An Internship Is A Real Job, Not A Holiday

I received this email just yesterday, It stumped me. Totally.

Hi, I am xxx from xxx - world's largest intern hiring platform...I am writing to discuss a partnership proposal...In collaboration with you, we can engage our students for a thrilling travel internship experience at exotic locations in profiles like - content writing, photography, videography, etc. It will be a great learning experience for students where they implement their skills while visiting new places and experiencing diverse cultures.

Is this what internships are about these days? Is this how they believe young students can be engaged - with "thrilling travel internships" at "exotic locations"? The fact that "a great learning experience" came in the last line of paragraph three, said it all. I think these platforms do our kids an injustice. To assume that our 21 - 24 year olds are flaky and just looking for a good time is presumptuous at best.

I am the Director of Outward Bound India-Himalaya - an internationally recognized outdoor leadership development program for students and professionals. And I also work with one of India's pioneering adventure travel companies - MHE Adventures. And since my days at STAR TV and National Geographic, I have always believed in a strong internship program. I always felt that as "seniors" in the industry, it is incumbent upon us to create a respectable second line that can grow to occupy the positions we are in right now. In fact, it should be made mandatory. Today, when I see the line-up of names in senior positions across television, journalism, and even e-commerce, I recognize several of them as juniors who worked with me or interns who came in fresh from college - and nothing gives me more joy!

We run a well-honed program in both the companies I am currently associated with and several of our interns have come back as full time employees. Yes, there are a few who come in thinking they will get to trek in the Himalaya and learn kayaking on the Ganga - and maybe they will, but that's not what they're hired to do.

Why My Interns Will Not Get To Travel to "Exotic Locations":

1. In the outdoors, we have experts who've been doing that job for years. Our trekking and rafting guides come with decades of experience, they know the safety protocols, have done first aid and search and rescue courses and we trust them with the lives of our clients A newbie in the wilderness is not much of a help, it is simply an added responsibility.
2. What is the long term objective of the intern? It's the first question I ask when I meet them. If the answer is "I want to travel the Himalaya", or "I love trekking" then they're in the wrong place. I'm not here to fulfill their travel fantasies or show them "exotic locations". I'm here to teach them the business of adventure travel. And they're not going to learn that business by simply traipsing around the mountains.
3. An internship is serious business. My team and I are spending our valuable time teaching them the necessary skills we believe they will need to succeed in the field of their choice. This 45 or 60 day period isn't a holiday and if they're expecting to breathe fresh mountain air on Day 1, then they're in the wrong place.

So What Should One Expect From a Real Internship?

1. To learn the actual business of adventure travel and expeditions, you need to work the back-end first. They will learn this by sitting in the office and creating a detailed itinerary - with their research done down to the last minute. It's amazing to watch their eyes roll back in their head (because it's something their college doesn't teach them) when I ask them if they've made allowances for the highway under construction while calculating distances and time taken to travel them. It shows me their research is incomplete. Because one quick Google search will immediately give you an indication of road conditions. And if you've said "1 hour" in your itinerary to the client, and it actually takes them 1 hr: 45 Min, you'll have one seething client on your hands.
2. The business is learnt by putting together all the costs and creating a budget for that itinerary; by understanding what GST is applied; by comparing those costs with your competitors to see if you've reached a viable pricing or have priced yourself totally out of consideration.
3. Answering client questions and addressing their concerns is a great way to learn on the job. There is no better teacher than an enquiring, curious, and often, ignorant client. Their questions will tell you where your marketing has fallen short and where your communication has gone awry. Or, for that matter, your budgeting.

4. Learning to tackle the brand's social media, website and other marketing tools will hold them in good stead. Most kids today are tech savvy and that's an added bonus - a skill I can tap into and mould, to get an understanding of a brand larger than themselves and their personal profiles.

5. The best lessons are learnt from the field staff that has little patience to handle a late riser or a laggard. Mountain people are blunt and straight forward and one of the best ways to teach a skill is to throw them in the deep end. The "trial by fire" approach. I get them to manage the front desk at our forest lodge or client servicing at our adventure camp for a week. When you've got to be the first one to wake up and the last one to go to bed, "service" becomes part of your DNA. And respect is earned, not demanded.

