The ones with clip boards. He knew a volunteer at the career fair that told him the ones that wanted to reserve spaces for interviews the next day had been handed clip boards.
Thanks for the tip. I will have to share that with my D.
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400 companies came to Purdue this past Fall for their three day career fair.
Unfortunately, my Dâs experience with career fairs are that many companies werenât there for on campus recruiting. Many told her to apply online. They werenât doing on campus interviews. It seems like physical on campus hiring is almost non-existent. Everything is done virtually through submitting resumes online and virtual interviews.
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That isnât my Dâs experience. Sheâs on her companyâs recruiting team. They talk to students on the first day, then do on campus interviews the next day. Stand out students will be offered position on the spot and some will then do a final virtual interview with their corporate. My Hâs company does the same.
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Is your D an engineer? I wonder if thatâs the main difference? My D is a business major. I will have to ask her again about the career fairs.
Thank you!
Yes, sheâs a chemical engineer, but her company also recruits business majors.
Both my kids - one an engineer and one international studies / Poli sci did this - used indeed - itâs a numbers game. You apply to enough you get calls. My kid did 3 a day.
One interviewed for 20 jobs. The engineer. The other had 7 intern offers.
Iâve gotten numerous pms from parents that the same approach worked for their student.
Even if you look at the Cornell career outcome page which shows how jobs are found - itâs overwhelming LinkedIn and internet.
My kids didnât take advtg of career fairs so I canât say if they were moved interviews from them to virtual but I know company on campus visits are being done virtually - at least in their case.
So it becomes a game of - who has grit, determination, and patience.
If you apply to three a day - 30 days - in no time you have lots of apps out. If sheâs going fit an internship, donât worry about where - just getting experience which makes then getting a job later that much easier.
Good luck.
Ah yesâŠhow?
A lot of students we know got their internships because they had family connections. My husband (an engineer) worked for a company that would offer any current or past employeeâs college student an internship of some kind. The college kids needed to apply and interview, but afaik the company always offered a summer job (aka internship) to these students.
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My D21 utilized the campus career resource center to find her summer internship after freshman year and abroad internship after sophomore year. The career center heavily relies on alum relations and works to match students with appropriate opportunities. Her upcoming summer internship after junior year (research at the CDC and shadowing at a childrenâs hospital) was acquired through an alum who became a mentor. She had no previous relationship with them, but they took her under their wing after meeting at an alum event 2 years ago and discovering her interests closely aligned with their career.
With SLACs in particular, do not underestimate the value of the alum networks.
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Yes, most LACs have strong alum networks, and they are widely used. Both online networks and local alum clubs, if there are enough alums in the area.
My older s got his internships at college fairs (engineering with big, well known companies). Younger s worked one summer for a colleague of mine who was so impressed with what he was able to do that he had my s continue to do some work for him remotely when s went back to college. The next summer that son had to coordinate taking a stem class at our local flagship tech U and do an internship here simultaneously. So, on his own, he reached out to a family friend who was in the industry, and was able to work out an internship that allowed him to take his class as well. He made it work, and work well.
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Daughter was fortunate enough to get a paid research gig with 2 professors in her department (Chemistry) at her LAC starting from summer of frosh. This was a major advantage of a LAC for her, the access to professors who had grant money and could hire undergrads vs grads for research.
Son did a consulting internship summer of sophomore year and an IB internship summer of junior year. He had the advantage of going to a âfeederâ school for both industries. He went through the employment portals but was able to meet representatives of these companies on campus ahead of time, and upperclassmen were able to give him guidance on what to expect in the application/interview process. This clearly gave him a leg up in the process.
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People can be funny about internships and how they are attained.
We know a family who told us how their kid worked tirelessly seeking out internship opportunities, making calls, interviewing, searching the internet. Turns out kid landed at the industrial company the father had worked at for ten years. Nothing wrong with that but never mentioned it but kept making it sound like the kid did it all.
We know another family who keep highlighting the highly impressive organization their kid got an internship with. Thankfully the kid is honest and pointed out they didnât secure a âreal jobâ (their words) instead they got a job coordinating events, handing out badges getting speakers situated, etc. Hopefully it leads to something more material.
