Internships: Punishment or benefit…
One of my favorite Seinfeld episodes is when Kramer gets an intern.
He gets an intern from New York University to help him with his fake firm Kramerica and the intern ends up doing Kramer’s personal chores and not really learning anything.
Shows like this are the reason why many of my colleagues laughed out loud when I told them I was getting an intern who is a communications major from the University of Delaware.
But I want to set the record straight. Katherine Guiney, my intern, is not doing my laundry.
She’s actually helping me do my job by doing research, calling sources, and helping me edit this blog. I have even asked her to be a guest blogger in this very blog post to report on the importance of internships for college students.
When she’s done with that she’ll probably feed my dog Ody and wash the dishes. But at least she got to see how real journalism works.
OK, I’m kidding about Ody and the dishes.
Here’s her first ever blog post:
As a college student, I am constantly hearing about the importance of internships. In every public relations class this semester, the professor, Phillip Wescott, has tried to scare us into finding one.
“They’re a must have,” Wescott stresses.
We all hear this constantly.
Lauren Rudolph, a freshman in Delaware’s College of Business and Economics, said she gets the internship talk from her business professors and from people who already have jobs.
But are we really hearing this “talk”?
We’re bombarded with information from our teachers, our parents. Don’t use too many minutes, practice safe sex, don’t cram for tests.
With all this advice I wondered if anyone was heeding the internship advice.
To find out, I asked six students at the University of Delaware about their views on internships.
As expected, the freshman and sophomore students said they were going to look into it during the second half of their college career.
“I feel the pressure, but I feel like I should definitely be looking into it my junior year,” says sophomore Rachel Riff.
Riff, a 20-year-old Communication Interest major, is putting off taking the intern plunge “because I don’t really have any direction. It’s easier for people who know what they want to do.”
But time doesn’t always help. When I asked juniors how they felt, they’re responses were eerily similar to those of the younger students.
When asked what her career plan included, Christine Collison, a 20-year-old junior, says, “I have no idea.”
Collision confesses to not having an internship lined up for this summer, her last before graduation, and not having had one previous in years.
When I told her what these students said, Jill Gugino, a career service person in the College of Business and Economics, believes “it’s unfortunate” that so many students aren’t getting with the internship program.
But, she maintains, it not a reflection on the University’s efforts.
Gugino stresses that internships can help a student decide if he or she is going down the right path, and can even lead to a full time job after college.
While I guess it does seem that there really isn’t a huge downside to internships, maybe continuously pushing them on students, as if they were a punishment, isn’t the way to do it.
A working-world reality check, however, may do the trick.
I went right to the source, a job recruiter, to find out if internships really make a difference when you’re away from the college cloister and hitting the job-seeking pavement.
Greg Antonelle, recruiting director for AimHire Associates, LLC, has placed many college graduates in real jobs, and he says, “there’s no exception,” internships give college grades much more ammunition than job seekers who didn’t intern.
Antonelle believes that outside of the education, internships are “the biggest thing you can have on that resume.”
As for Katherine’s internship with Evemerica, I hope it ends up a plus on her resume what ever she ends up doing. It’s already been a plus for me.
(If your teens are wondering if they’ll be able to land a summer job this year, check out my column this week.)
(FYI, I will be out on vacation the week of March 24th thru March 28th. My intern will be moderating comments during the week. Cheers, Eve)
March 24th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Excellent guest post Katherine! I talked about it on my blog because I was interested in what your interviewees said about why they hadn’t applied for an internship: because they weren’t sure of their career choice yet. This is exactly why they should do an internship - it’s a perfect opportunity to try out an area of interest without committing to a longer term arrangement (i.e. a post-college, full time job)
I remember it was a lot of work to apply for internships so I think that’s a barrier to some people. But part of my motivation for applying was to do something interesting in the summer, to not continue my “work study” job shelving books in the geology library. So if not for the reason of preparing for a career, students should view it as an opportunity to try out something fun and interesting. They might surprise themselves and find their calling.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:58 am
Great post! It’s a terrific opportunity to have an internship where you can write and be published.
One thing you forgot to mention in your post is that many students don’t get internships in their first year or two because they have to earn money. Internships are great, but many (especially for younger students) don’t pay.
March 28th, 2008 at 9:52 am
I can’t speak for other industries, but as an Engineering major, I made it my goal to get an internship every summer (including Freshman) and they all paid extremely well. I really think it depends on how the University presents internships to their students: it’s an opportunity to gain real world experience, it helps you define or eliminate career paths, it helps you get a full-time job much faster when you graduate, and you get to make good money during the summer. It’s a win-win situation all around.
March 31st, 2008 at 1:57 am
Hi,
I really enjoyed your post about internships. I know first hand that sometimes an internship can be a punishment but other times the benefit is invaluable. I believe it is really important for all students in any industry to get that first hand experience. It is not only ood for their resume, but an internship can help you figure out if you are really going into the field you love. For more information check out my blog: www.gigigirls.blogspot.com.
I also created InternshipRatings.com so students can know whether an internship is “worth the coffee” before the commit! Check it out!