HR internships provide a great opportunity for learning and growth and can be an excellent chance for you to develop your skills in the field and even get your foot in the door at a company or firm that you want to work for. Good HR internships can provide invaluable experience and will teach you a lot of the important basics that you‘ll need to understand if you’re hoping to enjoy a successful professional career. So, what can you expect to learn when undertaking work experience in human resources?
How to work with a team
One of the most important things that HR internships can teach is how to work well in a professional team. Unlike what you’ll be familiar with through most of your university experience, during work experience you won’t just be working by yourself. In fact, HR internships usually involved you working with a team of people. This is an invaluable opportunity to learn practical skills and to complete tasks and also a great way to gain mentorship from more experienced people around you. HR internships will give you the opportunity to see how real workplaces and teams operate.
They teach you to problem solve
HR internships are a great opportunity for learning new problem-solving skills. Work experience gives you the chance to put the things you learned at university to the test in order to solve real-world problems. There really isn’t anything better than putting theory into practice. You’ll find problem-solving in the workplace every bit as helpful as keeping up with your reading when you’re at university.
Learn about ethics
Workplace ethics and policies are one of those things that you just won’t learn about at university. There are just some things you aren’t going to pick up at school, a tangible, real-life work environment will teach you about workplace culture and impart valuable knowledge about how you should conduct yourself in the workplace. HR internships are a good way to learn about what you need to do to make a good impression in the workplace, it’s just not optional to not show up in the way that it may be during your university lectures! You’ll learn how to present yourself and what kind of conduct is expected.
Teaches you to be adaptable
Working in a proper work environment will teach you to be adaptable and to respond to your surroundings. This is not always a skill that people learn in school but the varied daily tasks of a work environment are usually a great way to learn and present a great opportunity for growth.
Teaches you to communicate
Anyone who has been in the workplace for a while will tell you that communication skills are very important, and communicating effectively in a professional setting can be challenging. One of the great things about HR internships is that they prepare you by teaching you a range of important communication styles and set you up to understand expectations around communication in the workplace.
Responsibility
One of the most important things you’ll learn when doing work experience is to be responsible and accountable for your own tasks. You will be given a list of things to do and usually expected to take increasing levels of ownership over your task list.
Time management
One of the most important things that work experience will teach you is time management. This is something that you will likely learn at university too but the work environment involves a unique level of pressure and usually much shorter deadlines when it comes to getting things done.