Students' corner

Dear students,

LAST WEEK WE ASKED: Do you think summer internships are important for management students? Are two months enough for the same?

BEST RESPONSE

Summer internships are important for management students as it is the first exposure of students to the corporate world. It also helps the students to gain the knowledge which may be linked with theoretical one. And in many of the instances, these summer internships also motivate new innovations & developments of any idea or theory from students. But in order to draw a clear insight of any of the problem under the title of summer internship, the duration of two months is not sufficient. Hence, an elongated duration is needed for the larger benefit of management students from summer internships.

- Praveen Kumar V Keskar, Siddaganga Institute of Technology, Tumkur

OTHER RESPONSES

Summer internships are basically useful in providing practical experience to management students. It is an essential part of the curriculum as it gives the students an opportunity to apply their skills effectively in practical life. Internship in companies helps students to broaden their scope of knowledge as well as analyse the working of an organisation. It gives students, the feel of working with an organisation. The programme structure of B-schools, including two months of summer internship is sufficient time, over and above that would just be an extension of course duration.

- Shivam Chhabra, Integral University, Lucknow

Management, like other streams, also needs practice to shape up. Summer internship is just the right platform through which students can apply management principles. It is like a beta version of the future for the management students. And time is a factor which changes with the profile of the work and hence the standard of two months seems enough for all fields as it is enough to take a glimpse of the future and actual practices in corporate world.

- Jimit Parikh, St. Kabir Institute of Professional Studies

Summer internship are a very good opportunity for students to showcase their talent in the corporate world. They can show what they have learned till now and can apply it practically and can also learn how to apply it from mentors. Secondly instead of two months, three months would be better because it will give us more time to learn. As in the end the question is what have we learnt which can be easily answered if given more time during internships.

- Abhinav Juneja, IBS Gurgaon

Summer internships are the first practical exposure students get from the market by working with an organisation. It also gives students a platform to perform by applying the theories that learn during the study. But, two months are not enough for the same because a student requires 15-30 days to understand about company’s operation, its products and industry with preparing a project report on it, after which only one month remains to perform, which is not enough. Therefore, there should be four months of internship divided into two months each.

- Anil Mohanlal Vindrani, Ahmedabad Institute of Technology

Summer internships are essentially intended to have an exposure to management students to gain practical knowledge of organisational working in their respective domains and in that context it is definitely an important exercise. Duration of such training, however, should not necessarily matter but two months of such internships should be sufficient for students to have a grasp that can make them plan their career path with better clarity and foresight, which otherwise would be difficult perhaps.

- Arvind Umashankar, VNIT, Nagpur

Summer internship are vital for students as it give students opportunity to have practical experience in an industry, earn self confidence, to figure out what your strength are, and offer networking opportunities as well as offer break from regular course of study. Two months are enough for those who have prior work experience. But for students with no work experience two months may be less. The learning during two months also depends upon the quality time spent in an organisation.

- Nilaya Mitash Shanker, Shri Ram Swaroop Memorial College Of Engineering And Management (SRMCEM), Lucknow

Corporate life is something which can only be mastered through experience. Two months is fair time to have the flavor of business life; to learn life is sometimes tough and sometimes easy. This is something which no books can teach you, it can only be experienced.

- Harshad Kulkarni, IBS Pune

For management students, summer internships should be more like the ones at engineering colleges where a whole semester is entirely dedicated to industrial training. Summer internship is the only time when a management student gets a glimpse of the industry and the field they are desired to work in. It is very important for the students to know the required skills, work culture and the kind of approach/attitude that is needed in the field which cant be gained in college by mere studying books only.

- Dushyant Jindal, ICFAI Business School

Internship programmes are quite beneficial to the students who participate, for they receive "real world" business experience and an early opportunity to impress potential employers.  Internships are seen by college students as potentially valuable tools to explore general career avenues as well as specific companies. Such arrangements can provide them with valuable work experience (both practical and for resume enhancement) and an opportunity to line up a job before graduation.

