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How to Find the Right Internship
By Sandra Gharib
Many graduating college students acquire a professional job without having learned the practical and necessary skills needed to work and perform in a professional environment. Internships are just one way to help hone skills that are conducive to any work environment.
Finding the perfect fit
Internships are valuable because they can help students decide on a career path, or in some cases, eliminate a career path that might have been previously appealing. It is common for interns to not like the first position he or she obtains, but sometimes working at the wrong internship will start you on the path to finding what you ideally want to do as a profession.
The thought of working at a job that you might not like at first should not be discouraging. It is important for students to know that with perseverance and determination it is possible to find the right internship. Often times, good employers will look to find out what students want to gain from their experience, and try to cater the internship to fit the students' needs.
How Do Internships Benefit the Graduate?
The value of an internship is more than just learning about a particular industry, internships offer practical skills to prepare college students as well as college graduates for a variety of jobs. For example, learning basic communication skills by answering phones, or writing business letters, can be a valuable asset that is applicable in most professional jobs.If an intern can master these skills, they become more valuable to the company they work for, so they will have an advantage over their student counterparts when interviewing for a full-time job.
According to Utah State University's Importance of Internships, it helps students:
- Prepare for prospective employment
- Gain a competitive edge when seeking employment
- Attain results in more job offers
- Gain a higher starting salary
- Get offered more frequent promotions
How to Find Your Fit
Searching for internships may be tedious at times, but there are several resources available to help in your search to find a desirable internship. A school's career service center, like UCSB's Couseling and Career Services, is a great first place to look. A center will have ample resources available to find your area of interest or to search for companies currently hiring interns. Another place to search is the Internet. Looking at job search engines, such as Monster Jobs or Yahoo Jobs is also helpful in trying to find an intern position. Many professions have organizations, for example, the area of advertising has the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA). This would be a great source to use in finding an internship at an ad agency.
A more traditional approach to find an internship is to call a desired employer and ask if they are in need of interns, or just send the organization a cover letter and resume with your contact information.
An internship is an important experience for every student to have. It is a great learning experience and is sure to be beneficial and pertinent in your quest to find the right profession.
References
Importance of Internships
http://www.usu.edu/ipe/importance.htm