this year. My class teacher once said, “Doing an internship helps in shaping our personality and we can learn so much about professionalism.” This line inspired me to look for internships after my Class 12 exams. But let me tell you, internships for high school students are very rare, as firms want either graduate or post graduate students. Even then, somehow, I managed to find an internship vacancy at a motor parts manufacturing company.

I have a commerce background and wanted to learn more about finance so this internship was a perfect opportunity. My job here was to gather all the bills and payment receipts and make proper digitised data as well as a physical copy on a register. Apart from this, I was asked to send email reminders to the debtors regarding the delay in payments etc.

During my internship, I learnt how to deal with bills and how they are managed properly. Real work scenarios taught me many things. First few days into the job, I used to get confused between payables and receivables. The cashier helped me understand the difference and taught me how to manage them.

It was a short, month-long internship which got over pretty quickly. My boss gave me the internship certificate after completion of the internship period and presented me with an expensive pen which will surely remind me of this wonderful internship experience.

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Anjana Navuluri, Visakhapatnam

I am a first year BSc Nutrition student. I heard about internships for the first time during my class 10 from one of my teachers. During Class 12 when online classes were on, many of my friends began earning using their hobbies, some were on official internships and got certificates and here I was doing nothing. When that realisation occurred, I started working on my cooking skills as I have been very passionate about it. So, post my Class 12 exams, I did the rounds of restaurants and inquired about the intern vacancies. Except for two restaurants , none of them were ready to hire students as part-time workers or interns.

I chose the popular among the two and started working. On this month-long internship, I earned a stipend of Rs 8,000. I worked along with the head chef and co-workers. Initially, I was very excited but soon, I found it very hectic. What I learned out of my internship is that having passion and skills is absolutely fine but there are other things as well which are equally important like working on deadlines with absolute perfection. I had a six hour shift but it was very tiring.

This experience has been quite unique as though I loved cooking I didn't know the tricks of the trade. Now, I know the usage of vinegar, sugar syrup, cardamom and other spices in preparing various kinds of North and South Indian dishes. I have also learnt how to make ice-creams, baking cakes, preparing mocktails and shakes etc. My knowledge of cooking has extended to a greater extent. This internship experience was highly rewarding.