Everyone Should Intern at a Startup— Even if You Know Nothing About Tech

We live in a time when having a college degree no longer puts us at the top. As a student or recent college graduate, we are all searching for that internship that will give us the work experience we need to set us apart from the crowd.

As it turns out, that experience may come from working at a tech startup. Yes— even if you are not a tech person!

Landing an internship or job with a large corporation has its perks including good pay, benefits and job stability. Working at a tech startup in its early stages usually means long hours, little pay and the unpredictability of whether the company will flourish or fail.

The world of startups is not for the faint of heart, but with the tech field booming, the experience of working at a startup becomes invaluable.

You learn to help grow a business from the beginning and you learn to wear many hats. You learn to be flexible and adaptable to the changes that will inevitably occur in your job role and the company’s direction. You capitalize on getting to be a salesperson one day and a digital marketer the next. You learn to thrive in the chaos of a startup, and you get to have the completely unique experience of working in a high-energy incubator surrounded by other success-hungry entrepreneurs.

The learning opportunities you receive while at a startup will serve you in all other future jobs. Even if you are not a tech person, you can intern in marketing, graphic design, copywriting or social media.

The key is that you have the experience of working in an environment that puts you at the same table as the CEO during company meetings, that allows you to interact with every employee on a daily basis because your company is so small and that lets you see what it takes to birth an idea and build it into a business.