- Bhuvana Bhimaiah, Alagappa University, Karaikudi

Summer Internships are important to enhancing credentials, testing new situations and positioning MBAs for the next step. It offers an important opportunity to work closely with professionals and to develop knowledge, competencies, and experience related directly to your career goals. With recommendations in hand from business relationships developed during a summer internship, securing a job becomes that much easier. To do this internship two months are enough.

- Manjunath, Institute of Management Studies, Davangere University

As part of any management programme, Summer Internships (SI) play a very crucial role in the all-round development of the students imparting much of practical kind of knowledge that prepares them for their corporate life. Once any student has undergone such internship, he/she finds it comfortable in joining any organisation, working there, managing tasks and also increases confidence. Looking at the time allocation, two months seems to be sufficient as there is research work or some sort of field work, and knowledge gained is the important thing not time.

- Nirav N Choksi, SV Institute of Management, Kadi

Internship instills a pride in the intern, the euphoria inspires to put in extra learning –working hours which can be utilised to make them get involved in activities that will dispel rosy myth about a working life and make them respect every kind of job as necessary and useful for progress. Students are expected to draw a synergy between lessons learnt at class with the experience as an intern. This helps them to identify gaps and sharpen necessary skill. If companies plan out the activity to be done by interns than considerable mutual progress can be achieved in two months.

- Soma Dutta, Women Studies Jadavpur University

Summer internships are critical for management students to get a holistic experience of the working of an organisation. This experience not only brings a sense of clarity in terms selection of job profiles for future, but also gives the students a good start when they turn full-term employees. However, the two month period falls short of serving the above purposes completely, and therefore management institutes must include a longer period for internships in their academic calendar.

- Akshay Chadha, NSIT, Delhi

Today every big  organisation want to recruit best candidates. Summer internship offers the important opportunity to work closely with professionals in their field and to develop knowledge, competencies and experience directly related to their career goals. Moreover, students can learn about various leadership styles, team building , decision making and communication styles. Two months are enough for the same as this provides an idea of the current knowledge and skills of the students.

- Diwanshu Dudeja, ITM University, Gurgaon

Summer internships are like trailer of a movie; one gets enough idea about corporates yet act as an appetiser for the intern to explore more in future. The things one can learn from internships could be how to work in team, how to solve bunch of problems, how to handle conflicts, how to handle pressure, and how to communicate with colleagues, and many more. It also provides the glimpse of practical learning beyond your college.

- Jayesh Sharma, St. Kabir Institute of Professional Studies

The main objective of summer internship is to apply the theoretical knowledge taught in the classrooms into practical applications in the industry. Upcoming management students are the future of corporate arena and it is important for them to get practical exposure before they enter the cut throat competition in corporate. Summer internships provides these opportunity and nurture the hidden talent of interns. Moreover, 10 weeks is not a short duration for the intern. However, getting a complete knowledge of industry is an on going process and can't be learned in this short tenure.

- Harsh Mehta, St. Kabir Institute of Professional Studies

Summer internships are the best tools which a B-school has to teach its students the application side of the knowledge they impart. The classrooms give the students the idea as to 'what' are the different things, but internship gives them a outlook as to 'how' these things work. Two months are enough for the students, from a B-school point of view, as it is forms a part of the curriculum as well as it offers enough bird's eye view of the corporate world. These two months would also help them know their strengths and weakness and work accordingly.

- Yashica Korde, IBS, Mumbai

Summer internship for any management student is important because its the maiden industrial exposure that he/she gets after gaining class room education. It is an opportunity for them to understand the application of their learning. Summer trainees are also awarded recommendation letters which helps in improving CGPA/GPA of the candidates. If the trainee works exceptionally well, there is a possibility of getting full-time job offer from the employer too.

- Sourav Singh, IBS, Mumbai

Your responses should reach us at edu@business-standard.com by Monday evening every week. Please ensure that your responses do not exceed 100 words. Avoid attachments and email your full name, institute's name, batch and complete mailing address. The student who gives the 'Best Response' will be awarded Rs 500. 

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION:
Do you think it will be a good idea for older B-schools to take over new ones? Why?