We all carry a few regrets from college, with “excess” or “not enough” being the common words to describe them. My biggest regret by far (okay, second biggest) was missing out on the chance to intern for a startup. Fortunately, life has a funny way of throwing up second chances. Seven years after graduating from Warwick, with a four year spell in the law, I find myself a student again (MBA), ready and eager to put THAT regret to bed. This is why I turned to Gengo and spent the past 2 months as a marketing intern.

Here’s my 5 reasons why every college student should intern at a startup such as Gengo:

1. Become the next Mark Zuckerberg/To find out whether you like it or not

This sounds obvious but it is incredibly important. When it comes to career choice, too many college students simply follow their classmates or pursue the “natural progression” of whatever they happen to be studying. As a law undergrad, I was “convinced” I wanted to be a lawyer. I still don’t know why. It turns out law wasn’t the perfect career for me after all (although it’s a great one) and that there’s a handful of other roles I’d rather be doing. I’m not saying it’s impossible to know what you want to do before you try it but it’s unlikely. Most people miss the target with their first arrow so don’t waste the precious, risk-free opportunity being a student gives you by trying out different internships in as many fields as possible. You’ll be much closer to knowing what you do or do not want to do.

2. You learn to swim faster in the deep end

Big companies wrap their interns with a safety blanket. Startups simply don’t have the resources to check all your work and you are given a task and expected to get it done. Of course you can ask for help and advice along the way, but the key difference is that people will actually be relying on your output and as such will value your efforts every bit more. You’ll make mistakes (just like your boss), but you’ll learn new things much faster and the whole team will recognise what you have done.

*It was three weeks before I sent my first email to a client as a trainee lawyer. I sent out a newsletter to over ten thousand customers on my first day at Gengo.

3. Learn cool stuff

By their nature, startups are not afraid of utilizing the latest web tools and methodologies. Before joining Gengo, I knew next to nothing about social media, content marketing, SEO, email re-marketing, database querying etc. I’d never written ad copy before, made a video screencast, or monitored web traffic through Google Analytics. Trust me, experience with this stuff is hard currency in today’s digital workplace.

4. Learn to innovate

Resourcefulness and creativity is the lifeblood of startups. You’ll get asked to do things you’ve never done before or have no training in (indeed, chances are no one else in the company will have done the task before). Have no fear, this is the best way to test your resourcefulness, creativity and … balls! The best and only way is to stick your neck out and try new things. You’ll be inspired when things work out and learn something new when they don’t.

5. Surround yourself with motivated and talented people

Good startups attract the best people, motivated by enjoying what they do. Everyone working at Gengo shares a passion to help the world communicate freely. In the words of our CEO, we’re a “motley crew” from all corners of the world, each having settled in Tokyo to work on something cool and meaningful. You learn from your peers: startups tend to attract those most willing to share their knowledge and experience with each other.

*As an ex-lawyer, it’s only natural for me to want to learn Ruby on Rails. When I turned to one of the Gengo devs for some free pointers, he was only happy to oblige. I’ll be sure to post my masterpiece on the web when it’s finished.

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