7 Reasons Why you should intern at a Startup
When given a choice between watching a project from sidelines in a MNC and being an important member of the development team in a Start-up, what will you choose? Startup stand guilty of not paying their interns as much as MNC due to lack of lot of money to spare. But then again, what they lack in terms of payment, they make up for by providing ample opportunities. As an intern in a start-up, you can at least rest assured that your job wouldn’t be serving coffee and watering plants, or to handle excel inventory sheets.
Being an intern at a start-up has lots of perks:
1.Even though you are just an intern, you matter:
Did I tell you that start-up have limited capital resources and hence, saving money is among the top priorities? Due to comparatively smaller work force very member is critical in any given project. Even if you are just an intern, your work is valued nevertheless. Small teams mean that you’ll naturally be around every part of the company, and more often than not, it is ensured that everyone stays in the loop. Given you prove your worth and determination once, every idea you pitch in is considered crucial. Interns in small start-ups are often work on projects that directly impact clients and probably immediately.
2.You’ll be surrounded by talented folks:
Start-ups are a place full of emerging talents, people with exceptional knowledge and skill, ready to leave their mark on the world. The kind of people who are motivated and step in every morning with profound enthusiasm. As an intern you’ll be working along with these people, which in itself is a big deal. The constructive competitive environment thus created enables you to bring out the best in you. Working with such talented people allows you to bounce your ideas to any one of them.
3.You get to build a network of contacts:
One of the major benefits of being an intern in a start-up is that you make acquaintance with a lot of people who can prove to be great business contact in near future. If you intern in a star-up with fewer than 50 employees, you’ll probably end up befriending each one of them. Few years down the line when the start-up turns into a major business, you’ll have so many contacts for to turn to.
4.You’ll fall in love with their work culture:
The best thing about working in a start-up is its work culture. The office is full of enthusiastic lads who do not believe in the traditional formal style of working. They do not care if you show-up every morning in formal attire with a tie around your neck the entire time or not. All they care about is whether or not you are comfortable and are working at your full potential. From 24*7 music being played to flexibility of dress code, from rusty coffee machines to the mini fridges filled with your favorite beer, from goofy colored furniture, form cool art on walls to play stations, there is an entirely different vibe of a startup. Even if you sat and work for 10 hrs straight in such environment you would be inclined not to feel exhausted.
5.No boundaries equals Unlimited exposure and learning:
More often than not, the startup have limited number of people and there in no upper bound to the amount and type of work that can be assigned to an employee. How much you want to learn, and the amount of experience you can gather in your limited period internship is entirely up to you. One day you’ll be made to work on the front-end of the project and on the very next day appointed to interview the applicants. With so much in hand, you learn to work under pressure and also surmise knowledge of various domains.
6.Startups bring out the innovator in you:
Working as an intern in a start-up gives you a leverage of doing things which you haven’t done before and that too without the slightest training. In such case even if you make mistakes, which by the way one is tend to make, you’ll not be reprimanded. Start-ups often rely on innovations; your innovations. In a start-up the boss doesn’t barges in announcing the pre-planned methodology to be implemented. The problems and their solutions are discussed with all the employees and they’re asked to pitch in their innovative ideas.
7.You’re not an employee, you’re a member of their family:
As an intern working in a start-up, I would like to share an often understated benefit of working in a startup: you work for a Leader and not a Boss. Your mentor isn’t hungry for promotion and as a result shall not take credit for the work you did. All the interns in majority of start-ups are given due credit for their work and their work does not go unappreciated. No one is boss and no one is an employee, rather, everyone is member of a family. I’ve seen the co-founder of startup filling coffee machines and an intern interviewing applicants. You have so many mentors to discuss your problems with, so many experienced folks to not only give you sound advice and encouragement (sometimes on your personal matters too), but also a hug. It feels as if you step out of your homes and enter office to work with another family of yours.
After reading the above stated reasons to work as an intern in a start-up, I’m pretty sure you are tempted. Well all I can tell from my experience of working as in intern in a Indore based startup: EngineerBabu, is that the experience I’ve gained here is way more than what I would’ve got by working in an MNC. And that’s just the working part, all the love you get along with the dancing and all sorts of never-ending activities are some of the add-on advantages.