The rise of the professional intern

Aaliya Khan, an upcoming DJ, learned about the field from her friend and mentor DJ Suraj Tiwari

Joshua Joy, 20, joined Sportz Interactive when the world was gearing up for the Fifa World Cup 2022. The sports marketing firm needed young interns to work on content creation, and Joy, who was doing his diploma in sports marketing at the time, saw the opportunity as the perfect blend of his two interests, sports and social media content creation. Working under Malay Desai, the associate director of content, he ideated social media content and campaigns for the World Cup.

"We had all these renowned footballers like Wayne Rooney and Brazilian footballer Lúcio come in to our studios," he recalls. "We planned content throughout the tournament." He says that running fan engagement pages for Punjab Kings, his favourite team, was a way to network with other fans and the players themselves. Joy was an intern from October 2022 until July 2023, and surprised many with his skills of networking and camaraderie with bigshots. "There was a point where I had to speak with cricketer Suresh Raina," says associate director Malay Desai, "and I had to ask Joshua to introduce me to him. He's very good with people."

Dharmishtha Dagia, a celebrity manager, with her intern, Shraddha, to whom she assigns on-ground event work

This new type of internship - one-on-one work experience assisting a professional, rather than the usual corporate or agency work assignments, has been gathering momentum in the last few years. Recently, the University Grants Commission (UGC) released a notification stating that, as mandated under the New Education Policy of 2020, students must take up internships during their course to earn at least eight to 12 credits. Colleges have been directed to set up special internship cells for the same. And it's not just NGOs, MSME, and industries that students can obtain internships at: it's also by working with professionals like artists, researchers, and the like.

Shraddha Kadam, now 31, bumped into PR professional and celebrity manager Dharmishtha Dagia at a guest lecture at the Indian School of Media a few years back, when she was pursuing her media and event management course. Dagia set up Dharmishtha's Diary in 2016 to manage the public relations of TV actors and regularly hires interns for various roles. The two hit it off, and not long after, Dagia hired her as her intern, a role she's held on and off since graduating 2018. As Dagia's long-standing intern, Kadam schedules telephonic calls with celebrities, handles their social media, writes PR pitches and coordinates with media outlets, and manages on-ground events.

Joshua Joy, a sports content creator, worked under Malay Desai, the director of Sportz Interactive, when he joined the agency as an intern

"Shraddha has been here for a long time. It's because I can blindly trust her to handle events by herself, and she's dedicated to her work," says Dagia. Working with a professional gives fresh graduates the opportunity to closely "shadow" the person and gain work experience through exposure, a sort of vicarious learning. Aaliya Khan, an upcoming DJ, also opted for an unusual path. After working at an advertising agency, Khan decided that her true forte lay in dee-jaying. "There are no DJ interns," she says. "They're either assistants or students. However, I was able to learn from a close friend of mine, DJ Suraj Tiwari, by attending his gigs at different venues and assisting him in his work." While she could have chosen to take the institute route of learning, Khan says being on-ground and observing what he did. "I used to play a few sets, mix and master songs, and made transitions."

Khan, who started working as an intern last January and continued for five months, says that observation played the most important role in learning how to be a good DJ. "I looked at how the crowd reacted to certain songs and genres, and what mood they were in, to choose the sets."

While interning with professionals is common in the sciences, it's a fairly new phenomenon in the arts and humanities. "These internships with professionals are what we called an apprenticeship in the past," says Siddharth Shahani, the executive president of Atlas SkillTech University. It's a good move by the UGC, he feels. That being said, he feels that making internships compulsory will motivate students to work harder to get the jobs they want.

Siddharth Shahani, executive president, Atlas SkillTech University; (right) Navin M Punjabi, director of placements at HR College

Dr Navin M Punjabi, Associate Professor and Director of Placements at HR College of Commerce and Economics, who heads the placement cell, says that participation from the industry side is also important. "Not all colleges are prepared to take that step towards the industry - to organise dedicated faculty to run the internship cell, who are trained and will be able to get students internships."

Industries, he says, will also be reluctant to spend the hours training a person, only for them to leave after the duration of their internship is completed. "It is a very welcome move, however, the government needs to also mandate the industries to be forthcoming towards these internships - and it should not become cheap labour for these professionals."

These internships lead to long lasting relationships that often extend long after the duration of the internship is completed, often becoming the springing-board for a young graduate's career. "I learned that it's not about how well you speak or how good your English is, but the way you are willing to work that matters," says Kadam, who's grateful for her mentor. "She's been my support system, all these years, and has helped me gain a lot of confidence."