Internships provide an important means of learning about a potential career before committing to the lifestyle change associated with pursing your choice. Students are the first to admit that internships are extremely important to understanding the demands of a career and the first step to getting your foot in the professional door.

Internships are designed to give realistic insight into the requirements of the career and how your life will look when you are employed in the career. Internships offer the perfect opportunity to see if that career fits within your current living conditions and lifestyle.

There is no better way to gain the confidence needed to succeed in the career world, than to get the chance to see and be a part of the workings of the company. Internships give the interns the chance to work in the career environments and to work with the professionals.

Internships allow college students a free trial if you will, to see if all of their hard work in their classes was for the right major or degree. Since full time internships generally do not take place until the junior or senior years of college, students may feel it is too late to change their career paths if they decided that the career is not right for them. Many colleges and degree programs have taken that thought into consideration and now many of them offer mini internships at different levels throughout the degree program. Many colleges with, for example, education programs offer two or three day internships throughout freshman year.

Internships are now required before graduating from many areas of study. In professions such as journalism, theater, teaching, and medical areas, internships are required to even pass college. While not all careers require internships, doing one can be the competitive edge you need to secure your dream job. Internships also look great in resumes, showing an employer that you already have the skills and experience necessary to do your job.

Studying out of college textbook or listening to a professor's lecture is one thing; applying that knowledge to real life situations is another. Internships allow you to put your money where your mouth is and prove that you have not only taken in what you learned, but you understood it. Internships also offer you the chance to learn beside professionals and get up to date information on new procedures and terminology that may not have made it to your textbooks yet. These professionals can become your social network and the more you talk to them the more you get the true information on the career, both the good and the bad without all the sugar coated fluff.

One of the most valuable things that you can gain from an internship is a job. Most companies use their interns as supplemental employees when job openings become available. Interns already now the job and what is required of them and will not need to be trained again. Employers use internships as a chance to work one on one with the interns and see if they have what it takes to be full time staff members. Since internships are usually not paying positions, the employee can use and you train you for a position free of charge and then add you to the payroll when you graduate.

Students that decide to do internships are making the best career decision possible. They are not only getting a taste of the job and experience, they are building a great resume and getting their foot in the professional door.