A Basic Path-way Guide for a Right Internship

Presented By

National Institute of Technology Hamirpur

(Himachal Pradesh, INDIA)

&

InternFeel
(A start-up company for Internship Guidance)

Objective:To spread awareness about different INTERNSHIP opportunities available for all students of B.Tech. 2nd and 3rd year which will direct them to explore and will motivate them to select the best one available in their particular area of interest.

A Foreword
Internships are now a days forming an important part of an undergraduate students college life. And why not, internships being one of the best way to add the highly needed practical skills, new experience and develop ones personality before leaving the college to face new challenges in the world. With all good things, generally not very easy to get, students face many problems in getting the right information at the right time. This is very important for getting the internship which will help you and not otherwise be a waste of time and money! This booklet is an attempt to solve some of the many problems and prevent common mistakes done by students in their quest for the internships. This booklet has been compiled by Ritesh Gupta (student of National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur) and InternFeel. NIT Hamirpur is a premier Institution of National Importance in Himachal Pradesh and InternFeel is a start-up company founded to help students get insights about internships by knowing the experiences of intern students. The information presented in this booklet has been got by experiences of various students of NIT H, which is believed to be true to the best of knowledge at the time of compilation. So then, if all set, read on!!

Introduction
So first of all, what is Internship??

An internship is an opportunity to enhance classroom learning through practical career-related work experience. All internships should have the primary goal of providing students supervision and a chance to learn while contributing to the organizations needs. An internship can be both paid/unpaid. Apart from providing experience and stipends, it helps students in determining whether they are actually interested in a particular career or not. Students get chance to make lasting contacts with professionals in a related field of interests. A good internship can potentially become a defining moment towards your career.

So what are the different types of internships available for students? Read on to find out!

Foreign Internships

Industrial internships

Types of Internships

IIT Interns

Other Internships

We will discuss about each in detail:

Industrial Interns
This category of internship is preferred by most of the students. It basically involves field exposure by making students aware of practical aspect of their course curriculum. There are three ways to get such internship: 1. Training and Placement Representatives (TPRs) of respective departments contacting various industries and companies in India and sending the student database to them and companies inviting them as per requirement. 2. Companies campus recruitment for internship through Personal
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Interviews (PI). This mode is very beneficial for getting a PPO (Pre Placement Offer) from the same company to join them later after B.Tech. 3. Students having contacts of officials concerned to some project work can directly approach them to get an offer for industrial training.

IIT Interns
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) provides tremendous opportunities for B.Tech students to pursue research internship under the supervision of their expert faculty having vast knowledge in their particular area of interest. There are two ways to apply for a summer internship in IITs. 1. Request for summer internship by writing a short research proposal, cover letter & your CV and sending it directly to the concerned IIT faculty via e-mail. 2. IIT Summer research fellowship programs in which they invite applications via (online/offline) modes and shortlist required number of candidates for internship. Different programs available for internship in IITs are:-

SURGE Programme: IIT Kanpur Summer Fellowship Programme: IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, IIT Jodhpur, IIT Gandhinagar, IIT Guwahati etc.

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Other Internships in India

There are some research centres in India where students can apply for internship. The relevant details of application invitation procedure, launching dates, deadlines and other details can be located in their respective websites. Some are listed below: Summer Research Fellowship Program - IAS, NASI, INSA http://web-japps.ias.ac.in:8080/fellowship2014/ DRDO (Defence Research & Development Org.) http://www.drdo.gov.in/ CBIP (Central Board of Irrigation & Power) http://cbip.org/index.aspx ISRO (Indian Space Research Org.) http://www.isro.org/ IISc Banglore (Indian Institute of Science) http://www.iisc.ernet.in/ BARC (Bhabha Atomic Research Center) http://www.barc.gov.in/

Foreign Internships
Students can also proceed towards pursuing a summer internship at international level. There are so many programs available for this and a few out of them are listed below. It is recommended to visit their respective web sites for detailed information, eligibility, requirements and other details.
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Following programs require a perquisite acceptance letter from a professor to be eligible to apply for scholarship. DAAD WISE (Germany) https://www.daad.de/en/ Charpak Scholarship (France) http://www.inde.campusfrance.org/en/

General Procedure

Search For Professors working in your field of interest. Search Make a database of their email-ids and contacts. Prepare your cover letter and CV. Keep in mind the interests of professor. Send your research proposal to the professor. Always send individually, and keep in mind time difference. Keep trying the above by mailing to different professors, till you get acceptance and invitation letter.

Draft

Mail

Wait

Funding

After Getting Acceptance ask for scholarship and funding.

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Besides above mentioned scholarship programs following programs are also available which do not require any perquisite acceptance or invitation from professors. Online application form is a sole criteria for selections of students in these programs.

