Don't fret, an internship will pay off...
A few years back Anya Kamenetz wrote a disparaging article for the New York Times about the portrayal of internships and their ineffectiveness among students. Her reference to interns being equivalent to illegal immigrants makes it seem like interns only do menial work for menial pay, if they’re paid anything at all, and that an internship experience isn’t what the real world is about. This 2006 article may have been relevant in those times, but these days, internships DO matter. In fact, internships matter more now than ever.
The first point Kamenetz makes is that internships are only simulations to what a real job would entail. Not true.
Interns are no longer considered lowly servants who run around and get food and coffee — at least in most instances. Many companies now look to place their interns in positions where they are involved with the company and getting hands-on experience with projects.
As an advertising major, if I were to go to an ad firm with my resume and they saw host, nanny, and swim coach, I’m pretty sure they would laugh in my face. Being immersed in an environment related to your field of interest where you can learn the protocol intrigues employers. Experience does matter!
Many colleges are in fact making internships a graduation requirement. This is a benefit for you, the student, not the school. With an internship you can see what sort of work your major entails, and you can actually get some experience with that work.
Finding an internship may be a daunting process.
Many students put it off for as long as they can, even when they have the help of a career service adviser. That’s because you either have no clue where to start, or are overloaded with emails about all of the internships opportunities you could be interested in. How do you know which internship would be right for you?
Finding an internship that isn’t the coffee-fetching nightmare Kamenetz describes is tough. Do companies take advantage to students seeking internships? Sure. But that’s why InternInc.com is building out ratings and tools to ensure both students and employers are getting feedback. If a company has a track record to abusing the internship experience, students can warn others to avoid internships with that company.
Similarly, students should be accountable for the work they do. Just because an internship isn’t paid, doesn’t mean students can or should just coast through the experience so they can slap a big name on their resume.
What do you think? Have you had a great internship that really helped you out later? Have you had a nightmare internship? Let us know! Drop a comment here or DM us @internink or @interninc on Twitter!
Spotlight On: IT Internships
Make that chip work!
You may be working hard studying to get a degree, you may have proven your smarts, but do you know what it’s like to work in a real IT position? Hiring managers will get plenty of applicants with the same qualifications as you. The key to getting an IT job is to get some hands-on experience with an IT internship.
Many major companies, such as the Vanguard Group, will take on small groups of interns to show them the ropes. These internship duties do not require grunt work like getting food and coffee. From day one you will get hands on experience. The senior HR manager Dawn Lindberg says, “Our internship program is highly structured. The group comes in as a class. They work together, network together, and present a class project in addition to their other assignments – programming, hardware, Web services or another technical area – from their supervisors. We involve students in the actual day-to-day duties of their department.”
The interviewing process is much like interviewing for a job. It’s yet another benefit to exploring internships — you’re getting practice with the procedures you’ll want to be comfortable with by the time you’re job-hunting.
Specifically for an IT internship, answer questions honestly. If you cannot answer technical questions that you have already claimed to have known, why would the hiring manager want to consider you? If you are up front about the skills you possess, companies know that you are looking to be an intern and know you will learn more through this experience. An awareness of what you know and recognizing what you don’t is good at this stage. Internships are meant to learning experiences, so don’t feel like you need to speak in 1′s and 0′s.
Be sure to show that you are eager to learn, because technology never stops changing. Programming languages some and go, so try to keep an open mind and avoid getting bogged down in learning just systems, or just networking, or just C+, PHP, MySQL, Ruby, etc. An internship is about dipping your toe in the water, not diving head-over-heels into a super-niche skill set.
One of the best things you can do, not only as a student but for the rest of your career, is contribute to open-source projects to hone your skills and add to your resume. Check out SourceForge for a list of open-source projects you can contribute to.