No Sophomore Summer Internship, Feel Like An Idiot Doing Everything Wrong

blossom
Wed, 16 Jun 2021 13:38:33 +0000

SSnicker- it’s not too late to cobble together something “prestigious” to make your dad happy, and a normal type summer job.

Hospital near you? With Covid they aren’t opening up the doors to interns like they used to, but reach out to their community engagement department, PR, marketing, fundraising/development, finance departments to see if anybody wants a diligent and smart “intern” to volunteer for the summer. Your dad gets to tell people you have an internship at ABC teaching hospital; you’ll learn some new skills, tell them you can commit 20 hours a week. There are computer programs like Raiser’s Edge (used by non-profits for fundraising), or just you getting better at Excel or Powerpoint which will help you in the long run- employers are always looking for new hires proficient in these.

Then- get a “waste of time” job to fill in the extra hours. I can promise you these are not “wastes of time”- I have been hiring in corporate America for over 30 years and NOTHING beats grit, work ethic, hustle- as demonstrated by summer jobs, working while in college etc.

You can do this! If not a hospital- then helping an animal shelter computerize its records? (Tell your dad you’re considering Vet school). Help the local library create their Fall “calendar of events” which include STEM-type programs for kids (tell your dad you’re working to make science and math more accessible to children). Help a local non-profit nursing home evaluate its covid safety protocols-- interview the RN’s and LPN’s and the administrators-- and a few families of residents. Then write up your findings- what worked, what didn’t, what caused frustration among the families, which will be SUPER helpful the next pandemic or even just for better management of annual flu season. And the message to your dad- you’ve developed an interest in public health and have an internship examining pandemic responses by institutions. Or volunteer for the mayor’s office in your city/town improving their social media-- start a twitter feed for the mayor or the head of the police department, tell your Dad you’re interested in a political career and want to learn how government works from the group up. Have you ever used Survey Monkey? There are probably 10 groups/community organizations in your town that would love to have an intern help them do membership surveys, understand who is coming back after Covid, who is not, why, what they can do to help. Collating the results is super easy, but the message to your dad is that you’re doing statistical analysis on the post-Covid environment and how organizations should adapt to the “new normal”. Use your phenomenal language skills to “lean in” to whatever message gets him off your back.

There are literally dozens of “do it yourself” internships you can create- get going. It will reduce the heat and friction at home, it will give you some valuable work experience AND will help you see that there are hundreds of careers that are not finance, medicine, the law.

Kudo’s for you on the transfer, things are looking up for you!