2. “Don't be afraid of being
different. Be afraid of being
the same as everyone else.”
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3. Did you know?
You can intern abroad in countries like US,
Germany, Switzerland
Students can also intern at institutions like
NASA, ISRO, United Nations, IISc, CERN
JNCASR, National Physical Lab, ESA,
I will talk about these at the end, so that you
people listen to me till the end :p
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4. Why should I take up an Internship?
• Explore possible career fields
• Learn valuable industry skills
• See your knowledge being used in practical
world.
• Companies count the right internship as
experience.
• Get to know the company you want to join
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5. Not Convinced? There’s more
• Very hard to get a job without any experience
• 30% less campus placements in 2013-14 than 2012-13
• Student who intern are 63% more likely to get a job
• Build your network and contacts
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6. How to choose?
• Use internships to decide what you want to do and
what you don’t. So take time to meditate.
• IMHO internships are like experiments. Perform as
many as possible to come to a conclusion.
• Students can do about 3-4 internships while in college.
So you can work in that many fields.
• Take advantage of this to figure out what works for you.
• If you think you found the right one, do rest of your
terms there to get expertise.
• Keep on diversifying till you hit gold.
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7. How should I look for an internship?
Google
Corporate
Infosys
Internships
IISc
Research
NPL
Misc
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8. Getting a corporate internship
Choose the companies and
position that will provide
maximum learning.
Find out how the company
hires interns
Apply through various
channels
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9. Channels to apply
• Alumni Network
• E-Cell of your institution
• Directly mailing to HRs in the company
• Sites
1. Big companies have internship page. For Example,
Infosys, Google
2. Angel List and YourStory.com for Startups
3. LinkedIn for most of the companies
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10. Summer Research Internships
• Identify the field you are interested in. For eg, NLP,
Networks, Neural Networks, VLSI, Marketing, Finance
• Identify professors in universities doing research in
those fields.
• Understand their research, see which research
interests you (Do your homework)
• Write to the professor directly with details like why you
want to intern with them, what kind of research are you
interested in, how you can contribute.
• Fellowships like DAAD, JNCASR are based on
academic results and professor recommendations.
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11. How to prepare?
Now that you’ve got an internship, then what?
A couple of months before starting, ask your supervisor the
following questions
1. What will be my job? What am I supposed to do?
2. Ask them what things/skills you need to know to
complete the job. Eg: You might have to know java or
C++.
3. Ask them for some reference material to get started on.
4. Then do your homework. Try to acquire the required
skills before starting.
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12. Internship at CERN
• CERN - the European Organization for
Nuclear Research
• Heard of the CERN Particle Accelerator
that was in the news a couple of years
back? You can work on things like that.
• Ever wondered how the universe came
into existence? You will meet and help
people answer that question at CERN.
• You can intern there. Find out more
here.
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13. Internship at IISc
• IISc - Indian Institute of Science
• Forefront of Indian.
• Gives you a chance to interact and
be a part of bleeding edge
research.
• You can intern here. Find out more
here.
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14. Internship at UN
• UN – United Nations
• A Chance to meet the power
brokers of the world
• See international treaties, deals,
negotiations happen up close.
• I think you should try here for at
least one semester.
• The network you build here will
always come in handy.
• Find out more here.
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15. Internship at ESA
• ESA – European Space Agency
• European counterpart of NASA
• Be a part of Space research.
Who knows, you might end up
becoming an astronaut!
• Find out more here.
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16. Internship at STEP
•
•
•
•
STEP – Science and Technology
Entrepreneurship Development
If you have a research idea to build
tomorrow’s technology, STEP is
the place to be.
More than 15 STEP centres in
India ready to incubate your idea
and helping you fund it.
Even if you don’t have an idea, try
contributing to research happening
there.
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17. Internship in NPL
•
•
•
•
•
NPL – Nation Physics Laboratory
Leading research institute for
Physics
Work on technology and research
that affects lives of millions
If you are into physics, NPL is the
place to be.
The process to apply is same as
most research positions. Find out
professors and write to them.
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20. Parting note
•
•
•
•
•
There’s no harm in dreaming big.
Don’t be afraid of rejections.
Focus on learning and networking.
Be humble and flexible.
Learn something from everybody you
meet.
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