6. And finally, after they've done all of that, they will get to go on a trek or a rafting expedition - preferably the same one they researched and budgeted, if they stay long enough.

Attitude Is Everything

I had an intern once who said to me: "It's not what I came here to do." To me that line is like waving a red flag at a bull. That, and "It's not my job." Two definite lines that will have them looking for another internship. To me attitude is everything. Aptitude can be nurtured, but attitude goes way back to childhood. I see it as a clear reflection of how they were brought up as children and by the time they're 21. there's very little anyone can do to change that. Perhaps a few hard knocks may help, but I'm not about to play Aunt Agony or help them change what's become an intrinsic part of their nature.

When I walked into the NDTV studios to help with the launch of STAR News, on my first day there, I crawled under the news desk to help hammer in a nail that STAR TV's Head of Network Presentation John O'Loan was trying to bang in. I learnt the roll-up-your-sleeves-and-jump-right-in from the master himself and it's something I expect from my team. No job is too small or irrelevant. Everything we do is a learning experience, even the most innocuous of jobs - it all adds up to making us the professionals we are.

Show No Mercy

Anyone who's interned with me will know this - no mercy. When I was heading Programming and Marketing at National Geographic channel, I had, as usual, thrown an intern into the deep end and packed her off with an experienced production team to direct short-form content for one of our big shows coming up. The script was hers and instinctively I knew she had it in her to do the job. I got a call from her at 7:45 AM. I was in the office early to complete my own tasks and really wasn't there to solve someone else's problems. The intern was in tears. "They won't listen to me!" She cried. "I'm telling him where to put the camera, and he won't listen to me!" I immediately understood where the problem lay. An experienced camera and lighting team - all men at that, weren't going to take instructions from a new chit of a girl, even if she was way smarter than any of them. In short, their power play was on. I spoke to her, slowly and clearly so there was no misunderstanding: "I entrusted you with a job, get it done. You're simply getting bullied. Stop the f.....g tears and stand your ground. At the end of the day, you're the director, the captain of the ship and everyone on that team understands there's a job to do. Figure your way out, and don't call me back." No mercy. (She's today leading her own team in an e-commerce company we all love so much much and doing a tremendous job:-).

I took an intern with me on a short trek, when I first joined the adventure travel business. As part of the team, not only was he supposed to trek with the clients, but once we reached the campsite, he had to assist in setting up the tents, help in the kitchen, and serve the clients. I could see that the trek had taken the mickey out of him. It had been a steep climb to the top and he was plain exhausted. He threw his knapsack on the meadows and flung himself to the ground, throwing his peak cap over his face to block out the sun. Our chief trekking guide Mahender walked up to him, pulled his cap off and laughed: "Kya hua? Itni jaldi thak gaye?! Apna khud ka business kaise chalaoge?" (What happened? Tired already? How will you ever run your own business?). No mercy.

As An Intern, Being Greedy Is A Good Thing

A greedy, hungry intern is the best intern. One willing to do anything, go anywhere, at whatever time needed to get the job done. I had one intern like that - from IIM Indore. I didn't understand why he came to intern with us - an adventure travel company. It didn't make any sense. I was worried he may be one of those looking to hike in the Himalaya, but I was curious, so I took him on. He was fabulous! No job was too small, God was always in the details, and he was the master of Excel - in short, the perfect intern. He worked out our entire SEO and digital strategy and flung himself into every project we had on board at that time. There are very few interns I've come across who leave something behind for the rest of us to work on. He was one of them.

My Only Advise To The Young People Reading This: Choose The Right Internship

It could land up being your first job, or better still, you will actually learn something more than simply pushing papers and filing them. Be smart, do your research, ask your interviewer the right questions: What do you expect from me? What would I have learnt when I leave from here? Is there one person I will report to, a mentor? Remember one thing - they need you as much as you need them. It's a symbiotic relationship. No one is taking on an intern to just add one more real estate space in their office. You're there for a reason. Pin them down to find out what that reason is - so when you find yourself getting the coffee too often or filing papers or being the local runner, you can remind them (and yourself), why you were hired.