There is an energy on campus only brought on by the internship season. The library is always filled, the phones are ringing with interview calls and emails, and "Have you updated your resume yet?" becomes the most asked question in the canteen. But behind all this is the most important part of a student’s life: the opportunity to gain real-world experience.

At Parul University, internships mean more than just a line in your CV.  They are about exploring, experimenting, earning, and evolving. Internships come in countless forms whether it be engineering or design, tech or marketing, medicine or management, and each internship has its own stories to tell for the rest of your life!
 

When Your Internship Email Reads “Coca-Cola”

Seven MBA students have accepted a summer internship offer to work at Coca-Cola. Yes, that red and white brand that seems to always be found in every fridge and on every billboard. For these students, it was more than just sitting in on meetings. It involved understanding customer behavior, tracking distribution points, diving into market analytics, and developing strategies that could impact real-world marketing practices. They didn't just learn about what marketing is. They experienced how marketing is done when managing one of the most recognizable brands in every corner of the globe. And when it is all over? They walked away with a story to bolster any future interview besides the internship paperwork.


From IIT Madras to Biomedical Labs:

Students in engineering here do not just use textbooks. A biomedical engineering student actually landed a very super internship doing research at IIT Madras, wherein they interned on this project that connected artificial intelligence with medical diagnostics. I can only imagine, going through normal classes at university during the semester, and then, when school went on (i.e. breaks) the student comes back and throws themselves into the demanding research environment at IIT.  Nonetheless, most days were spent analyzing data, playing with how sensors can be a part of health-tech, talking to researchers, and sharing simple ideas that really made a difference in the real world. 

GitHub, Real-World Code, and $3000

Being selected for the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) program is no easy task. It is a program where students work on real-world open-source projects from all over the world, and one student from our campus was selected for the program by interning with the OWASP Foundation, a major player in the cybersecurity industry. They created real tools being used by developers across the globe, and not simply doing assignments. They spent their summer writing code, collaborating with mentors from around the world, and learning how real open-source projects work. The stipend amount of $3000 was nice, but more importantly, they can now see their work being implemented, used, and seen in the global development community.

ISRO Internships: Yes, Space is a Real Thing

Not every student dreams of boardrooms. Some are looking up, literally. An example of this is one of the engineering students that got an internship at ISRO. He started with a simple interest in the engineering of rocket launches which developed into a full-blown research internship on satellite data systems. While his friends were figuring out Excel sheets, he was figuring out telemetry, working with orbital data and attending reviews with scientists who actually participated in their mission launches. No textbook or class would be able to give such an insight into the real business of large scale space systems as that did - for a student that used to watch rocket launches on YouTube, being in that space, even for a brief internship, was a considerable leap forward in their achievement.

Campus Hustles: The Internships You Didn’t See Coming

Not all awesome internships require you to relocate, or hop on a flight. Some of the most amazing internships can take place right here, on campus. Students are interning with Branding, Admissions, My First Friend, and with Admin & Outreach teams. These internships are real internships, with students managing social media campaigns, producing posters for large events, reels of content, writing press releases, speaking with parents around admissions, coordinating visit for VIPs etc. For example, one student day from design stream interned in the branding department. He created posters for a large event at the university. His artwork printed and hung around the streets of the city that was even reposted on the university's Instagram account. Another student interned as a student ambassador for My First Friend program, which her role was to help the freshers settle in, but she was also friendly marketing, admin on welcoming drives, and running mini/micro events. She said that her experience helped her grow her confidence more than she had before. Oh, and can you believe it, there’s more, these internships pay stipends. So not only are you building your skills, you are actually building your bank account too! 

More Than a Bullet Point

What students notice while wrapping up their internships is that it is not only about the work: it’s about the change. Speak as an expert in meetings (without saying “uhh” every 3 seconds), Do all your chores, even if your computer crashes at 11:59 pm Instead of acting like you know everything, ask reasonable, meaningful questions,  Take feedback and criticism and develop from it, even when it hurts Every internship; whenever you are coding, building decks, planning events; changes you to be a more responsible, curious and well prepared person moving forward

In the end, everyone has to start somewhere.

Your first internship might be unpaid. It might be one that you do remotely. Or it might be in an area that you thought you weren't going to enjoy. That's alright. The key is to just get started. Because that first step might lead to a hundred different ways, be it at IOC or Coca-Cola, IIT Madras, GSoC, ISRO or on campus, long after you graduated you will remember the knowledge and insight and stories you experienced. And when you look back on your internship diaries you may come to realize: the real success of your first internship wasn't actually landing the internship. It was what you did with it.