When a job position needs to be filled, employers traditionally rely on resumes that clearly show the candidate’s previous education and most importantly – experience in the field. Whether it’s real work experience, internships or volunteer work.
An internship is an official program offered by companies to help train young people and give recently graduated individuals the opportunity to gain real work experience. The concept has been around for centuries but has evolved greatly over time. In the past, interns were young workers who learned trade or art from specialists and in return, the youngster worked for the employer for a specified period. The aspect that has remained the same to this day is that the aim of the internship – teach the person new skills that they could use in their future worklife.
In a modern context, an intern works at a company for a specified period of time with specific tasks and responsibilities. Today, young people often work as interns to gain input for their university research or to gain initial practical work experience by putting the theory they learn in university into practice.
Today, almost all business sectors and companies of different sizes and backgrounds offer internships – from corporations to small businesses. There are also remote and virtual internships that allow you to do an internship in larger global companies.
Complium Accounts is one of the companies whose social mission is to support Estonian young people through offering internships.
Complium Accounts’ CEO Ederly Talu: “As a company leader, I see interns as a driving force from both perspectives. I started working in the field of finance and accounting 15 years ago, and as a young, learning enthusiast, I immediately felt that technical knowledge alone was not enough. As with all fields, it is important to gain practical experience, and it can be quite challenging to get your “foot in the door” and sell your acquired knowledge to companies as a valuable employee while still in school or just after graduating.
Having gone through the journey myself, I know how important and necessary it is to find companies willing to invest their time, energy, and other resources in the development of a starting but enthusiastic individual. It can also be daunting and stressful for someone who is young and at the beginning of their career to search for companies to offer themselves to. The financial sector is complex, constantly evolving, and extremely crucial and finding new talents and training them is of critical importance to me.
In my opinion, the existence of interns is a win-win situation:
- A new person at the beginning of their journey is generally enthusiastic and full of great ambition. Integrating such interns to the business gives the company the opportunity to bring in a team member who has fresh ideas and an impartial view of the field and the company’s operations. People who are studying and have completed their studies have knowledge of the latest trends, the most current legislation, the most advanced technologies and developments in the field and they are willing to share it all. This helps the company become more aware of the market situation and developments, which in turn helps to increase its competitive advantage.
- In return, the young enthusiast has the opportunity to learn already developed systems and programs and to aquire important know-how and processes based on years of experience, which generally do not change in time in this field and are of great importance to become a specialist in this area.
- Integrating interns can help the company reduce the cost of recruitment to find new permanent employees. Instead of conducting lengthy and thorough recruitment processes, the company can invest in the training and development of young people and offer them the opportunity to continue as employees after the internship period if both parties find common values that appeal to them.
- In return, the intern avoids the often very lengthy job application process after graduation, which includes sending CVs, writing personal cover letters, and attending interviews where they have to “compete” with already established specialists who have already worked in the same position for several years.
- As an entrepreneur, I also see that young people who have not yet established certain beliefs, accustomed work processes, are ideal candidates for future permanent employees, to shape according to a specific company values and processes.
- In return, interns receive a work experience and culture of a specific company, which they can use in their future career development as a “benchmark” of where they would or would not like to work in the future.
- In addition, interns are a good way for a company to carry out short-term and quick tasks, as young enthusiastic people are usually significantly more productive in such tasks in a short time frame.
- In return, quick and short-term tasks provide recent graduates with a great opportunity to put their practical knowledge into practice and consolidate as quickly as possible to reach more important and responsible tasks.
- For interns, being on internship is also a great opportunity to create a network of contacts and establish new relationships. Internship is a hands-on learning opportunity that provides the intern with invaluable opportunity to communicate and establish important professional connections before graduating from school.
- Lastly, but maybe even the most importantly, I would like to point out that supporting and developing interns is resource-intensive but at the same time the greatest value that we can give as a company by contributing to the development of the field and creating future stars. If Complium Accounts can provide a head start for aspiring enthusiasts in the field by integrating them into their daily work and supporting their previously acquired knowledge, giving them an opportunity to put it into practice, then this is the least we can do. And if at the end of this process we see bright and still knowledge-hungry people, then hiring them permanently into our team and company is just a big win.
You can apply to Complium Accounts internship program HERE.