These summer job and internship-related tips -- dealing with obtaining and succeeding in summer jobs and internships --
have been gathered from numerous sources throughout Quintessential Careers and organized here for your convenience.
USA Today recently reported that, even in an economic downturn,
employers are maintaining and even expanding their internship
programs. Aside from the fact that interns provide cheap labor,
companies are offering internship programs "so they can locate good
hires once the economy rebounds," says USA Today reporter Stephanie
Armour. Armour reports that a study by the National Association of
Colleges and Employers showed that more than 60 percent of companies
planned to maintain or increase internships. Among big companies
hiring multitudes of interns are Texas Instruments and Verizon
Communications. It's all about keeping the talent pipeline open.
Younger jobseekers who want to learn more about companies and jobs
got a recent boost from Juniorjobs.com, a job-hunting site for teens
that has introduced "job clips," Web commercials created by
17-year-old founder of juniorjobs.com, Saied Ghaffari. Ghaffari
creates the "job clips" on his Apple titanium laptop using Apple
iMovie2 software. The 30-second commercials feature employers with
job openings for teens talking about why teens should work for them.
Juniorjobs.com currently focuses on teen jobs in the greater
Washington, DC, area but plans to go nationwide. The average age of
the registered users is 16.5.
Visit the site.
The Public Affairs Group in Washington, DC, offers an internship
program that aims for a highly diverse pool of interns. The group
calls these internships "substantive and exciting opportunities based
on knowledge and/or relevant experience available in one or more of
the following areas: corporate development, marketing, finance and
administration, journalism with heavy concentration on editing,
publishing and research, international, women's studies/research,
Internet/Web site development."
Most internships are for college
credit with transportation costs reimbursed. However, a few
internship are paid, depending on the student's experience and number
of hours that can be committed. Interns work in the company's four
divisions: Top Speaking Forums, Best Practices in Corporate
Communications, Diversity Best Practices, and Business Women's
Network. For more information.
If you're a younger teen looking for a job, the best idea is to
develop your own business, such as yard maintenance or pet sitting.
Check out our article about younger teens and jobs:
Job Ideas for Teens
15 and Younger: Beyond Babysitting.
If you're a college student unsure if your chosen field is right for
you, do one or more internships in the field. Do some networking with
people in the field you've chosen. Learning more about their
responsibilities and duties, as well as their backgrounds, should
give you more of a feel for the types of jobs in the field -- and
possibly even land you an internship in their office. See if your
major's department has internship listings. Also go to your career
services office and see if they have any leads on internships in your
field.
Are you a young teen looking for a summer job? It's a great idea to
start thinking about a job -- as long as your family thinks it is
okay. Most states have laws limiting the amount of hours teens can
work in a given week. Read
A
Guide for Teens: How to Find a Summer Job.
Are you a teen who would like to work in an office setting for the
summer? How is your network? We all know people who work in an office
setting. Are any of them managers or in a position to help? Make a
list of your friends, neighbors, and other family members who can
help you. Use your network to line up some interviews. Second, use
the good old cold-contact method of securing employment. Develop a
list of the larger employers in your area. Contact them to get the
name of the office manager or human resources director. Write a
letter to each person -- and make sure it is a person and not a title
-- outlining the type of employment you seek.
Next, try a few Internet sites. We happen to love
Summer Jobs;
it's a great resource for teens to find
employment. You can search by keyword and location. Also see our
article,
A
Guide for Teens: How to Find a Summer Job.
"Develop an internship proposal to present to companies who might not
have hired interns in the past," advised career counselor Jenny Von
Helms in the Q&A
interview she did with Quintessential Careers. "An employer will certainly be more
impressed with a student who says 'I want to learn this, and I can do
this for your company' than one who lacks focus or initiative. Show
the employer that the company has a need, and you are the person to
fill that need. I also recommend that students use the yellow pages
to identify potential employers. You might not realize that a growing
or strong company is right in your community if they have not
established a presence."
How do you find your ideal internship? It's a three-step process:
determine your internship goals, prepare/polish your job search
skills, and find/track down internship sources.
Exploring the third step in greater depth, there are multiple sources for college
students searching for internships, including:
your college's career services office
the department office of your major (and minor)
networking sources (perhaps the strongest source)
internship and career fairs (local, regional, online)
Career counselor Jenny Von Helms advises college students to give
more consideration to unpaid internships. "One of the biggest
mistakes I see students make is refusing to pursue non-paid
opportunities," Von Helms said in the
Q&A
interview she did with Quintessential Careers.
"Although I understand that many
students are paying some or all of their own way through college,
there are so many great options that are overlooked. I have also
found that "non-paid" does not necessarily mean without compensation.
Quite a few non-paying internships will reimburse students for public
transportation or offer other perks, such as parking, meals, and
discounts. I also believe the dynamics of the relationship change
when a student gets paid for an internship. The student who is paid
is now an "employee" where there are clear cut expectations of work
in exchange for money. The unpaid internship experience might offer
the student more of an opportunity for learning with less pressure
for 'a result.'"
We get numerous emails from college students who are about to
graduate with little or no actual experience. There is simply no
excuse for any college student not to have some kind of work
experience through summer jobs and/or internships. There are just so
many advantages to gaining work experience, from learning first-hand
about corporate culture and office politics to gaining a better
understanding of your career path and learning valuable skills. Many
-- if not most -- employers recruiting college graduates, especially
business school grads, want the students they interview to have some
work experience.
That work experience typically occurs through
internships and summer jobs. If you didn't do an internship, you
probably should have some sort of answer prepared in case you are
asked why. Even if you have not "worked," you probably do have
experience. Look at any volunteer experiences, through which you
probably acquired numerous valuable skills that can easily transfer
to the workplace. And you probably have been involved with numerous
major projects in your classes in which you also learned and employed
new skills.
Go to the Transferable Skills
section of Quintessential Careers to learn more about emphasizing your set of
key skills. Also go to the career services office at your college and
work with those professionals to build a job-search strategy designed
especially for you. You'll be able to find a job, but it will take
developing a resume that focuses on your key skills and experiences,
using your network of contacts, and implementing the advice from the
career services office.
College students can get the edge in the job market if they have
experience already in their field, according to author Donald Asher.
In the Q&A
interview he did with Quintessential Careers, Asher noted that students can gain this
experience by "obtaining an internship or a cooperative-education
position or even finding a job on your own in the field you are
preparing for. Nothing speaks better for you than to say you know how
to do something because you already have done it."
One of the biggest challenges college students face is gaining work
experience before they graduate.
Where can college students gain the necessary experience? Try these sources:
internships
summer jobs
campus jobs
entrepreneurial/self-employed jobs
temporary work
volunteer work
research projects
certification courses
campus activity positions
fraternity/sorority/social club positions
extracurricular or sports leadership positions
This information comes from the Quintessential Careers Job Search 101
Tutorial, specifically the
Gaining
Experience section. You can find more detailed information there
about each of the above categories, as well as many other strategies
for best preparing yourself for the job market.
USA Today recently reported that, even in an economic downturn,
employers are maintaining and even expanding their internship
programs. Aside from the fact that interns provide cheap labor,
companies are offering internship programs "so they can locate good
hires once the economy rebounds," says USA Today reporter Stephanie
Armour. Armour reports that a study by the National Association of
Colleges and Employers showed that more than 60 percent of companies
planned to maintain or increase internships. Among big companies
hiring multitudes of interns are Texas Instruments and Verizon
Communications. It's all about keeping the talent pipeline open.
