DEV Community: Teke Rene

6 Reasons to run a professional internship program.

Teke Rene — Sun, 14 Mar 2021 22:47:32 +0000

According to dictionary.com, an internship is defined as “any official or formal program to provide practical experience for beginners in an occupation or profession.” The most important element of internships is that they integrate classroom knowledge and theory with practical application and skills developed in professional or community settings. They also bring a wealth of benefits to students, both while completing a degree and when seeking a career path post-graduation.
There is no substitute for experience; learning from experienced professionals is a tremendous way to get to know your industry. People are often surprised when they leave school or graduate from University, by the huge difference between what you read in textbooks versus completing tasks in the real world. In University you can often skate by for weeks at a time doing very little, go to lectures and sit on your phone, maybe get some homework done the night before it’s due in. In (most) workplaces this simply won’t do as your manager and colleagues are aware of your productivity and hold you accountable if you don’t complete it satisfactorily.
While you’re on the internship it’s a fantastic opportunity to develop skills, things you could never do before. Until I did my internship in software Engineering, I had only ever given presentations to classmates and was so nervous beforehand that I dreaded it. However, after the experience of writing out the company business plan and presenting it to would-be investors, I now feel extremely confident in my ability knowing that if I have a good grasp of the material, there is nothing to be concerned about as I can present in an informative manner and comfortably answer questions.
Internships also help in that they expose you to workplace issues that aren’t covered in the classroom. Even simple things like going out with your friends for a few drinks on Thursday evening and not quite fancying an early morning lecture on Friday doesn’t cause much of an issue. This is a totally different issue in the workplace and can lead to big problems, not just an angry boss, but your colleagues genuinely depend on you for group productivity so if you go missing, they will often have to pick up your slack and unless you genuinely can’t get to work, that’s not fair.
Group work at University can be frustrating, but the pressure you feel to get a passing grade is nothing compared to investors or directors who are judging you and your group’s knowledge and ideas. Do you know about 40% of employees come from internship programs? Interns provide companies with an array of perspectives and benefits they’ve likely never realized.
If you’re on the fence about implementing an internship program, consider the many benefits you or your company may receive. Here’s a list of just a few:

1 Increase Productivity and Retention

Did you know that higher productivity and retention can be achieved through internships? The 2015 NACE Internship & Co-op Survey found that more than half of employers had a higher five-year retention rate from employees that were hired through internship programs.
Aside from having extra people to help with projects, interns often come with tons of energy. They’re eager to learn, ready to work, and most want the chance to prove their value with the hopes of being hired by their potentially new employer.

2 An Easy way to Develop young and new Talents.

Internships provide the best test-drive, the wine tasting, “try before you buy” option for employees. Metaphors aside, internships can be a powerful vetting process even before any short-term work they do is factored into the equation.
To make the economic case clear, the organization’s whole hiring ecosystem must be considered. Hiring is a time-intensive and high-risk endeavor, where the wrong hire can cost a company as much as 15 times their salary according to Geoff Smart and Randy Street, authors of Who: The A Method for Hiring. An internship is a low-risk and clear way of testing the fit of a potential employee because you actually work with them!
The most common argument against internship programs is the cost in time and money. This is a sound argument if the program is poorly run, talent isn’t recruited, work isn’t properly mapped out, and there is no long-term pipeline need for hiring.
If your organization is hiring people annually in entry-level positions, an internship program should be a must. This is what DoSomething.org realized early on; roughly 30% their current staff are former interns.

3 Job Experience.

Job listings often describe requirements such as education and minimum job experience. If you are entering the workforce for the first time after college or a vocational training program, you likely do not yet have the required experience. An internship is a perfect way to fill that gap. You can gain valuable exposure to how a business in your chosen field runs, take part in meetings and perform assigned tasks in a real-world setting.
In my personal experience I found that once I’d done my internship and was able to add tasks and accomplishments to my CV to go alongside my academic achievements, interest from companies skyrocketed. It’s because someone who already has experience is less of a risk. The fact that someone has already hired you and the new company can see what you’ve done really boosts your EMPLOYABILITY.

