Why the Hell do Companies even Hire an Intern?

Internships are a big deal, right? They are awesome opportunities to allow one to get a taste of the big-bad real world of adults that fascinates us since our childhood.

And well, as it so happens, having just completed my sophomore year of engineering, it seems like the corporate companies have decided that it may be time to welcome me and my friends to their all starred glamorous world. But wait wait….they are not like Willy Wonka, it’s not as if they’ll just let us in by pure chance hiding gold tickets in chocolate bars ( That would be sad since I don’t eat chocolate XD ). Instead, to eliminate any kind of randomness, they came up with a great solution ie. standardised tests for screening applicants. Quite a brilliant move to eliminate randomness I must say. Now, this post isn’t a rant about standardised screening tests ( maybe I’ll do that some other time).

Instead, in the process of preparing for similar standardised tests for my intern season, I asked the question that I guess most of you must have asked before an exam/test —

Why do we even have these exams/tests?

Well, I couldn’t find a great answer to that question, but thinking about that question led to another, surprisingly interesting question ( Lol, I think that instead of thinking about such irrelevant things, it would be way more useful for me to think about studying Data Structures and Algorithms for my intern season….but ah well…..fuck it :P )

Why do companies even hire interns at all ?”

On the face of it, it seems like its a stupid question to ask ….cause well…it’s such a common thing for companies to hire interns and we know how cost-effective these organisations are…..that it must be a useful thing and that’s why so many companies are doing it. It’s surely not something complex enough to write a blog about, is it? Well, that’s what I thought first, but then I thought a bit more about it……and it started to look weird to me.

I couldn’t understand why such well-established companies would actually hire such inexperienced undergrads to do their work. Since according to my ( yet so naive) understanding of how businesses work, obviously, the work we’ll be assigned wouldn’t be a high priority/importance job for the organisation, since then they would get someone experienced to do it instead of giving it to a new guy. So they are essentially paying us to do some work that’s actually not that useful, which seemed really weird since companies like to cut their costs. I thought that maybe an internship is just an elaborate screening procedure, to filter out potential employees…..but that seemed way too wasteful.

Amidst the confusion, I decided to do what everyone does when in doubt…..Google. I read a few nice articles explaining why it’s beneficial for companies to hire interns, and I found some interesting insights, which will be useful for someone who is going to be hired as an intern in understanding the reason behind his/her hiring…so as to get an idea of the bigger picture. And well, being thoroughly bored due to COVID and from the internship preparation process itself ( which sucks). I decided to write an article about it myself….. if not for anything, maybe just as something to laugh on during my internships?

So well, let’s discuss some of the reasons why it makes sense for companies to hire interns:

Let’s Take a Test Drive 🚗

This is the most obvious reason why companies hire interns. Roughly, about 65% of paid internships become full-time job offers, while 39% of unpaid internships become full-time employment. Internships allow organisations to gauge the skills of the interns and check how they fit in the workforce. Kind of like a test drive before actually buying a car for the next 5–10 years. It’s also the case statistically that interns tend to be more likely to be long term employees and have a higher retention rate which is pretty profitable for organisations since hiring is actually quite an expensive process for the company.

A Fresh Set of Eyes Doesn’t Hurt?

Being dumb (: read inexperienced) can actually be quite useful in highly specialised environments. People who are way too familiar with their work sometimes tend to miss out some obvious things, which can be easily spotted through a change of perspective. Interns, being usually completely new to the work think different and creative ways to tackle problems…..they think out of the box since they don’t even know what the box is :P. This often helps companies to engineer new and creative solutions which are highly profitable.

The Sensei Feeling

If you have ever had a junior or ever taught someone, I am sure you will relate. It’s a great feeling to mentor someone and watch them grow, and also it helps you grow as well. Similarly, handling and mentoring interns make an excellent opportunity for the newly appointed managerial staff and junior employees to develop their own leadership and managing skills. Since managing employees of a similar level as they are might be a bit hard for them, mentoring a total newbie like an intern helps them practice these skills in a less stressful manner. After all, who’s better than an intern for being the scapegoat.

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap :

Another obvious point — Interns are dirt cheap, period. While the stipends provided to interns are increasing by the day, they are still a far cry to the expenses of an actual employee. On the flipside, interns being young are literal powerhouses who want to prove themselves to the world. They are highly motivated and are more willing to work upon challenging problems than a normal employee. So you can get a lot of work done, with minimal expenses.

What’s the New Fad?

Being a tech undergrad, looking at cutting edge technology companies it becomes easy to forget how tech-savvy our generation is compared to the previous generation. Interns can help bring in the latest technology to improve performance, simply because they have grown up using technology to solve all their problems. Also, being young they are aware of all the latest stuff going around in social media and the current trends. So they can be highly useful in developing the social brand of the company since they are more adept in understanding what’s popular nowadays than the older generation.

Once a Ranger, Always a Ranger :P

Internships are a huge huge huge deal for the interns, so it’s obvious they talk a lot about it in their social circle and well…word of mouth is a powerful force. I have seen it myself, I usually talk to my seniors about which companies are good, which they usually describe from their own experiences. So give an intern a positive internship experience and you have a walking brand advocate amongst the great pool of talent that exists on college campuses who will make sure everyone knows about you. Internships often open up unseen collaborations that benefit both the intern and the company.

Let’s light this place up ( No no…..I am not an arsonist)

Having interns creates a positive environment for the entire workforce since they help reduce the workload on employees by taking on some of their work. But also because interns are filled with energy, that energy quickly catches its way to the other employees and improves the overall mood of the entire place. Think of it as similar to how kids seemingly light up any place they are, and everyone enjoys interacting with them ( Hell…..I am constantly treated as a kid on all of my interns )

The Subtle Art of Giving a Fuck

We may view corporates as some evil organisations, that are solely concerned about their profits….but well let’s be a bit more optimistic shall we. They do give a fuck about others. It must feel great for companies to see young people interested in their work, and they might feel like it’s their responsibility to give back to the community by helping the young guns in boosting their career. In return, it also helps them develop their public image as an organisation that’s more thoughtful about society and well avoid all that monopoly crap that ruined Microsoft once.

Well, whatever the reason might be, I am glad that companies hire interns. Although the general hiring process for college students in India is a tad bit stupid, its still worth the pain. Having had previous internship experiences myself, I can say that its a really great learning experience and it changes you in ways other than just professionally. This post was just a way for me to take a break from the weird almost psychotic havoc that’s created around the internship season at my college. I hope you liked it and it gave you a bit of an understanding of what your role really is as an intern, which may help you improve your internship experience. I am by no means qualified to write about this topic (heck I don’t know shit about it) so take this with a grain of salt and for all the peeps preparing for their next internship……Hope you rock it!

So long, until the next post :P

Originally published on Medium.