When it comes to internships in STEM, I broadly think of them as two kinds: research-based and non research-based.
Research-based internships #
Research based internships are those that involve conducting scientific research, or learning skills directly relevant to conducting scientific research. These would fall largely into one of two categories:
Academia #
These internships happen at research labs in universities and colleges (eg: University of Delhi) and government research institutions (eg: National Institute of Immunology). These labs are headed by a principal investigator (PI), who is responsible for deciding the research direction of the lab, securing funding, mentoring students and a lot more. The PI is also a professor at the institution, and may have teaching and administrative responsibilities in this regard. Most of the actual research in the lab is usually done by the rest of the members: graduate students (people pursuing their PhD or master’s degree), post-doctoral members (someone who has already received their PhD, hence post doctoral), research associates, research assistants, undergraduate students, and interns like you! Sometimes labs also have other staff like lab managers and administrative assistants. In academic labs, there may be several on-going projects that revolve around the central research theme of the lab, and each project may have one or more people working on them.
Who are academic internships good for?
- Someone interested in fundamental research in STEM, especially that which may be uncommon in industry.
- Someone interested in future work in academia (graduate school, for example).
- Someone who likes the dynamics of academic research groups, or believes will thrive in that setting.
Industry #
Industry internships are those where you would pursue scientific research in a company or a non-profit organisation. This is about as much as I can tell you, because I have never applied for or worked in industry. If someone would like to contribute to this, please email me!
Who are industry internships good for?
- Someone interested in applied research in STEM.
- Someone interested in future work in industry.
- Someone who likes the dynamics of industry research groups, or believes will thrive in that setting.
Other research-based internships #
I will add some additional kinds of research based ‘internships’ that are somewhat non-traditional. I will name examples from biology, but I am sure similar stuff exists in other STEM fields.
- Community labs: These are research labs that do not fall into the category of either academia or industry. These are professionally equipped labs that encourage DIY projects from people outside traditional science, so think of them as public sandboxes that are more accessible for people to pursue research projects in. Many such labs have open projects on various topics that might be interesting or unique. Unfortunately, I don’t know know of any research community labs in India, but here is an international list anwyays.
- Competitions: In competitions, you design and execute a research project(s) relevant to the competition criteria and compete with other participants for a prize. The most notable that comes to my mind is the International Genetically Engineered Machine. However if the competition or your submission for the competition requires experimentation, you will need access to a lab space, which you may only find in academia, industry or a community lab. I’d like to give team Friendzymes a shout-out here, because I really liked how they built a competition team for iGEM with members from different countries. If you find you lack access to specific equipment, starting or joining a national/international group like this may be a great idea for competitions.
- Hobby/DIY/amateur labs: These labs are like community labs; they exist outside traditional academia and industry space, but are typically private. Don’t let the words hobby/DIY/amateur fool you; these folks do awesome science, and their research culture is unique and refreshing. A great example is Binomica Labs. These are rare (I don’t know any in India) and till date I have never seen any advertise for intern positions.
- Discussion groups: These groups consist of people from all walks of life, who are interested in a particular topic. These groups usually meet at a particular frequency for discussions. I have commonly observed these in theoretical fields like math.
Non-research based internships #
Several people who pursue science degrees do not end up choosing jobs that involve traditional scientific research. These jobs may be related to science, and will involve research, but not strictly science research. If you find you are not interested in scientific research, but you still enjoy science and research, here are some other fields you could pursue an internship in:
- Science communication through art, video, writing and more
- Science journalism at a science reporting or general news outlet
- Science policy
- Scientific outreach and public education
- Teaching and pedagogy in science
- Managing and marketing at science companies
Again, I have poor experience here, so I’d appreciate if anyone can add more information here. The remainder of my series will focus on academic research internships as those are the ones I am most familiar with.
Read the previous post: Internships in STEM I - Introduction Read the next post: Internships in STEM III - How Do Academic Internships Work? (unreleased)