The importance of interns for a company
My name is Constanza Díaz and if you are looking for a place to develop your internship, just like I was this year, I invite you to read the following article.
When I was studying at college, I did sporadic jobs and internships in which I didn’t feel comfortable, nor satisfied, realizing that the business world wasn’t as I imagined. I came across practices and demands of the past, where workers were considered a mere replaceable gear. I had aspirations and hoped to find a flexible, proactive place that would deliver the optimal conditions for best performance.
I studied commercial engineering at the Adolfo Ibáñez University and today I am studying the Master of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which allowed me to do my professional practice at I2B TECHNOLOGIES, a company specialized in digital transformation and artificial intelligence. Without a doubt, the experience has been very beneficial and it was what motivated me to write today. I am about to complete three months of practice and it has been very enriching, I knew a totally different world and I hope it will serve future practitioners who integrate into working life, especially in I2B.
If anything caught my attention from the beginning was the selection process that I2B has, a thorough recruitment, innovative and effective, where values are an important part of the recruiting. After that, I met my tutor Arturo Quiroz, who entrusted me with jobs with the freedom to create, contribute and put my knowledge into practice.
It was there that I understood that not all organizations bet on the same thing. In the case of I2B, I saw a company that cares a lot about its collaborators, where new initiatives are strongly focused on the “culture project”, and that end up being actions worth imitating. I noticed a concern to find people aligned to the values of the company, autonomous people, responsible, infinite learners, enterprising, honest, respectful and persevering, some total DOERS, a concept they wanted to inculcate in the culture, which allows you to have benefits that almost no company in Chile decides to include in its parameters: more vacations than normal, home office, flexible hours, freedom of action, voice and active listening, transparency and a horizontal hierarchy, since they understood that a cozy place – where they attach importance to workers – allows them to achieve the best results and to be a much more proactive and efficient company. Much remains to be improved, but the important thing is to get started.
While internships last from three to six months, many companies generally decide to give jobs to interns who are not challenging, and jobs that no one in the company wants to do; but they are not realizing that they forget an important point, that interns are the workers of tomorrow. Finally, they end up wasting the best way to find talent and be able to contribute to a training process.
Even so, understanding a little the organic business, I wonder; how is it that you can generate value in such a short period of time?
It is important to know that no matter how much practitioners know the theory, we have no experience, but there are many actions you can take to achieve it. Rely on your colleagues, ask what you don’t know and with humility you will be able to make an important contribution in your workplace. Be a very observant person, that will allow you to see how things work and how to familiarize yourself with your environment to be one more and deliver the confidence that your peers need. Learn from your mistakes and ask for feedback as many times as you need. Be dynamic, proactive, that having little experience does not limit you and strive to achieve everything you want. It is important that your decision is hand in hand with the contribution that you can give and the contribution that the company gives you.
Personally, I focused on the field of positioning, communication and culture of I2B, with the intention that the rest of the universities and students in the same position that I am, can be informed of the existence of this company, so that they can have the opportunity, like me, to start here. I have had the opportunity to work with my team on a new strategy on the social project that I2B intends to implement in the short term, as well as on the strong focus given to the company’s communications.
A good professional internship will allow students to develop skills, apply their knowledge, enrich themselves with new information and work in teams in an optimal way.
Aprendiendo desde la experiencia
Existe el caso de Adecco Chile el cual posee un programa CEO por un mes, que comenzó en su casa matriz de Suiza. Este consiste en seleccionar jóvenes y hacerlos que se desempeñen en el área de la gerencia y directores, para saber lo que eso significa, obteniendo conocimientos primordiales de liderazgo para el mundo laboral de hoy. Lo que podría ser una recomendación para las empresas que deciden mejorar su proceso de postulación y labores para estos puestos. No los dejen solos y trabajen codo a codo junto a ellos.
Today there is a ranking of the best companies to perform the practice according to FIRSTJOB that I recommend you visualize when you need it. In this link you will be able to find the list of the 17 best labor practices:
Although I2B is not displayed in this ranking, we already started the registration to apply and I have no doubt that it will be positioned in a short term within the best companies to develop professionally.
Currently, one of the most interesting companies worldwide for students to do their internship is Microsoft and Facebook, both with an important technological focus and that, after all, are companies that show the importance of artificial intelligence and digital transformation, both factors that will be paramount in this world that changes so continuously. And for these companies, the interns are fundamental and why? because in the field they work, knowing the needs and demands of new generations is fundamental to be at the forefront.
This allows us to glimpse how fundamental it would be for Chile to begin to give the necessary place to these new generations and to grant them the important tasks that allow them to determine their great potential. Let us not forget to be attentive to the needs of the new generations, today the millenials, tomorrow the generation Z and so on, in a world of constant change.
At the end of my experience in I2B I leave with a backpack loaded with new skills, while many of my peers know only three brands of photocopiers. I am grateful for everything and everyone.
Constanza Díaz Báez
Intern at I2B
Do your internship with us here.