With UK unemployment at a 12-year high, landing a job is becoming an increasingly tricky proposition. As there are so many people looking for work, companies can be really picky about who they recruit – it can often feel like you need to be an expert with ten year’s experience just to be offered an interview!

The situation is especially bleak for people leaving university this summer: the revelation that there are now around 50 graduates applying for every job is casting something of a cloud over the usual merriment of graduation ceremonies up and down the country.

Enough of the bad news though – the question is, how can you make yourself stand out as the glowing, well-round individual that you are? Well, the answer might just be an internship! Here are a few reasons why:

It’ll give you lots of experience
If you’re trying to break into a competitive industry, like journalism or teaching, it can seem like you need a shed load of experience before anyone will even let your foot get within a mile of the proverbial door! Lots of graduates feel like they’re in a catch-22 situation, with no one willing to give them a chance until they’ve got experience – but with no one willing to give you a chance you’ve got no hope of getting any experience...! An internship can give you a way out of this frustrating loop, allowing you to get lots of lovely on-the-job experience to wow future employers with.

You can brush up on your interpersonal skills
Interpersonal skills are, sadly, about more than just being able to natter to people… Employers often whinge about graduates coming out of university lacking ‘soft skills’, meaning they have problems interacting with people in a work setting. By doing an internship (especially if it’s abroad) you’ll be able to prove you can bridge cultural and language barriers to successfully work with others.

You’ll become more confident
Job interviews are pretty scary right? How about facing a huge class full of rowdy Chinese teenagers? Even scarier? But by taking on a huge challenge abroad it’ll make those job interviews look like a doddle – and if you seem confident in an interview, guess what – people will think you’re confident (and competent) enough to take on the job.

You’ll prove you can take the initiative
It might go without saying, but sitting around at home watching daytime TV is not going to land you the job of your dreams! By peeling yourself off the sofa and doing an internship, you’ll show future employers that you’re the kind of person who makes opportunities for themselves, rather than a sitting back and waiting for things to fall in your lap kind of person.

It’ll give you space to decide what you want to do
No company wants an employee who’s going to up sticks in six months because it turns out the job wasn’t for them. Doing an internship (especially if you go abroad) will give you a chance to take a breath after the rush of exams (and parties!) that characterise finishing uni, allowing you to decide what’s important to you and what you want out of life. You might have had your heart set on being a journalist, but after a stint working on a paper decide it’s not for you. Better to find out whether you enjoy it or not early on in your career before you end up trapped in a job you don’t like!

Decided that an internship might be for you? Take a look at these:
Teaching internship in China: http://www.onlinetefl.com/teflchina
Journalism experience in Honduras: http://www.i-to-i.com/volunteer-projects/journalism-voluntary-work-experience-in-honduras.html
Journalism experience in India: http://www.i-to-i.com/volunteer-projects/journalism-work-experience-in-india.html
Archaeology work experience in Peru: http://www.i-to-i.com/volunteer-projects/archaeology-work-in-peru.html

There’s plenty of help and advice available online about internships. www.prospects.ac.uk is a good place to start, while http://www.topinternships.com/ and http://www.e4s.co.uk/docs/internships.htm offer details of internships available in the UK, and http://www.internabroad.com/search.cfm/ will give you information about other placements abroad.

• internship
• china
• journalism
• Bangalore journalism
• honduras journalism
• work experience