CII. There is no CHANCE in "Internship": Why "Apprenticeships" need to make a comeback -

The New York Times describes an “internet presence” as being a focal point for employers or, for the people who have the authority to initiate your career-life.
A few years back, there was somewhat of a frenzy, or rather, trending topic: Facebook profiles were being accessed by university admissions and employers alike. Facebook, as we all know, is part and parcel of internet searches.

I, for one, was not phased by the idea of my Facebook profile being accessed. Suddenly, not always thinking and speaking about the latest gossip to spring out from Locust Walk, was advantageous.
This is not to say that what I did share was dry, at least in my opinion. It is just that I do not write statuses that are akin to the horrid smell of the fertilizer that lines Locust Walk in preparation for Spring tulip-bulb planting; No one likes to air dirty laundry in the public realm.

Transplanting resumes to Linkedin, saving recommendations on file, and tailoring position-specific cover letters is a craft that I have been honing since diving into this real world.
For someone who has decided to build up expertise in an uncharted discipline, acquiring as many relevant experiences as possible is necessary to be considered for formal education in that discipline.

I think it is an awesome idea to have a professional internet presence. Obviously, we cannot all have Wikipedia pages in our name and more times that not, we, ourselves are publishing our own information as opposed to someone else. We all cannot start out as interviewees for articles or broadcasts, when we have not done nearly enough to be given recognition in the public space.

Our internet presence is a way of reflecting our desire to be connected to the world and to be a global citizen, with or without any stamps on our passport.

Furthermore, the internet presence gives more than a face to an application. The internet presence gives us the opportunity to project a personality. Interviewing in person, while the ideal scenario, rarely lasts longer than a few hours and as humans, complex beings, it is a trivial challenge to try and let yourself be known as entirely as possible to someone you have never met before. In combination, the internet presence and interview is a great way to keep the applicant in a given context. Just like hanging quotations in text or speech, taking a person out of context can easily lead to misinterpretation and confusion.

I’m asking for a chance- Yeh ap mujhe de sakte hain? Can you give this to me?  *When I am exasperated I tend to express my bilingual self.

Anyway, when I was 16 and knew nothing about lab research, much less cancer pharmacology, I had approached a scientist who had agreed to take me on.
She asked me 1 question, “Do you know what an assay is?”
I didn’t know.
I was stalling and making sounds along the lines of a whimper, but not quite “umm” because I knew that was a public-speaking no-no.
I was searching for an answer I didn’t have; I could not bring myself to say “no.”
She said, “just tell me that you don’t know it.” She then gave me a basic definition and told me to look it up on the internet.

Nothing a little research can’t cure - no pun intended. Not everyone knows everything.

Not everyone knows everything.

So why not give a chance to the good people of the world who want to learn something?

I think this generation’s demographic has begun to think that they have progressed from “apprenticeship” to “internship.”

Is the difference between these 2 terms merely a case of semantics?
It seems to me that the apprenticeship is more meaningful and substantial a concept. In the days where resumes seldom existed, at least in formal written form, apprenticeships were long-term commitments to honing a skill; whether it be an apprenticeship for carpet weaving or pastry making.

An apprenticeship is a somewhat morbid but very realistic understanding that the person in-charge’s, the master of sorts’, demise is predicted to come at a much sooner date than the younger disciple.
As a result, warring egos are not present and appreciation for a discipline is the focus.

Internships can be an apprenticeship.

However, the whole recruiting process and detachment of the applicant from the internship supervisor, or the professional, is ridiculous. Internships, not all, but many, function according to a subordination equation.
Fortunately, all of my internships were not at all like this. If they were, and I had indeed garnered that impression from the interview, it would be detrimental for everyone.
Rather, my internships were akin to the apprenticeships I had described above.
All of my supervisors or advisers,  gave me a chance and had passed down to me skills that cannot be attained unless taught, like knowing just how to hold the brush when cryosectioning brain tissue.

In the days of apprenticeships, once skills were gained, a new-found respect by others who were once in your position, would naturally follow.
However, In the days of internships, like today, skills gained are not so much respected as they are recognized as a hot commodity.

Commodities come and go. With regard to relativity, the value  that something holds is transient.
All those experiences that we’ve had is anything but temporary.

Recognizing our permanency in pursuing a field, our permanency as a good writer or physician, does not mean that we are regressing in time and thinking of ourselves as permanent.

We’re not stupid.

We know that Tuck Everlasting is fiction and that we are not immortal. I’m almost positive that older generations were aware of this too, during the days of apprenticeships. In fact, during those days, the acknowledgment of mortality was all too well-known, hence the need to pass down skills to the younger generations.

The world is not being progressive in it’s consideration of all persons and skills as being transient.
We have progressed from the transient living of nomadic times. How is transient thinking progressive?
Have we become so obsessed with hipster-chic/new takes on the vintage, that we want to return to nomadic ways of thinking?

I understand the appeal behind that expression that is not only passive-aggressive but also confident-sounding: “No one is indispensable.”

That expression is just what it is, an expression.

I believe that no one can be replaced.

Relevancy is not something earned, it is something innate.
You go into an internship just as relevant as you come out of it and no one can replace that void in any way other than taking an open position for functionality sake.

Here’s to apprenticeships, and all that they encompass, making a comeback.