An exceptional academic record is rarely the deciding factor for new grad hiring and early-in-career performance. A report by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and Hart Research Associates indicated that 87% of employers agree requiring students to complete a significant applied learning project before graduation would improve their preparation for career success. Further, according to Forbes, college students who complete paid internships receive nearly twice as many job offers than students with no internship experience (1.61 vs. 0.77) and receive a higher first-year salary than those who did not complete an internship. With the advent of AI and the prospect of routine tasks being automated, real world experience has not only premium value, but is becoming a necessity.
Why does Real World Experience Matter?
Today’s employers seek more from their next generation talent. They expect demonstrable examples of hands-on experience, a passion for problem-solving, and the ability to be a collaborator and a team player. All of these learnings bridge the gap between the academic mastery of a subject matter and its practical application. Real-world projects are more than just assignments for students; they serve as pathways to updating hard and soft skills, meeting mentors, developing a network of professional contacts, and getting job-ready.
Students in turn bring a lot to the table to their clients and potential employers. Given their exposure and openness to the latest tools and technologies, they offer the fastest path to driving innovation and new ways of doing work. Further, their fresh perspectives and unconstrained thinking can inspire seasoned experts to see problems and solutions in new and creative ways. Such collaboration often results in unique ideas and insights that are hard to break through in the regular cadence of established teams.
Traditional Internships are Good, but not Great
Most employers run internship programs as one of the key ways to source new talent. This approach has its merits as proven by its high success rate. According to data from Chegg Internships, 70% of US employers make a full-time job offer to interns, and 80% of students accept said offer; in other words, more than 56% of interns land a full-time job from their internship.
However, to be most effective, these internships need to be well structured and ensure robust participation from the supervisor or manager so that they are able to properly engage, challenge, and assess the skills of an intern. What occurs in reality is that given usual business pressures, traditional internships often become more of a chore – rather than a fertile ground for engagement or assessment. Most of the filtering is at the point of hiring, with less focus on actual performance during the internship.
Trumio Projects: Going Beyond Internships
What if there is a platform where you can find teams of talented students ready to solve problems with active collaboration, in-built AI-assistance, and a secure project execution environment? Focused on delivering outcomes that matter to the business. That inherently includes granular experience and assessment on both sides on the fit to the job, skills or team culture. Available on-demand any time of the year, based on your business needs.
Wondering what kind of problems can students solve? Here are a few examples –
- Research and prototyping – delivering early learnings on opportunities and pitfalls on a new project, prior to starting production level effort by an internal team.
- Near term business execution – delivering on new artefacts like a new video supporting a product launch for a marketing team, or developing a new customer demo for a sales team.
- Flex capacity as an extended team – making direct contribution to existing internal projects as well as external submissions to standards or open source development.
And much more.
Trumio is where the brightest sparks of the next generation speed up your business execution as your early recon team. With Trumio projects, you’re doing more. You’re shaping the future, giving potential team members a platform to grow, learn, and eventually lead. Not just achieving key business and recruitment goals, but laying the groundwork for the industry’s next wave of leaders. Let’s build beyond and supplement traditional internships, and say hello to Trumio Projects!
