On the face of it internships are just ‘on-the-job training’ taken up by college or university students. Yes, interns can even be school students and postgraduate adults seeking skills for a new career. During internships the intern gets to have a closer look at what might be his/her entire career. It is a chance to find out if your perception of the job matches reality.

Through live experience in the chosen field you may reconsider continuing in the chosen career. During the course of internship there are tremendous opportunities to build a network of contacts. If you are lucky and your internship work gets noticed, chances of getting absorbed in the same organization are manifold. An internship acts as a bridge between the organization and the interns and also prepares the interns for a bright productive future.

An internship is a very streamlined affair outside of India while here there is a dependency on helpful family members and friends to fix up a place of internship, which may or may not give a stipend. To answer all doubts and give directions in the Indian internship scenario are a clutch of portals. Several internship portals have sprung up that make the entire process simpler and more professional.

Letsintern.com, one such portal, brings the students and companies face to face.  Quitting their jobs, co-founders Rishabh Gupta (CEO), Mayank Batheja (COO), and Pranay Swarup (CMO) started this venture in 2010. Since then the company has placed 1,500 plus internships and registered more than 15,000 users.

Their success stems from their recognition of a clear need gap. Being part of AIESEC (Student Organization for International Internships) has helped them understand the pulse of students and stay abreast with the latest developments in the student community. Companies come to them instead of recruiting interns on their own, as hiring interns’ needs special care and training and most companies have neither the experience nor the resources to handle this.

In sixteen months’ time their popularity has soared high enough to attract some top-notch colleges to seek their services and include colleges such as the Indian Institute of Technology, St. Stephen’s, Shri Ram College of Commerce, Lady Sri Ram, St. Xavier’s, Presidency, Christ College, and Birla Institute of Technology and Science.
The companies serviced by them include MTV, Viacom 18, Network 18, Ernst & Young, ZEE Group, FCUK, NEWSX, Channel V, ForceIndia, Mid-Day, and the Times of India Group.

Besides running the portal, they are actively engaged in offering other products and services to get corporates, students, and the institutions together. Partnering with Franklin Covey—the world’s leading training house—they bring together specialized corporate skill training for undergrad students under the program Career Launch Pad.