4 Internship are good for the Economy.

The goal of your organization is to solve the social issues of the mission, not to help the economy. However, it is great to know how your organization’s labor practices can contribute to the larger system.
Internships are a critical step in the learning journey of young people, one that is desperately lacking in our current economy. This has been true since the dawn of specialized skills, where apprenticeships taught upcoming generations the secrets of the trade. Current data from NACE show that paid internships lead to a 60% chance of employment, versus 36% for those without internships.
Helping young people join the workforce in their respective fields of interest accelerates their growth and maximizes their lifetime earning potential. The sooner someone begins their career journey, the faster they learn and gain experience that result in increase compensation. Internships are one of the best ways to accelerate college graduates into the workforce as baby boomers retire.

5 Networking.

The most successful job searching usually comes from meeting others in your field who can recommend you for open positions. Internships are a practical way to expand your job network. The professionals you will meet might be the most valuable connection to your future jobs, so showing curiosity, enthusiasm and willingness can help professional contacts see your potential.

Related: 10 Tips to Help You Network Like a Pro

Having an internship benefits you in the working environment, and it also builds your professional network. There is a 1 in 16 chance of securing a job by connecting with people, so networking is critical. Internships provide a great environment to meet professionals in the career field you want to pursue, as well as other interns who have similar interests.
As you will see from a case study later, making connections for the future can be of great benefit further down the road. A friend of mine got a great new job and the first year of his PhD paid for by a man running a company who used to be his manager during his internship. I’m not saying it will work out this way for everyone but it could be something as simple as a job referral or a skills recommendation on your LinkedIn!

6 Professionalism and build your resume.

Internships can provide students with the soft skills needed in the workplace and in leadership positions. In a LinkedIn Skills Report (2018), 57% of people rated soft skills as being more important than technical skills. Skills, such as communication, leadership, problem-solving, and teamwork can all be learned through an internship and utilized beyond that experience. Internships help students learn all about workplace culture, employee relations, and leadership structure, which should help them onboard in their first professional job with more ease than if they haven’t had professional experience. In the event that you are a finalist for a position make sure you at least have one internship on your resume before leaving college to give you a leg up on the competition.

Conclusion

If you work smart, work hard, listen to people who are more experienced and learn from them you can go on to have amazing experiences and awesome careers!
So go and find yourself amazing in an internship and who knows, maybe someone will be asking you to pass on your advice and tips in the future after you’ve had your own amazing experiences! Internships in fields like marketing, finance, sales, teaching, IT and more can be found at here, so don’t forget to utilize this resource to help you get your own internship!
Work with your HR department to find out whether you have the tools necessary to start an internship program. Get your company ahead of other businesses by starting your internship program today.

5 Best Practices Every Developer Should Follow.

Teke Rene — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 19:17:52 +0000

Development and Technology are the top trend of our livelihood today, Everyone keep being attracted to one or the many fields of technology and development that has exists today. Many find them selves into these fields but very little always make it to the top.

WHO IS A DEVELOPER?

A developer is an individual that build and create software and applications. He or she is responsible in the writing, debugging and executing the source code of a software application. A Developer is also known as a SOFTWARE DEVELOPER, COMPUTER PROGRAMMER, PROGRAMMER, SOFTWARE CODER OR SOFTWARE ENGINEER.

On today's agenda, i will be presenting to you the 5 best practices every developer should follow in other to avoid mistakes and delay and clear fix your path toward success. Below are the lists of five best Practices.

1) STAY UPDATED.

In the world of information and technology, developers want to learn new technologies and build new things.In other to learn new things at the points of changing the world, you have to stay focus and follow the trend. One thing i have notice is the fact that things are constantly changing and in other to meet the trend you should move with the change.

That is a fact of life with developers, its true be it you are working with JavaScript front end frameworks or with databases. Things are even worse for front end developers who gets hot for a year or two and then you have to change the way you do things therefore as a developer, you have to accept that change.

Below are a list of five tools you can implement in order to keep you up to date and burning:

a) Participate in Open source communities.

b) Go To Events.

c) Use Social Media To Stay Up To Date.

d) Be Skeptical with New Technologies.

e) Meets with Peers and Senior Developers so often.

