Internship myths that might be sabotaging you

As you set your mind to excelling in an internship, you need to be acutely aware of any
sub-conscious myth that you may have picked up from your environment, which is
running in the back of your mind and impacting your approach towards securing great
internships. Let's talk about 5 myths surrounding law school internships.

Internship Myth# 1

I am too young to apply for this internship

Well, you are probably not. I have seen 2nd year students interning at top law firms. I
interned at AZB, AMSS and JSA when I was in 3rd year. Numerous other people get to
do the same. The reality is that getting internship does not always depend on merit. You
need to be at the right place at the right time. Otherwise, you need people who can
recommend you (I am not one of those people). Law firms and in-house legal
departments are full of interns who came based on a recommendation from a client or a
partner or even a senior associate. If you don't have "dad's contacts" (although they are
useful for those who have it), that is no excuse for not getting a recommendation –– you
must strive to network and build some good will.

Internship Myth# 2

Doing this internship will increase my CV value and then I can get
the internship I really want

The reality is that there are plenty of idiots in the job market who have done internships
at the top firms and big companies. Those few lines in the CV about your internship at a
certain firm is not a hallmark of your quality and talent. Law firm partners and recruiters,
who themselves have to oblige a lot of people by recommending their sons and
daughters for internships know this very well. While I was an associate, I have come
across many interns who were absolute morons and I would never want to hire them.

Hence, you are making a fool of yourself if you think interning at a certain place will
improve your profile and for that reasons you are sacrificing the three objectives of
internship described above. At the end of the day, your personality and presence of mind
(when you are in front of them), and the language of your cover letter/ how you present
your CV (when you are corresponding) will tell them a lot about your abilities than a
place where you have interned. I see so many CVs and cover letters with grammatical/
spelling errors that it is not funny. A lawyer will be very wary of hiring someone who
makes spelling mistakes in a CV irrespective of where that person has interned.

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Internship Myth# 3

All my friends are interning this summer, if I don't intern I'll lose
out

Intern when you are really focussed on the three objectives, not otherwise. If you want
to work at a law firm, interning at a NGO is not going to improve your chance of getting
a law firm job. If you really want to work at an NGO, it may not be a smart thing killing
your soul at a PSU or a law firm internship.

Decide, and stick to it. What you actually do should be aligned with your ultimate goals.
If you don't get the internship that will help your career goal, don't go for some random
internship just for the sake of it. That is not professional. You'll waste your own and
other people's times.

Internship Myth# 4

People who set my college curriculum knows where I should

intern

I am aware of the fact that your college probably prescribes specific types of internships.
You are supposed to do NGO internship in the first year, trial court in second year,
Supreme Court in third year and law firm in 4th year. Right? Well, only if ever there was
such a clear formula!

Only year in which I did what I was supposed to do according to curriculum was in the
first year – I interned at two NGOs. Then I soon realized that I don't want to do
litigation, why should I waste my time in trial courts? Instead, I interned with a
historian, Ramachandra Guha, researching in quaint libraries in Kolkata on an alleged
romantic relationship between Gandhi and a niece of Rabindranath Tagore. I also worked
with IMS, which went on to set the stage for the work I did later with CLAThacker. In my
third year, I just interned with 3 law firms back to back. In my 4th year I didn't intern at
all, instead choosing to do my own work. Did any of these stop me from getting a law
firm job, the career of my choice at that time? Absolutely not.

Internship Myth 5#

I am not from an NLU, I will never get this internship

If you are reading this article till here, give yourself some credit. You are good enough to
get any internship.

Yes it is easier to get internships from NLUs, but students from other colleges are also
doing internships. If you are not from an NLU, you probably need to work harder
towards getting an internship, but giving up or using this as an excuse is totally stupid.
At Trilegal, which hires a lot of students from NLUs and pays one of the best salaries, I
have met lawyers from all sorts of colleges which are not so famous. They are there
because they do good work. You need to learn the ropes well, you need to reach, you

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need to do things that will get you noticed, but not being from an NLU does not close
doors to good internships for you. How can you do it? We’ll write more on it soon.

Focus on learning, figuring out what you like and getting a job when you are interning.
The rest is most probably nonsense. Do not do an internship that does not fulfil these
objectives – you might be better off reading a thriller at home.

-Ramanuj Mukherjee, ​Co-Founder, iPleaders

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© Addictive Learning Technology Pvt. Ltd. Any unauthorized use, circulation or reproduction shall attract suitable action
under applicable law.