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Everyone else has said good things, but I attribute my internships 90% to getting the job I had after I graduated. While everyone else was freaking out their senior year of college I had a job offer in October of fall semester of my senior year. I had a worry-free senior year and could focus on finishing classes and enjoying myself. I had 9 months of internship/co-op experience at 2 different companies. It's not that you really LEARN a lot while working, but it looks awesome on your resume, shows you can work in a professional setting, and you'll get letters of recommendation and work references to show on your resume to make you stand out.
A friend's son went to an "internship fair" at the U of CO for engineering students and found that most companies wanted the students to be in their junior year. There is not much "professional" engineering that one can do with only 1 year of college, and not much more after two years.
As someone who attended a university with a full scale co-op program with a heavy concentration of engineering students I can attest that this just isn't true
We would fill a thousand co-ops for kids going through their first cycle in engineering concentrations each & every year and they were definitely involved in projects
There are so many variables that can influence what you will and will not get out of it and not every internship is a good one
Simple truth as well is that many jobs (especially ones like accounting) have a ton of really tedious work attached to it ..... if you get into this career you aren't going to get away from spreadsheets, photo copies, shredding, etc ....... what you can demonstrate is a strong work ethic and a desire to do more.
Burn through the mindless stuff and then ask to sit in with more experienced people to learn what they are doing and see if there is anything you can do to help them ... you'll still get the lower end/easier stuff, but it's the building blocks
Show a desire to learn and in a good office you will learn .... if you are in a bad office then those are the breaks sometimes and you will at least learn the type of environment you shouldn't be in
Everyone else has said good things, but I attribute my internships 90% to getting the job I had after I graduated. While everyone else was freaking out their senior year of college I had a job offer in October of fall semester of my senior year. I had a worry-free senior year and could focus on finishing classes and enjoying myself. I had 9 months of internship/co-op experience at 2 different companies. It's not that you really LEARN a lot while working, but it looks awesome on your resume, shows you can work in a professional setting, and you'll get letters of recommendation and work references to show on your resume to make you stand out.
Don't pass up co-ops/internships.
Yep - I had a 6 month internship which helped shape my major, 3 months of general office temp work that I found on my own as I split my internship time between studying abroad and living with family in another state and my final 6 month internship led to a part time continuation through graduation (another 15 months of work)
It definitely didn't hurt graduating with 30 months of work experience and I had a job lined up either at the company where I was working or open doors into some other heavy hitters in the industry - if I would of remained in the north east the table would of been set up very nicely
I also made great connections/friendships with other students who were either at that position at the same time or at some other point .... helped improve the network into other companies as well as providing some good study mates and friends in general
I think the problem is with your internship. My hubands employer will not even hire a new college graduate if they have not done at least one, preferably two, summer internships with the company. They pay them extremely well and provide housing for them. They are assigned mentors, and each is required to do a technical project, which they present to the team of professionals they are working under.
Our son just completed a spring semester internship for a non-profit. It was unpaid, but his housing was provided. His was a very active internship. While he did do some clerical type stuff, most of his time was spent working on meaningful projects, making contacts, and going to hearings. (He was in DC).
My son did internships while he was in school, first summer, he was the gopher, second summer, they knew him, so he got more responsibility, and a few projects, third summer, he was given work to do, same as the others in the office, and fourth summer...well, he was hired on full time, USGS.
I've heard everywhere that you should do an internship while you are in college that it's the only way to gain experience and blah blah.
So I applied for this accounting internship and I got it but I'm starting to think that it's a just a waste of time. Since I'm only going to be there for 3 months I don't think they are in a hurry to train me and since they are not paying me, they could care less.I have only been doing mindless tasks, filling out spreadsheets, deposits, making copies, shredding papers....
I will apply for other internships but only in the Spring/Fall semester and only paid internships. I think that the problem with unpaid internships is that they are basically free labor and why would a company waste their time and money to train someone that is only there for summer? It makes no sense!!
Have you guys had a summer internship where you actually got relevant experience?
Isostasy is my second favorite oceanography term. Interesting choice of name. Anyway.....
I think the importance of an internship depends on the field. I tell my students that any science program that does not REQUIRE some sort of internship is not one worth being in. I know that will aggravate many people but as a teacher (high school and college level) as well as a researcher I know it to be true.
I have no idea if it is important in accounting or not.
Everyone else has said good things, but I attribute my internships 90% to getting the job I had after I graduated. While everyone else was freaking out their senior year of college I had a job offer in October of fall semester of my senior year. I had a worry-free senior year and could focus on finishing classes and enjoying myself. I had 9 months of internship/co-op experience at 2 different companies. It's not that you really LEARN a lot while working, but it looks awesome on your resume, shows you can work in a professional setting, and you'll get letters of recommendation and work references to show on your resume to make you stand out.
Don't pass up co-ops/internships.
Were you the only student in your school to have an internship? Because that's the only way your argument would hold up--that you were the only one who did an intership and then the only one who got a job offer prior to graduation. If other students also did internships and didn't get offers, then that would disprove your point. Also if some other students got early offers without doing internships, that would also disprove your point.
And statistically, that's true. According to the national association of colleges, only about 60% of college students complete an internship, and only about 60% of those receive a full-time job offer from their internship employer. An internship could hardly be called a sure thing.
When I was working we always turned first to interns whoi we spotted first i hiring .My neiece just granuadte this years from college and she had three offers from companies she had interned with in summer.Its just anther form opf networking really.
As someone who attended a university with a full scale co-op program with a heavy concentration of engineering students I can attest that this just isn't true
We would fill a thousand co-ops for kids going through their first cycle in engineering concentrations each & every year and they were definitely involved in projects
There are so many variables that can influence what you will and will not get out of it and not every internship is a good one
Simple truth as well is that many jobs (especially ones like accounting) have a ton of really tedious work attached to it ..... if you get into this career you aren't going to get away from spreadsheets, photo copies, shredding, etc ....... what you can demonstrate is a strong work ethic and a desire to do more.
Burn through the mindless stuff and then ask to sit in with more experienced people to learn what they are doing and see if there is anything you can do to help them ... you'll still get the lower end/easier stuff, but it's the building blocks
Show a desire to learn and in a good office you will learn .... if you are in a bad office then those are the breaks sometimes and you will at least learn the type of environment you shouldn't be in
Are you saying my friend's son was lying when he said they were looking for people who had finished their junior year? Truth be told, I don't know anyone who did an internship in any thing until at least after the sophomore year in college.
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