Put this into practice and stay up to date with the latest technology, software, framework and that programming language that will better handle that problem you wanna solve.

2) JOIN A CODING CHALLENGE.

Programming is becoming an essential part of nearly every industry known to man, this is due to the way it help to organize and maintain large systems.

You can learn how to code from a more interactive platform that will build you ability to understand coding more quicker and easier and also you can learn how to code from reading books and articles which is still very helpful. Coding is a lot more about creativity and ideas development.

Therefore whatever source you feel comfortable with best match, a lot more persons will prefer an active session where real time ideas are being process and developed. That brings to the idea of coding challenges where we can be great in the follow aspects:

learning new ways of doing things.
Practicing a new programming language.
Encountering critical problems.
Keeping the brain active, focused and sharper.
Having fun with friends and mates.

In a quest for such challenges below are top five best coding Challenges to join:

a) Clash of Code.

b) HackerEarth.

c) CodeMonk.

d) Coderbyte.

e) Codility.

Join a coding Challenge as a developer and kick start your development process.

3) PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT.

While the age-old saying suggests that practice makes perfect, researchers have found that practice alone doesn't necessarily lead to success. Instead, experts suggest that the right kind of practice is what really matters when trying to optimize learning and increase skills.

Practice They say Makes Perfect simply means if you keep doing something over and over, definitely you gonna be perfect in it, the same applies to development and programming. How often you solve a task prepares you for a better solutions on more of such tasks. For you to be a better developer, you have to keep practicing let practice be your habit i mean part and parcel of you.

While learning new skills engage your self into exercises that will keep you practicing new skills and the skills you have learned. This will help you escape the difficulties of forgetting what you previously learned in a bit for further knowledge.

When deciding how much time you want to dedicate a week to practice, it’s best to start with small sessions. You should focus on keeping the appointment to begin with. Once you have developed the habit you can increase the time.

Once you are ready to increase your practice time, you can turn to Malcolm Gladwell’s idea of 10,000 hours.

What I am recommending is to consider your goals, available time and tenacity. Add the idea of 10,000 hours and mix well. By all means if you want to be the youngest senior developer this world has ever seen, then you have to keep practicing.

If you are the rest of the population and want to lead a dynamic life, you need to be realistic. Strive for progress and not perfection and I promise you will reach your goals as a developer.

4) WAKE UP EARLY.

Yes you get me well, I said wake up early. Developing the altitude of waking up early every morning is very good and important for the growth of any developer, when starting, it might sound or feel difficult especially as you will miss your sweets moments you use to have with your pillows, but as far as you are striving toward success sleep won't be a contributor toward your success.

Take note !!! i wont really identify the time you should be waking up for this will depend on our individual circumstances and lifestyles but you will have to identify the required hours of sleep your body needs. This will varies, the best way to examine this is by paying close attention to the hours you sleep within the day and if you really can not take note of this then i will recommend you setting an alarm clock before you sleep that will help wakes you up.

Its true your body needs a maximum amount of sleep, this is also a contributing factor toward the growth of your brain therefore sleep is actually very important. Here are some top reasons why you should be waking up early every day:

a) Get a head Start.

b) Increased Productivity.

c) Timeliness or start working early.

d) Self-mastery.

e) Exercise.

Persons who always wakes up early in the morning to prepare or to exercise always have a different understanding toward the program the are solving therefore i will highly recommend you waking up early if you want to be a good problem solving developer.

5) LEARN TO Read.

Learning how to read as a developer is very important. These can be seen in the situation where most developers only understands how to solve problems practically and when it comes to reading they are lacking. Knowledge is meant to be shared and in today world reading is one of the most popular ways we share knowledge.

Why you should learn how to read as a developer:

_You will properly understand the problem you are trying to solve. This is because most developers do not like reading and only think logically when trying to solve minor problems which might save them more time just reading one or two articles.

_ Reading will help developers reduce stress. Instead of stressing your mind trying to solve something that has already been solved, why don't you just read one or two posts and refrained you solution.

IN CONCLUSION.

Developers will make no further mistakes if these five tested points are taking in to account and are implemented rightly.