This topic is so interesting to me! I get the feeling that I am alone in lamenting the increasing importance of summer internships.
I am 50. When I was in college, it was completely fine to get my resume-building done during the schoolyear (I had a couple of minor internships in the downtown of my college city, for a few hours per week, plus on-campus roles that were more decidedly more significant and impressive). I saved my summers for living in beach towns such as Newport RI and Cape Cod, and waitressed. We all made loads of money waiting tables or bartending—plenty to pay our summer rent and expenses and have several thousand dollars left over for school-year personal expenses. Those were possibly the best summers of my life, and I cherish the memories. You are the perfect age for all of the fun and flirting and parties and sunbathing and adventures, etc that comes with those places and jobs. The hours (typically weighted towards afternoons and evening) are just right for the type of fun 20 year olds like to have! And you will never again have such carefree summers (although I have enjoyed absolutely every stage of my life, even including age 50!!). You aren’t kissing up and anxious to get some critical letter-of-recommendation out of your job; just do a decent job to earn great tips and keep your boss happy.
I still managed to land a highly competitive job at a top strategy consulting firm after college (ha ha and I negotiated to not start work until September, so I could eek out one more wondrous summer).
I have a sophomore in college and a soon-to-be freshman. My understanding is that summer internships are way more important now. That the summer-before-senior-year internship is key for hopefully landing your post-college job. And to get the great internships THAT summer, you need to have a pretty great internship the summer before, etc. I consider this tragic—more of the pushing the rat race down at younger and younger ages. My own son did have a work-related internship last summer (after freshman year), but at least it was in Barcelona, so there was something exciting about that. This summer he’s hoping to intern at an engineering firm, but hasn’t heard back yet.
Sure they can enjoy these summer internships. And get paid handsomely. And it can help them with some career choices, making great contacts, and learning what they do/don’t like in a work environment. But there is not one teeny tiny part of me that thinks these kids are having half as much fun with their summer internships as I had in Newport that summer ;-). Am I the only one that thinks this is unfortunate?