Internships
By: Pat Donahue
Intern.
If you have been in college for more than a day, you have probably heard your professors, career coach, academic advisor, parents, friends, resident assistant, and bus driver say that you need to do an internship.
And they are right.
Internships are important for three key reasons:
- “Try before you buy”: Internships give you the opportunity to try out a particular career for a few months to see if it is a good fit, which is far better than graduating and getting a job you hate because you never bothered to test drive it.
- Internships give you relevant experience in the career you are considering. When employers are seeking employees, they want your skills and experience to match their job description. If you have internship experience in the industry where you eventually want to work full-time, you will greatly increase your employment opportunities.
- Internships give you the chance to meet your future colleagues. When hiring, organizations will want to hire their talented interns first because they are already trained and understand the organization’s culture. Even if the organization does not have any jobs available when you are seeking employment, they will often refer you to industry colleagues because you have made such a good impression as an intern.
If you are now convinced you should do an internship, when and where should you start looking?
Although most internships are targeting sophomores (rising juniors) and juniors (rising seniors), you will occasionally find companies willing to hire freshmen (rising sophomores) if they are in a field where it is difficult to find a constant supply of talent, such as information technology or engineering.
Some companies will hire as early as September, which is why career fairs are often called “Career and Internship Fairs”. Some Fortune 500 companies hire interns early to get a jump on their competition. Federal intelligence agencies hire early because students have to go through a security clearance, which can take up to eight months. The IUB career services offices also hold career and internship fairs in January and February.
If you missed those fairs, you can still attend the Summer Job and Internship Fair on Tuesday, March 26 from 4-7PM in Alumni Hall of the IMU.
Each career services office at IUB posts internships, including the Career Development Center. The CDC’s site is https://cdc.indiana.edu/documents/myJobsSearchGuide2018.pdf
You can also go directly to a company’s website. Some will have internship postings alongside their job postings.
Use LinkedIn and Google to seek internships as well.
Other internship sites you should check out:
If you are looking for internships in Indiana, go to https://www.indianaintern.net/
If you are seeking non-profit internships, go to https://www.idealist.org/en/?type=INTERNSHIP
For media internships, check out https://www.mediabistro.com/jobs/openings/?Keywords=internships
To search for a wide variety of internships, go to https://www.internships.com/
Finally, meet with your assigned career coach to develop an internship search strategy. Your career coach can also help you write a resume and teach you how to correspond with future employers.
You can always schedule an appointment with your assigned Career Advisor to talk about your part-time job search, internship search and help with building your resume. You will find their information listed in your MYJOBS account. Students who have questions about the part-time job search can also come to drop-in advising at the Career Development Center (625 North Jordan) from 11-3PM, every Friday.