I have one who’s a junior now and he’s about given up on internships (still trying but he’s now won two internships and had both canceled) and is considering summer school (since we have to pay for his rental house anyway) and then going for a fall internship. For the one in grad school, she’s not giving up and plans to somehow be one of the few who finds a research or internship position this summer. What are your kids doing?
This is an ugh for us. Younger S was going to intern in Spain at a place he was very excited about. Cancelled. Then, I almost had him an internship within my Department that would have been in one of his minor fields. It just needed big boss’ approval. Now, we don’t dare ask. I suppose there is a slight possibility it could happen. I was looking at unpaid, but we are tabling the idea for at least a month. He has a part time job from last summer available, but it’s with the local minor league baseball team. What’s the chances of that happening? He also applied yesterday to a bunch of big box/grocery stores to help with stocking, etc. but I’m not holding my breath. He’s overqualified for this area. They don’t hire college students around here.
I told him I will do my best to try to get him doing something for us. His internship would have been out in the field by himself in a location he could walk to from home. But if it’s absolutely impossible for anything, I found some free training classes in his minor area that seem useful. Worst case, he could list them as additional skills or something on a resume. I’m actually thinking about taking a few of them myself if I get stuck working from home. All of my GIS training has been self-taught over the last 20+ years.
But yes, this is so frustrating for him and hard to watch as a parent.
My freshman son was going to start looking for summer job/internship on his spring break (ending right now), that’s not happening any more!
My junior daughter had many projects and arts-internships in the works for the spring and summer. All cancelled. She doesn’t know if the summer (July)production will happen or not.
All career and employment plans are completely on hold and right now, the best we are hoping for is that Junior D can still take her summer classes back at school, and freshman S can get SOME sort of summer job.
my D has been applying and interviewing for internships.
she’s heard nothing. At this point - no idea what she’ll do. Her BF just lost his job as a server, and hasn’t heard back from internships either.
I like the idea above of learning some new free skills/classes to help in the future. I think there will be a lot of kids who will be scrambling.
This summer will be better than now.
(edited for grammar)
FY son was hoping to get an internship at one of the local publishing houses. Not holding out much hope for that now. Alot of his friends have already lost their summer jobs/internships/research.
His backup plan was to work retail at one of the independent bookstores, or as a last ditch… Barnes & Noble. His dad isn’t allowing it now. First, b/c he has no need to be out until it’s safer. He doesn’t need the money. Second but also related, this is a college town. Plenty of young students needing jobs to make ends meet. Our son doesn’t need to take a job away from someone who really needs it.
So, his plan now: IF it gets better and we aren’t social distancing.
Attend author events at the local independent bookstore (he developed this plan w/ said bookstore owner’s help). Maybe even volunteer there! Approach as many authors as he can over the course of the summer. Ask for their help in getting an invite to local writer’s group. Write Write and more Writing.
My DD’19 has an internship that just hired her this week. They seem to have every intention to make it work. In the beginning, it might just be her and one to two other people in an office or working outdoors. But there are many public events and kids groups scheduled for summer.
D’s summer co-op confirmed Friday they are still moving forward. Praying that doesn’t change. She has a video conference on Wednesday that is supposed to be a Q&A with current co-op students and more information about location placements are to follow shortly. We’re thinking they may try harder to keep students in locations closer to their homes so they can save on housing expenses but we’ll see. There is a site about 20 miles from our house so while not ideal for D would still work for her.
Plan B would be to work at a delivery place or the market, and do projects for H so she’d still learn something.
S22 is trying to secure a government internship for summer 2021. He has a virtual career fair this week. This coming summer he’ll most likely work for my company again and bank as much money as possible.
Given the probable scarcity of jobs now, it looks like those who have not found a job, or have lost or will likely to lose an offered job, may want to start applying to jobs in the US Census or grocery stores and their supply chains.
My S has a summer internship lined up in Israel. It’s scheduled to begin June 10 and they are saying they will make a final decision on May 6. We’ve told him to start looking for something locally but I’m not optimistic. He’s been a camp counselor at our town camp for the past few years and could probably go back but who knows if camps will be running? Meanwhile my D who graduated college in December had started a new job on March 4, which she was laid off from last week because she had not been there long enough for them to train her to work from home. I feel like the young people are bearing more than their fair share of the consequences. I really wonder how this is going to impact them long term.
How long does it take to enable an employee to work from home if the job is one that can be done remotely? (From what I have seen, a day.) That as the stated reason seems does not seem like the real reason.
People entering the labor force during an economic downturn tend to be disadvantaged in career and pay growth for a decade or so.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/millennials-are-screwed-recession/596728/
https://www.nber.org/papers/w12159
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0927537109001018
For a college student looking for experience rather than (high) wages, there are lots of nonprofits that could use some help right now.
The students that need to work to pay for next semester are the ones that I am most concerned about.
My heart breaks for all the seniors who were about to graduate into a booming economy with loads of opportunity. Just like that it’s gone. The juniors looking for internships - same thing. These poor kids can’t catch a break and neither can their parents who just survived the 10 year long recession wondering if we’d be able to get our kids to college
I do think once we beat CV the economy will bounce fast. We know who the enemy is and as soon as it’s gone and everyone feels safe again they will spend and live returning USA to where it was and beyond.
I am just not sure about my D (architecture). She’s applied to internships, but hasn’t heard back. Her work last year said they’d take her back (facilities management at a large med center) but I’m wondering if that’s really going to happen now. If worse comes to worse, she could spend the summer drawing, building models, and maybe taking a construction/building class at the community college that would be hand-on. Sort of tough and touchy subject for her right now.
Both my kids are suppose to work at camps this summer. One is paid and one is unpaid. My S19 was also looking at the internships in Israel. If the summer gets cancelled as well (which would devastate a lot of people and not sure that as a society we can go that long), my D17’s next plan would be to find a family needing a nanny with the right precautions. S19 would work at the local grocery store.
The fall is something that D17 and I have talked about. She was set to graduate 1/2 a semester early in December. Since she would no longer be living on campus, she could continue to work and take the semester off, and finish in the spring.
D’s BF is fearful he will lose his job (graduated last year) and not be able to find another one. D17 once she does start looking for work is also fearful that we will have to continue to support her, as most jobs might be very low pay, or volunteer in the future.
Its all bleak right now. 
My daughter’s (2021) internship doesn’t start until late June and I expect it will still happen. My 2020 daughter is finishing up online and has a job already that starts in Sept/Oct so that too should be okay. The youngest daughter (2022) and the 2021 also got jobs at the food store so they are trying to make money while finishing up the semester online.
@TS1014 all my girls easily got jobs on the spot at grocery stores
My D20 has job starting in July (job offer was from her summer internship 2019) and has surprisingly gotten more hours in her part-time job at her University ( able to do it online) since coming home . My S23 has sent a a few internship applications the last few weeks, but not really expecting anything from those.
Our S20 will finish BS online in spring. Internship lined up for summer, then start grad school (in some form) this fall. Internship company emailed to say everything is still on - but who knows what this summer will bring.
My daughter has a summer internship at an accounting firm. They did cancel the April date that sounded like a meet and great for any intern that could get there but will do a virtual meeting instead.They recently sent an email saying that they still plan on having interns start June 1st.
They have sent out some online paperwork to fill out the past few days and they are acting like it will still be happening. I don’t have as much confidence as they have and tell my daughter not to get her hopes up. She isn’t looking for a backup job right now. If summer camps don’ all open she might be able to get some baby sitting jobs.