askST Jobs: Counting internship stints as part of work experience

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Q: Should I include internship stints when calculating how much work experience I have for job applications?

A: In the past, internship experiences were often not considered as formal work experience, especially those in fields or roles different to the full-time position being applied for, says Mr Goh Duo Geng, director of strategy and operations at talent recruitment and matching platform Glints.

“For instance, if someone interned in a finance department but was now seeking a full-time role in marketing, the internship experience might not have carried the same weight,” he adds.

However, the nature of internships has evolved over time, says Mr Goh: “Interns, particularly those who are going through six- to 12-month internships, are taking on increasing responsibilities.

“Additionally, the selection process for interns in certain companies has become highly competitive, involving multiple rounds of interviews along with technical assessments.”

In some cases, interns are taking on responsibilities and workloads comparable with those of full-time staff, he says, and can “make a valid argument for considering their internship experience as legitimate work experience”.

Mr Goh says that lengthier internships of six months or longer are more likely to let interns demonstrate their impact and take on additional responsibilities equivalent to that of junior full-time employees.

“Certain employers then may be more inclined to recognise these extended internships as valid work experiences,” he says.

However, he adds that if an individual can show that they learnt valuable skills and experiences through the internship, it should count towards their years worked, regardless of the internship’s duration and whether it was full- or part-time.

“For part-time internships, a proportional calculation can be applied: For example, if you worked 2½ days a week for six months, that can be equivalent to three months of full-time work experience,” says Mr Goh.

Similarly, LinkedIn career expert Pooja Chhabria points out that highlighting relevant internship experience and the skills learnt can help a job applicant stand out.

“Often, the emphasis is not on the length of internship experience, but rather, the hard and soft skills you can show at the end of your internship,” she adds.

While there is increasing reason to include internship experience as part of the years worked, employers are also taking a skills-first approach to hiring and placing less emphasis on educational qualifications and years of work experience.

Ms Chhabria notes that the share of searches from recruiters on the professional networking platform that include a skills filter grew by 25 percentage points from 2019.

Mr Goh adds that internships fundamentally provide interns with key advantages by letting them get industry experience, learn to collaborate and deepen particular technical skill sets.

“These are all valuable experiences that are transferable to becoming a full-time employee,” says Mr Goh, who completed nine internships at firms spanning the professional services, banking and technology sectors himself.

“My internship experience helped me shape all the different skill sets that have led me to my current role at Glints.”

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