Gaby3

I read that article and part of me groaned...it's always some new stress to put on the student. I concur that if your goal is lofty, stuffing your resume, like high school, might be the best thing, but there isn't any guarantees.
My friends niece graduated from college in Finance last year and couldn't get any internships until the summer before her senior year. She worked in a pizza place every summer and/or took a course. She is working for a Fortune 500 company in DC and doing well. The stress she saw other students going through didn't always pan out in anything so balance, as someone mentioned is a good thing. Some personalities though (or the parents personality) doesn't make that easy.

joecollegedad

anyone have a link to the article cited ?

Calcruzer

Not only is the internship field becoming more crowded, but you have to apply earlier and earlier to get them.

My son, one of the lucky ones, has already firmed up his summer financial internship with a Silicon Valley tech firm (he did this earlier this week after doing the interviews over the Christmas break). As a sophomore college business major from Indiana University, he doesn't even get into the "meat" of his business concentration courses until next year. So, what was the key to getting the internship?-----

You undoubtedly guessed it;--the internships he did for the past two summers (one after his senior year of high school and the other after his freshman year of college). Although I'm sure it also helped that he took the ten required accounting, computer, business communications, and economics courses Indiana University requires of business majors in their first two years.

Still, it does make one wonder where the "easygoing days of youth" have gone. Not to college, apparently.

krnpsychopath

I love competition and pressure. It makes me work harder.

Catfish

Here is a related article from an even finer news source.

ClaySoul

I have to work and earn good money every summer to keep afloat. how am i supposed to do an unpaid internship (as many are)?

noot fair.

sbergman

I agree. This is just one more way (like expensive test prep and private college counseling) that we perpetuate privilege. I also have to wonder what the ethical implications are of all these kids working for no wages - often for some of the wealthiest companies in the world. I always thought it was interesting that the same folks who create the minimum wage laws (Congress) enjoy the labor of hundreds of unpaid interns each summer. I'm sure the McDonald's in my town would like to be able to score a deal like that.

Debruns

My son also has to work, he can't just be "free" for the entire summer. My niece graduated from JMU and didn't do an internship until her junior year and then it was about 6 weeks. She is working now for a large, competitive company and gratefully her pizza/waitress/store jobs didn't hurt her. I remember her being worried one year, trying to get into companies in her state for the summer, but then saying, "I'm a hard worker, a good student and I'l be okay" when she hit a wall.
She also joined a business fraternity and used her career center to help land her the position she has now, but I'm sure that varies with each college. I don't know a large number of students, but most of them in my income level, don't get great or any internships but still seem to get a job later on. Of course, they aren't trying to get into the top 10 companies, some are in fields that aren't that competitive. Nothing in life is guaranteed. Some grads my family has told me about, got great jobs, then were laid off within a year and then they had trouble getting a new one. You just have to work with what you can do.

Northstarmom

"I have to work and earn good money every summer to keep afloat. how am i supposed to do an unpaid internship (as many are)? "

Depending on what you do on the job, that may be more helpful to your future job and career prospects than having a paid or unpaid internship in which you had few responsibilities.

For instance, if you're so responsible as a fast food worker that you get to be an assistant manager, you'd have more responsibilities than most interns do. Your job experience would put you ahead of students who have internships that involve answering the phone and filing papers at prestigious firms.

ClaySoul

I for instance want to be a ceramics professor. I usually teach art during the school year, which you think would help, but programs care way more about your fame than your teaching ability. I'm a great teacher and a great potter but I probably won't be "famous" enough until I'm 40.

Then in the summer I sell scooters because it pays well...and it's fun. But that's not going to help.

ticklemepink

Many college kids don't really know what they want to do! I remember not even knowing what I wanted to do- except I knew that I didn't want to follow other history majors' tracks towards law school. So I just randomly browsed through the internet and though how I'd like to teach about the Holocaust. So I stumbled on the US Holocaust Museum's site and found that they had internships.

So I applied.... I also discovered that I had a network connection through my step-grandfather who knew one of the top people there. Viola, I got a phone call in April offering an unpaid, part-time position. I took the chance as I already had savings and could afford not to work for the summer. Then I discovered how much I liked working in museums and being part of that kind of academia. I applied again to the same place and asked for a higher intern position. They gave it to me, along with pay. I took it.

Finally, last year, as a junior, I was abroad in Israel. I discovered that one of the professors in my study abroad program was the head of the research center at Yad Vashem (Israeli Holocaust Museum) and asked him for an internship (I was basically offering my soul for anything). He was impressed with my intitative and resume and took me in for 5 months and gave me a lot of research work. He gave me enough work so I could stay through the summer (even though my parents wanted to come back to the US) as I got some grant just for studying long-term in Israel to help me live off this unpaid internship (not an Israeli citizen).

So for me, it was all about luck (in finding something I wanted to do for career) and networking.

But to be honest, after I walked away from both of those places, I just said, "Next time, they have to HIRE me for a JOB. I'm not going to be a lowly intern anymore." It was mostly because I felt that I knew the places well enough and had appropriate skills to complete my job well, and also just a bit burned out from all the internships.

So after working for 3 summers, I'm just going to take a big break this summer by traveling and loosen up before I buckle down That's one of the things I worry about when I see all these demands- that the kids are going to get so burned out from working 4 years non-stop (especially 3 summers of low paying internships), they're not going be ready to work after graduation. But I think at the same time, just having all the experiences behind me gives me greater security in knowing that I don't need to take on another internship and my resume is full so that I can afford to take time off between college and graduate school/job.

DagnyT

"It all presumes a level of maturity, ambition and drive that I'm not sure should be expected of kids (especially boys, many of whom seem to mature a bit more slowly)."

But we should expect girls to show this level of maturity, ambition, and drive?

raimius

While I do not know the cut-throat, top end, business world like some here, I'm sensing some hype and exaggeration here... If you are looking for that 100 applicants for every opening job, then I can see the importance of experience. Realistically, how many people are trying to get into that type of field? Granted, this is CC--where the 4.0uw GPA student is told to study harder, hold 3 jobs, and be a district level champion in multiple sports, or face a lifetime of failure...

Calcruzer

Lots of good points on here--I especially like Northstarmom and ticklemepink's comments about how the key is to find the job that leads to what you like and that teaches you the most about your career field.

My son has been fortunate to find internships that are in his field and that do pay. (In fact, this coming summer's internship pays the equivalent of a regular full-time graduating position). But he had opportunities to take other positons that paid even more, but were totally unrelated to his major. He was smart enough and fortunate enough--(should I say privileged enough?)--to be able to turn them down and wait for something better.

But I think learning that one shouldn't always jump at the first opportunity, but rather continue searching for positions in your career that offer the opportunity to be mentored properly is one of the most valuable lessons of all. About half of the people I know are in dead-end jobs precisely because they don't learn this lesson early--or at all. When they graduate, they grab whatever job they can get--or the one that pays the most--without considering its long-term value to their career development.

Yes, an internship in important--but really, it is only important if it gets you training or leads to later positions in career areas of interest to you or to "fun" jobs that one can excel at.

P.S. Although the one exception may be that if you don't know what you want to do, then any internship may help you decide I suppose.

Oh, and Catfish--thanks for the comic relief.

mme-lin

Fall Internship Pays Off With Coveted Winter Internship | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Couldn't resist.