Interning abroad is becoming a budding trend. An internship outside the country offers a global exposure to the students, along with the knowledge and abilities that one masters during the course. This adds enormous value to a student’s resume and also helps them in adapting to a new culture. In turn it creates a good impression about the intern, amongst the employers.

This gives one incredibly worthwhile endeavour that they must have, in order to be successful in the ever-changing world today. Simply hiring a student based on good grades is losing its significance in the modern world as such students often lack real world life experiences and are seen as robots.

Companies, in fact, look for interns who have a thought process which is out of the box and much more beyond grades. They are looking to hire interns who have a little work experience which cannot be inculcated by classroom knowledge and grades. This is when projects, volunteering and internships can make one stand ahead of the crowd. It is important for students’ to know how to pull good internships for a valuable work experience.

Getting a full paid internship in a foreign country is a dream come true for any student in India. And it is an achievable dream in the current scenario when it is so easy to connect with foreign companies and universities. Here are few tips, how one should go about, when looking for an internship abroad:

Use social media tools such as LinkedIn to research, find groups and apply for summer internship: Amongst all, LinkedIn has become the go-to website for job-seekers & internship seekers, which is very alluring to all. If one wants to be found and heard, the go to place for them to make presence is, on LinkedIn. This is a must for students looking for foreign internships as it is filled with recruiters looking for fresh talent.

Apply for corporate internships from reputed companies: This is the era of powerful brands and lack of experience shouldn’t dissuade a student from aiming high. Google, Microsoft and Facebook are known for their worldwide student internship programmes and these organisations hire students globally.

They sponsor their visas and fund their stay, usually for a period of three months. Yet it is often said that getting an internship with a company such as Google can be more difficult than getting placed in a top college, hence one must always be prepared to face the competition.

Builds networks: Networking plays an imperative role when it comes to crafting one’s career. As students go to intern abroad, they come across people from different spheres of life, which helps them in shaping their future.

A student must always be their compelling self as they get to know people of varied natures and they must exchange business cards. Building their network would get them better internships as well as jobs.

Enthusiasm to Learn: Youth is extremely enthusiastic when it comes to interning abroad. They are open-minded; which helps them in building trust easily. Employers prefer giving more tasks to students, if they see some curiosity and interest in them, not only in their project study but also about others.

They must always ask questions and conduct research in their subject. If they have been given a task which is of no interest to them, they must still work hard and accomplish the goal. This will broaden their chances of being in the good books of the employer and they will also learn things.

By interning internationally, students get an exposure to people from different countries and organisations. Students can easily network with the kind of people whom they may or may not meet in their home country.

A foreign stint will also place the student in good stead when he/she plans a career abroad. The prospective employers would know that the student already has a good understanding of their culture, and can integrate with them.

A student must always work very hard to get a foreign internship because that will help them excel in their global career. A foreign internship also increases the marketability of the students who work hard, which adds to their resume.

Interning with a foreign company is any day going to be good for students professionally as well as personally.

The writer is author of Intern Abroad this Summer