Global Leadership Scholarship (Taiwan) http://bel.uq.edu.au/bel-taiwan-scholarships MITACS Globalink (Canada) http://www.mitacs.ca/globalink SN Bose Scholars Program (USA) http://www.indousstf.org/bose/indianstudents.htm SRI Program (NTU Singapore) http://global.ntu.edu.sg/global/SRI/Pages/SRIProgramme.aspx Viterbi-India Internship Program (USA) http://viterbi.usc.edu/students/summerinternship/viterbi-indiaprogram.htm

Miscellaneous points!
Online application forms submission is a very competitive mode to get a best (IIT or abroad) internship. Thousands of applications are invited and only a few students are shortlisted. Following documents are critical for selection in this mode: Curriculum Vitae (Max. 2 pages) Statement of Purpose (SOP) Applicants are advised to focus majorly in these two aspects while applying.

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Besides, direct emailing to professor mode for an internship is mostly preferred especially for abroad internships due to following reasons: It eliminates a tough competition like in online application mode as only a few students successfully get an acceptance letter and probability of getting a scholarship automatically increases. There is a possibility of getting stipend directly from the inviting professor which completely eliminates any requirement of a scholarship. Student having an acceptance letter may prefer to proceed towards internship with his own funding in case no scholarship or stipend from professor is received. It should be noted that sending an e-mail is a very crucial step and students frequently commit a mistake in this resulting into loss of a big opportunity. So, following guidelines are proposed while sending an email. Never send your cover letter and CV as attached files in your email. Use e-mail writing section for this. Always mention waiting to hear from you at the end of cover letter. Never send mails to two different professors of the same university (department) on a single day. Never copy-paste the same Cover Letter all the time. Edit it based on the Field of interest of recipient professor. Never send mail on weekends and check the office hours of recipient Professor. Avoid sending mails in bulk as it may drop in to spam folder of recipient professor.

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Stay Connected!
All students are advised to join 1. Internship Abroad (Utkarsh) group on facebook. Here you can find latest updates and queries posted by students who are in process of applying for internship and those having a good knowledge in this field and are willing to help others in getting a foreign internship. https://www.facebook.com/groups/internships.abroad.utkarsh

2. InternFeel: Here you will find the interviews of the students who went for internships both in India and Abroad. These will provide you a great deal of insights about the actual internship and lot more tips to get them. Good to have email subscription for notification via website. https://www.facebook.com/internfeel

3. Internshala: Here you will get notified by various openings of different internship programs. Good to have email subscription to receive email notification of different internships. http://internshala.com

4. EduInfo: Here along with Internships you are notified frequently about different competitions and programs. Good to have email subscription to receive email notification of different internships. http://www.eduinfo.asia/

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We Hope This Will Inspire You

Summer Internship in France was a life changing experience for me, I encourage all my loving juniors to dedicate their full efforts and interest to take the best out of the available tremendous opportunities. Ritesh Gupta (B.Tech. Civil, Final Year) Two months in Taiwan made me learn many things. From academics to my own character, it taught me so much that I will always count it among my best journeys. It is my advice to all juniors to utilize summer vacations in a productive way. Tanmay Agrawal (B.Tech. Mechanical, Final Year) Every night I am dreaming of those days that I have spent in France. I think this is best line to express my experience. I suggest and motivate my juniors to try their best to find a suitable summer internships and add one such extravaganza in their life. Shashank Gupta (B.Tech. Civil, Final Year) Doing research internship in France was a wonderful experience of life and fabulous architectural places to visit made my journey successful. Dear juniors, put your maximum effort and dedication to get the best. Arpit Gupta (B.Tech. Civil, Final Year) In my opinion summer internship is a way of reinventing one's passion and finding a direction one would like to pursue, once graduated. It is the best opportunity for the undergraduate students to break free from theoretical discourses on the subject. Rishabh Sehgal (B.Tech. ECE, Final Year)
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If you have more than you need, Share it with those who need it the most. Sandeep Maheshwari

One Final Point!

Dont apply for internship, just for the sake of getting one. Especially for research internships, apply only if you are really interested in the research field. Aim to work in a field or on a project which fascinates you. There have been real stories of many students who were selected for such internship and later repented for having a not-good-to-haveone experience! There are many other ways of getting knowledge and experience, do try that too. If you do get an internship/training experience good or bad, please dont forget that there will be many many juniors throughout the country who will be needing your help, so come, take a step back and share your experiences for everyone. You might be super busy though, but you wouldnt be reading this if everyone were like that. So take out some of your time and trust us, it really counts!

Best of Luck!
Writers Ritesh Gupta (NIT H) E-mail: riteshgupta.nith@gmail.com & InternFeel E-mail: internfeel@gmail.com
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