By: Ameen Jan
The OGS Mentorship platform was established to provide KGS students and younger OGs with advice and exposure to careers and professional opportunities. One important initiative from this platform was the opportunity for KGS students in A levels to intern with companies that are led by OGs.
31 students applied for summer internships through the OGS platform. A competitive selection process for hiring was involved, as there were only six companies that offered internships to KGS students in this first round of the programme. These were:
- Social entrepreneurship: EDeQUAL (OGS mentor: Ameen Jan)
- Engineering: SMC Pvt. Ltd (OGS mentor: Farhan A. Mehboob)
- Advertising and social media: The Brand Crew Pvt. Ltd. (OGS mentor: Farzad Bagheri)
- Logistics: AutoCom (OGS mentor: Zehra Rana)
- Technology: NexDegree (OGS mentor: Imran Moinuddin)
- Fashion and Entertainment: Catwalk (OGS mentor: Shahzad Abdullah)
Out of 31 students who submitted their resumes for consideration, 12 succeeded in gaining an internship. The competitive selection process was the first learning for students who applied: a well-written resume gets your foot in the door; a good interview helps you to get the job! The student interns were:
- Maha Husain at EDeQUAL
- Muhammad Hamdan Sulaiman, S. Ali Raza, Wajeeha Hasnain and Muhammad Aazim at SMC Pvt. Ltd.
- Hareem Ahmer, Haya Faruqui and Marjan Hussain at The Brand Crew Pvt. Ltd.
- Soha Khan at AutoCom, Omar Kidwai at NexDegree
- Amar Ali & Mishaal Ali at Catwalk Ent.
Each summer internship was between one and four weeks in duration, during which student interns had the opportunity to observe, interact with other employees, and participate directly in the work of each company. This was a unique opportunity for them to learn about different professions, since most companies only offer internships to college students and not those in A levels.
FEEDBACK
In order to assess how valuable the internship experience was for both students and for the hiring companies, an online survey was conducted. 70% of student interns who responded to the survey said that their internship experience was either useful or very useful in helping them to learn about working in a professional environment. 85% of student interns rated their direct supervisor as either very good or excellent, and all interns rated the other people that they worked with during the internship as either very good or excellent.
Similarly, feedback on the interns was sought from the hiring companies. Each intern was evaluated and the feedback from companies was largely positive. More than 80% of respondents said that their intern worked very well or extremely well with others; the same numbers found the quality of their intern’s work very good or excellent.
Areas for improvement that were pointed out were independent problem solving and handling feedback/criticism in a constructive way. These are not unexpected as the interns were young and need more experience to gain the skills of working in a professional environment. The internship experience was a first and important step for them in that direction.
