@college_query Your two kids had very different summer experiences while in college. Now that they’ve graduated, does one having had internships and the other jobs seem to affect their post-collegiate paths?
My D (math major) talked to her advisor re applying for some REUs (research program for undergrads), but was told to wait until she was farther along. She’ll be working in a summer school, so getting more teaching experience sort of. At least it will help if she goes for a real summer teaching job later. She also will be volunteering at a local theater program. So not “internships” but more related to future jobs than flipping burgers I suppose. However both her parents and older brother stretched their studies into their 30s (with grad school), so I think she is hoping to have many years ahead of her of being a spartan student living out of a suitcase in shared housing.
BTW I friend of mine is a labor economist (professor) and he says his summers spent working in fast food and later temp jobs was very helpful to his career as a labor economist. He feels he has more insight into the labor groups that he is studying.
Our S worked as an aide in a summer science program for K-8 kids as a rising SR in HS, HS grad and after freshman year. After that he did research in a lab for the summer after soph year and NASA after JR year.
Our D in cinema never had an internship per se, tho she did work for HI public TV for the summer before transferring into School of Cinena.
My kid works her butt off.
Past two years she’s worked 35 hours a week all summer at a biological station lab. She’s also done 5 hours of volunteer work per week the past two summers to maintain scholarship prerequisites.
During the school year, she works 10 hours a week as a lab assistant for a university lab.
This summer she’s got an REU where she’ll make $5K for 10 weeks of field research and lab work. This leaves her with about 6 weeks of vacation. She has no idea what to do with herself. LOL.
I think there is more of a push to have an employment history with your new college degree when you’re talking to potential employers.
It can even matter when your’e applying for REUs.
First thing the researcher who interviewed my daughter for her REU told her was that he liked that she had a lot of work history. He said he was looking for someone with a work ethic. That he “wasn’t running a summer camp” and needed serious students who were ready to work the necessary hours and learn the necessary skills. He wanted someone with experience in a professional lab setting who knows how to collaborate, who will roll up their sleeves and wash lab dishes and pour plates, someone who understand that research has long days and short days and that sometimes you have to adjust your workload to the timing of your samples.
I think a lot of employers have this sentiment. They want young people who have some idea how real world employment works.
@JenJenJenJen - the older one (the one with the internships) did her internships in television broadcast news. Her internships helped her realize that she didn’t want to work for a TV station. She was offered a very low paying job as a morning news producer in a small market when she graduated, but decided she didn’t want to do it. She worked as a temp for a while in our hometown in finance, then moved to a bigger city and between her media background and finance experience, was able to get a job in finance working in corporate communications. She works with news/the media but they’re calling her.
The younger one graduated a year ago and is now finishing his first year of law school. He’s still trying to find a law-related internship for this summer. I have a feeling his lack of experience in anything professional is not helping his search.
@adlgel my son is at Ohio state. The summer after freshman year he took the typical summer job he had before college as a summer camp counselor. But sophomore year he took a STEP (second-year transformational experience program) class and it was great. He did a project in his STEP class that allowed him to apply for a stipend to be used towards his work (unpaid internship) program offered in a foreign country. The work study abroad program is handled by a third party agency (sponsored by the school) that works with Ohio state students for the work abroad program and arranges lodging and provides a list of employers in the country of interest. The student gets to choose several companies to apply to and interviews through Skype.
DS#1 did a regular summer job after freshman year, but did an internship/paid summer job in his field after soph and junior years. DS#2 Did the same, but summer after junior year he did an internship and took a class at our local tech school.Did it help them with job opportunities? Probably.
My current college student worked at a summer camp after freshman year and this summer will have paid (low pay, but still paid) at the lab he has been working at since freshman year. He will stay at school (found a sublet) and will hopefully get a part-time food service job as the lab work is only funded for 8 weeks.
My oldest did not do an internship and I think it hurt him. He went abroad spring of junior year and did not get back until July which was too late for an internship.
Most of my youngest son’s friends did not have internships last summer (college freshman). It seems most important in fields like accounting where a lot of the hiring appears to be done for kids that intern after junior year (and a few that interned after graduation).
Personally I would have dissuaded any of my kids from taking an “unpaid” internship. Work experience is work experience on a post undergrad resume and why work for no pay? If there is a credit exchange e.g. if the unpaid value of the internship at a similar paid job parity salary is equal to the cost of the credits I might have supported my kids in that choice, but no pay, no college credits, no way. We just can’t afford to fund “'lifestyle” experiences or glorified vacations. The two oldest found jobs pretty quickly after college on the strength of their work history and that were supporting of their independence so all is good. The third is about to start a paid internship that is relative to his major but if he hadn’t secured that he would be working at a different job this summer not aligned with his major.
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@college_query On your 1L son, many students are still looking for those unpaid internships at this point in the 1L year. The market has changed completely from the time when 1Ls could expect to work for pay. Now, they are beyond lucky if they can find something paid, and the norm is, unpaid internship which gets them some kind of research and writing experience which they can then use to demonstrate readiness for their 2L summer job. I’d encourage your son to keep contacting state and federal judges, non profits, including city, county, state government, state and federal defenders and prosecutors offices. It’s tough going, but he’s not the only 1L still looking.
