Know-How Exchange : Career/Training

Rushi-

If I were in your shoes, I would brush up on some Web 2.0 skills (blogging, twitter, facebook and LinkedIn among them) and talk to companies about helping them with their social network marketing. Many companies are just expanding their marketing efforts in social networking, and some might welcome an intern to help them launch and test the waters in some of media. If you aren't already involved in these things, there are many good books on social networking for business -- check the library! And while you're in the business you'll pick up on other marketing skills, of course.

In general, of course, companies are looking for self-starters and critical thinkers for interns, rather that people who sit and wait to be told precisely what to do.

Good luck.
Anne

Dear Rushi03,

What are companies looking for?

Contribution. Ideas. Commitment. Guts. Candor. Integrity.
Effort. Impact. Responsibility. Questioners. Answers. Leaders.
Visionaries. Entrepreneurs. Feedback. Emotion. Humanity. Grace.
Solidity. Endurance. Endeavour.

Deliver on these things and carry on delivering on them and you'll go far. And rightly so.

I hope this helps. Good luck to you.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

Companies are hoping to get some benefit from the intern work you do, at the same time provide some benefit to your career. Even if they don't pay a salary for the intern, there are significant costs to the company (people's time, various resources like computers, etc.). They want a business benefit that exceeds this from you. Beyond this, things like what GaryB talk about are all relevant.

Regarding specific areas/functions as Anne mentions, that may or may not work. Most companies already have specific things they want accomplished by the intern, and this varies from company to company. Choosing and area (like Web 2.0 skills) would only help if the company already has a need for this or you are looking for them to create an intern opportunity in this area. If time is short before you want to be working at the intern position, you are likely better off going after companies that already have positions in mind.