The Center for Career Development hosted a workshop on internships and the benefit which students derive by being an intern.
Discussions also focused on how to get an internship, what to expect from one and how to get class credit for an internship.
John Haag, who led the workshop, said an internship is a great way to get much needed experience in the student’s chosen field.
“Seventy percent of people report their job came from networking,” Haag said.
This is something that an internship greatly helps with because excelling on an internship will bring the student to the attention of the employer when it comes time to apply for a job.
Haag said, “Forty percent of Americans with bachelors work in a job unrelated to their degree.”
An internship will help the student decide if the chosen career path is right for them, preventing the student from getting trapped in a job that is unsatisfying.
Those interested in how to get an internship should contact the Center for Career Development, which offers resources to students.
The center’s Web site has a list of internship opportunities, search engines and links to profession specific lists.
Haag said that perhaps more useful is seeing a career advisor at the center. Advisors meet with students in order to get an understanding of what the student wants in a career. They will then search for a career that matches that profile.
Haag said students should utilize the career advisors at the center because the competition for internship opportunities online is fierce.
This is because they have a much wider audience viewing and applying for them. On the other hand, opportunities that an advisor will bring to a student’s attention will be less known.
Haag said, “There are two types of internships, paid and unpaid. If an internship is unpaid there is a chance that the intern will not be taken as seriously as a paid intern and will be given ‘make’ work.”
The fields in which internships are likely to be unpaid are social work, marketing, and non-technical fields.
For those looking at an internship in one of these fields, the search for a paid internship will be much harder than in other fields.
A paid internship will require more work and experience and are often available in technical areas.
An employer who is offering a paid internship is going to be more discriminating in his hiring than if he were offering an unpaid internship.
Of course, to get paid for an internship is not the only goal; interns also want to get credit for that time. Haag said some departments and schools, such as the Daniels College of Business, offer credit for internships and have a course number assigned to them.