My D is finishing her freshman year in college. She has had a research position this year at school (credit not pay). But she still hasn’t picked a major, much less a future career. She’ll be working as a lifeguard this summer. Fine with me–life is long and spending summer at the pool with your friends sounds pretty fun! (And she worked 60+ hrs a week doing this last year, so it is decent money too.)
Isn’t so much of this major- and career-dependent? My D was an accounting major and it was standard for them to intern with accounting firms in the summer after junior year (…and for some, after sophomore year). In D’s case, she interned for a Big Four firm, got a permanent job offer at the conclusion of her internship, and never looked back.
We, her doofy scientist parents, didn’t even know this was standard. We always did summer research or worked as lifeguards. It’s a good thing her university’s career counseling made up for our less-than-adequate parental counseling (well, less-than-adequate in this particular instance!)
My eldest studied math and wanted to be a Math teacher. She worked at Auntie Ann’s Pretzels and a Law Firm during undergraduate. Her “internships” for her field were student teaching.
My youngest is a Psychology major and is working at the local Concert Venue in concessions.
My son is finishing freshman year at an ivy (in the business school) - doesnt know any fellow freshmen who have landed internships for this summer. Most are doing unpaid (but stipend for housing expenses) research or non profit community service resume building type work or regular normal summer jobs. I have heard internships become more of a thing summer after junior year.
I draw a distinction between specifically seeking work at a company related to one’s potential future career and actually getting that work. My daughter, who worked “normal” summer jobs, first sought jobs related to her future career. She just didn’t get any of the many for which she applied. She was offered unpaid internships, but upon asking hard questions she realized that they were not internships that would benefit her in the least, but rather companies taking advantage of panicked students who thought they needed to work in their fields while in school. Working as a lifeguard or waitress was Plan B for my daughter; getting an internship in her field was Plan A.
My D is very interested in doing an internship after junior year but her study abroad plans are limiting her options. She wont get back to the states until late June. I’ve told her its her decision but I am concerned that she should have an internship that summer. We are currently looking at the possibility of her staying in the other country and doing the internship there as those companies work with their own university dates of course. Another possibility if doing an internship close by to the school her senior year. Its good to hear that internships aren’t universally considered must-dos here on CC.
@As others have noted my daughter did non competitive engineering and medical immersion program. Will it help admissions? Doubtful, but who cares, it was about the experience and learning.
She is a english gifted (not CC gifted just 760 SAT) kid who loves math and doesnt like English very much.
She learned she definitely doesnt want to be any type of engineer and she learned ahe loves medicine, but probably not the MD route just a mid level provider.
Great experience vs what working at a fast food joint? She volunteered alot to reading with 3rd graders and hospitals.
Mine have had internships following freshman year with the help of family connections. They are in fields where internships are important and can be found ( paid ). Once you have one internship it helps to get the second and so forth. The fields they are in are also big on hiring out of the post junior year internships so have started senior year with job in hand. Not every field is like that. They also attend/attended a university where career services does an excellent job so finding internships after sophomore year was pretty easy. My kids worked summer jobs from a young age so had work experience on the resume right off the bat. This is vastly different from my college/work experience! So yes, to answer the original question, I think the landscape has somewhat changed.
It’s interesting - I had a friend who is a hiring manager reach out to me about several internship opportunities spanning several different fields asking if I knew of students that might be interested. From the pool of my kids’ friends I sent it to some parents were sort of thinking this wasn’t necessary and they’d go back to their summer jobs making $9-10/hour. That’s all fine but if you’re presented with an opportunity to make almost double that and get some work experience in your field why wouldn’t you jump at the chance?? Not everyone reacted this way but a few did and it surprised me. Funny thing is, the students wanted the internships- not the old summer job.
RE: #28 I know kids that had part-time unpaid internships in their career areas and then worked a paying job for money. It seemed to help their resumes to have even an unpaid internship in the field of interest.
D applied to several REUs for her frosh summer but didn’t get into any. She wound up doing an unpaid internship with a non-profit org tangentially related to her future career, and enjoyed it, got good recs out of it, etc. She applied for, and got, funding from her college for it, and that more than covered her living expenses, so it wasn’t really unpaid in the end.
One of the REUs she didn’t get last year suggested she reapply this year. She did, she got it, and so she’ll be doing paid research this summer, in her field. She also plans to work two of her HS jobs the month or so she’ll be home.
- @mom2and & @NEPatsGirl posted something similar.
D is potentially looking at that same situation. If she chooses the most likely SA program she won’t be back until early July, with exactly two months left of summer before classes start in early September. She might be able to do an internship in that time, she might not. There’s also a possibility of doing research before and after the program in the SA country…but she’d thought to do something more like a traditional internship in industry, not more research. IDK if that matters for her future or not. She wants to work after college, at least for awhile, not go right to grad school.
She had “regular” jobs throughout high school, everything from coaching kid sports to working in restaurants to making soap/candles. So she has a pretty full resume of “she is a reliable worker who not only shows up but often does more than asked” type stuff. That’s helped her already.
Her friends pursuing careers in finance mostly have well-paid internships this, the sophomore summer. Goldman blah blah. They seem to expect to work the following summer and then basically be hired, as in that industry recruiting is in fall and often the junior-senior summer job turns into the post-grad job. That’s secondhand info though, so YMMV.