The internship is one of the criteria/subject that every university students should take in order to pass the minimum requirement of the degree/diploma/master/etc. Usually the internship period is about 3 months, but it could be different depending on the program. For an example, account students will have internship for a whole semester (about 6 months) and right now there is a new program introduced by Ministry of Education called 2U 2I (2 years university, 2 years Industry) where the students need to spend 2 years doing the internship.
How to find the best place to do Internship?
There are several factors need to be consider:
1.Location
You need to find a company that you can reach easily, it might be near your house or near to your university. Since we are still a student, find a company near to you might help to reduce cost especially for transportation and foods.
2. Allowance
Some company especially from the private sector might provide an allowance to the students. The amount of the allowance range from RM 200 up to RM 1000 per month. During my time where I am doing my internship at Sime Darby Technology Centre Sdn Bhd, I received RM 800 per month. Usually government might not provide the allowance, but since YB Syed Saddiq tried to discuss in the parliament about this issue, hopefully there is good news for us.
3. Objective
Choosing a place/company to do the internship is actually depending on your main objective. It means that, what do you want to be in the future? For example, Biotechnology course work whether in the lab (as researcher & microbiologist) or in the office (as Quality Assurance & Regulatory Affairs). Besides, a biotechnology career path also can be an entrepreneur. Students must know what path are they taking before deciding the internship place. If you wish to be a researcher, then choose a place that offers you to work in the lab, but if you wish to be an entrepreneur, then choose a startup company and be a seller.
Why it is important to find a suitable place to do internship?
Students might think that internship is not important and some of them just doing it for the sake of graduation only. Believe it or not, the internship is more than a term for graduation only. Here are some of the importance of internship for you:
1. The Internship experience is important especially during job hunting
As a fresh graduate, we either do not have experience or lack of it. We might have some working experience but not related to your field (such as working as KFC staff). Based on the experiences of my friend and I, most of the questions during the interview session is about your experience during the internship. Some of the questions are:
a. What you have learnt from the internship
b. What is your role?
c. Do have experience facing any problems with your colleagues?
d. Any achievement have you done?
Since I learnt so much during internship, I can answer it easily, but my friend who's his job is just helping his supervisor to clean the lab tools and apparatus, cannot answer these questions. So make sure you make the internship period meaningful to you.
2. Gold opportunity to work with your dream company
The internship period is a great opportunity for you to work with your dream company (even it just for temporary). If you apply for the internship with the company when you are a student, it will be much easier for you to be selected by the company. Compared to when you are no longer a student, you have to meet some of the criteria that have been set by the company (job qualification) before you can join the them.
3. Best way to start your career path
Some company choose intern students to be hired as their workers because they already trained the students well. Besides, they do not have to train other new employees. If the company is satisfied with your work during the internship period, it would increase the chances of you getting hired by them!
4. Gain valuable experiences
Being a student, it is okay to make mistakes. It is okay to ask silly questions. It is okay if you do not know how to use simple tools properly. You are a student; you are still learning. Make as much mistake as possible, learn from it and avoid repeating the same mistakes. Once you enter the real job world, mistake is something unacceptable because it might cause loss to the company.
Here is a good video explaining about the internship
As a conclusion, students must choose a place for their internship wisely and gain experience as much as possible in order to prepare themselves for their career life. To all students out there, I wish you all the best and good luck for your internship!