My point being there are lots of ways to land these opportunities but parents should just be supportive and transparent and not put pressure on their kids by distorting their achievements.
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My kid is a transfer student at a large public university, so it took a few months and a lot of frustration. She signed up for every event and volunteer opportunity held by her department and one connection turned into a research internship.
I would have no problem assisting my kids in getting an internship at my workplace, the same as I would any college kid I know. The assistance includes pointing them to the website and encouraging them to apply.
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My D at UCLA got her current internship at a small digital agency representing musicians and filmmakers by responding to an online ad with a playlist she made for the owner. It was an unconventional approach that made her stand out.
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My BIL did somewhat of the opposite and it backfired somewhat. He insisted that 2 of his kids accept only what he felt were worthy internships and/or job opportunities. One of his sons was wise enough to politely ignore his fatherâs opinions and handled his own internship and academic plans. The other wasnât as wise, floundered a while because he was given very bad advice, and then took a job that he then got let go from. Took a while for him to get himself back on track. His father thought he was giving good advice, but it was frequently colossally bad advice and his kid suffered.
On the flip side, my DH tried repeatedly to send employment opportunities to BIL for his third son, who has a college degree but is on the spectrum. BIL again had terrible decision making and did not use these connections and opportunities (DH has lots of very helpful connections to programs that nephew could have used) but BIL did not pursue any of them and now his almost 40 yr old child lives with them and hasnât worked a day in his life.
And to top it all off, BIL, who is very controlling, spent so much of his time supposedly researching stuff for his kids and telling them what to do when he was supposed to be working, that his employer made him check in frequently and keep his company online internal chat bot on/open so they could monitor and see if he was actually doing any work. He threatened to sue them for hostile workplace environment and they finally gave him a separation package. He worked for the government. It takes talent to get essentially fired from a government job, but he managed get them to bridge him to his retirement as part of the separation, so our tax dollars are going to his pension. Lovely.
He thought he was giving good advice, but it was terrible advice. And he wasted so much time doing all that (and other personal stuff) during work hours that it cost him his job.
Be careful who you take advice from. There are those who think they know what they are talking about, but perhaps moreso only in their own minds.
Even though my son didnât use connections to get his internship (and declined asking for a referral from an alum), he feels strongly that learning about the consulting industry (and the timeline for applications and interviews) from peers at college was crucial for him. He spent many nights during his sophomore summer practicing consulting cases with kids from his business fraternity and other classmates so he could be well prepared if he was able to get an interview. He applied online and likely got an interview due to his application, grades, courses and ACT score. However, he was able to do well in all the interview rounds due to all the prep time he put in.
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My Sâs upcoming internship is bc he happened to go home the first weekend of spring break last year to his roommateâs house.
At dinner, roommateâs father (after hearing of Sâs major and experiences and goals) told him about an internship he could apply to at his workplace.
Iâm still thankful (as is DS) for this somewhat chance meeting and subsequent opportunity.
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Same here! Well sort of, D had an internship during the year that was part of a class. But, they both had no issues getting jobs after college.
I think it can depend on your kidâs major and what field they want to work in after college. D has a friend who is a 1st grade teacher and majored in elementary education. My niece majored in education and minored in history and hopes to become a middle school teacher as well as a sports coach. My good friendâs daughter is a 5th grade teacher. None of them did an internship, but they all did student teaching. In fact, it was required as part of the elementary education major at their respective universities. Their universities took care of the placement and all that. During the summer, all of them did jobs and volunteer work that involved working with children. Dâs friend worked at an educational summer camp for kids that takes place at our local community college. My niece coached sports and worked at sports camps for kids. My friendâs daughter worked for Breakthrough which is an educational program for underpriviledged kids. My Dâs friend didnât get offered a teaching job right away, but she applied to be a substitute teacher in the school district she wanted to work in, sheâs now a first grade teacher in that district. My niece is a middle school soccer coach and substitute teacher while sheâs working on her credential and trying to get her foot in the door. My friendâs daughter teaches 5th grade at a very well-regarded private school in Texas. This is an example of a field where you donât necesarily need an internship. I do know teachers who got started in Teach for America as well.
Bumping up this thread to see what the internship situation is for the upcoming summer. Anyone have anecdotes about their current students?
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