Come summer and the whole college scrambles to find that prized internship. It is the dream of every college student to secure an internship at a reputed organization, in his/her desired function, so that s/he could have first-hand exposure to working in a professional setting. But, does such an internship even exist?
The truth is, finding a decent internship is a big challenge when you are in college. Only a few good companies come to the campus for hiring interns. As a result, a majority of students are left to hunt for an internship on their own. And even those who do get lucky enough to bag an internship at a large company, often find themselves doing insignificant jobs or loitering about in the cafeteria in the absence of a work plan that includes them in the office workflow.
Three B.E. students at the Don Bosco Engineering College decided to do something about the status quo. They pondered about the situation and discussed probable solutions to improve the numbers, as well as, the quality of internships, and came upon the idea of an online platform to bring students and corporates together to enhance internship opportunities. This is how the first seed for the emerging startup, Internship Station, was germinated; as a vision of three friends, Shubham Jha, Rahul Naik and Rohit Sankpal.
“We worked passionately on improving our portal, but then got busy with studies and exams. Soon after college, we all got lucrative jobs, and Internship Station was put on a back-burner,” says Shubham.
While the internship portal remained shelved owing to work commitments of the three friends, it was never completely out of their minds.
“Our mentor, Mr. Deepak Pathania of Design Intervention (India) Pvt. Ltd., called us to enquire if we were ready to build Internship Station as a startup,” recalls Rohit. “We were thrilled to know that we were being offered the opportunity to incubate our startup at FiiRE with several benefits, including working space, mentorship and marketing support,” adds Rahul.
“Internship Station is fortunate to have the invaluable mentorship support of Mr. D S Prashant, CEO of FiiRE, and Mr. Raghuveer Vernekar, Chairman of the Education Committee, GCCI,” says Rohit.
Presently, the three friends are in the final stages of developing a full-blown portal that will help corporates and students find common ground for internships.
“We have designed a holistic portal that allows students to upload their profiles and add their skills and achievements. On the other hand, we are reaching out to companies to list their internship positions where students could easily apply,” shares Rahul.
“The differentiating point of this portal is that we are going the extra mile to help students find internship vacancies that suit their academic background, skills and interests. On the other hand, we are also helping companies search the best profiles in a few taps, saving them precious time,” quips Shubham.
“We are attempting to create a perfect match-making platform for students and corporates,” Rohit adds with a grin.
The young and vivacious founders have planned a series of immersive features for their platform, which they are planning to announce during the launch of the portal. The founders of Internship Station have a vision for sustainable growth, yet they are not fixating on monetizing the portal. They know that as the portal gets a large user base, various opportunities to monetize it will appear. Meanwhile, the determined and focus co-founders work part-time to fend for themselves.
“We have a personal connection with the issue that we are trying to address. We sincerely want to make it easier for students to find meaningful internships. Also, we are aware that there are several businesses out there that can provide holistic, inclusive internships, but need a platform to connect with the students directly,” says Rohit.
Incubated at the FiiRE (Forum for Innovation Incubation Research and Entrepreneurship), Internship Station is sure to create a wave in the internship space by bridging the gap between prospective interns and pragmatic internships. All eyes are set on this zealous young startup!
FiiRE is home to many dreamers who had been asking the question, ‘Why?’ all their lives, and are building up solutions and products that will change the course of future. At FiiRE, we help you kindle creativity and empower you to build innovative products and solutions that may transform our tomorrow.