Career Internship

Career Internship

The world’s economy, in general, is constantly changing daily, hence for an individual to cope with the situation; their skills, talents, and experience need to be part of that development cycle. Additionally, the job market is very competitive and often a tough learning curve for the recent graduates. This is an enormous reason behind the progression of internship opportunities and applied learning to become a critical part of the academy experience for entire students. The most essential element of internships is the fact that they integrate classroom theory and knowledge with real-world application and skills acquired in community or professional settings. Internships have also been proven to bring a fortune of benefits to interns, while finalizing a degree and when pursuing a career path in post-graduation. During an internship with Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) provider, the intern was able to gain confidence in testing out specific techniques learned in the classroom before entering the job market. It is a good opportunity to apply what a student has learnt in a conducive environment, where some mistakes are always expected instead of learning the hard way in the first job after stepping out of college.

During the internship period, the intern was able to recognize the purpose of working with experienced professionals who acknowledge the intern’s passion while benefiting them since it was one of the rare opportunities where an ambitious individual can interact and learn from such important career mentors.  Besides, this opportunity helped the student to acquire practical skills that that are beyond classwork theoretical skills. The internship enabled the intern to gain first-hand exposure to working in the real world. It also allowed the student to harness the knowledge, skill, and theoretical practice learnt in the classroom. Therefore, the internship generally provides a nice learning curve for students with little experience in the professional world. 

Furthermore, the intern’s interest to pursue ABA career path was enhanced after realizing that ABA is one of the only evidence-based therapies developed to help people on the autism spectrum, and a career in applied behaviour analysis provides the opportunity to assist a vulnerable population and make a positive impact. However, the intern wondered how the ABA career is involving and requires technical skills for one to succeed in somewhat a challenging career. It appeared that ABA career needs someone passionate and having the right attitude towards ABA career goal, rather than just having a bachelor’s degree certificate in ABA.

Moreover, the student believed that the district should provide skip training for passionate individuals pursuing ABA career since it is a challenging profession. This career is somewhat challenging because ABA profession has grown along with the rise in cases of autism, and is one of the fields that are rapidly expanding to entirely cover how behaviour and learning impact individual’s daily life and the professionals are not limited to the assessment and treatment of autism.

What the intern disliked was the fact that even though working with colleagues as a team is very critical in this divine profession,  they realized that they could not manage the common incivility with some few team members, whereby the rude colleagues looked down upon the intern’s qualification o undertake the challenging task. However, the intern took up the challenge positively and used it as a driving force to perfect in ABA profession and consulted when necessary. Since then I developed more leadership skills to an extent that I could mentor newly enrolled interns, and had a potential of mentoring others in future. Further, the intern disliked most is the lack of good orientation system to prepare the freshly enrolled staff on what to expect that led to blames and unethical responsibilities. The intern also disliked most the incivility within the staff members where one staff was goosing the other, which apart of professional incivility. Fortunately, the intern was able to understand how such unethical behaviours are addressed after one of the staff reported the issue to the superintendent and calmed the ordeal. Throughout the internship period, the intern learnt that working in a comfortable environment is very critical.