Legal Internship Advice: Bend Like the Willow, Don’t Resist Like the Oak

Q. I want to join the corporate sector. How many law firm internships should I do?

By Intern Smith

Intern once. Intern twice. Don’t overdo law firm internships. Law firms or any other organization like to recruit well-rounded individuals.

Does this individual know the working of lower courts? Yes? Oh! She has interned at Cricinfo.com! Wow. Law firms or any other organization would love to know that. You are then the glamour intern. And the glamour intern gets the job she wants.

Intern in different places: Mumbai, Calcutta, Bangalore, Delhi, Sydney, Ladakh! (One of my friends did intern in Ladakh for his summer internship at LEDeG [Ladakh Ecological Development Group]).

The cultural learnings, the soft skills which you learn will hold you in good stead. Also organizations in different areas of India and the world have different working styles. You can always cherry-pick the good points.

So this makes for a good thali for lunch with a healthy dose of vegetables, dal and roti.

Intern with differently sized organisations: Intern with start-ups, mid-sized organisations and the mega ones. You’ll learn the different work cultures and work settings.

An internship at a start-up might turn you into an entrepreneur and a mid-sized organisation will show you the magic of the ‘compromised cubicle comfort’.

That is the thali for dinner. Chew well. And drink water. Rest. Spend time with family. Don’t squeeze a three week internship into a two week holiday.

A RelationShip comes before an InternShip. Learn to see the Ship’s size and know what will sink you and what will be your saviour.

—

Finally having too many thalis can be boring (vomiting) after a point. Indulge. Experiment. Be flexible. Because in a storm, the Willow survives and the Oak dies.

—

InternSmith is glad to know that our ‘My Internship’ writeups are encouraging people to apply to those very organisations.

Image from here and here.