My neighbor’s daughter is in a masters program to be a school counselor. They require a certain number of practical hours (of which a certain number must be in person). Although she is currently doing remote counseling (the same as the real school counselors are doing), she will still need the in person hours before she can graduate. (Will work out for her as she has another year.)
More news on jobs for this year’s grads… My D’s friends have been offered jobs recently. One has been offered a Covid biomedical research opportunity. He’s considering. Another has been offered two jobs, one at a state Capitol working for a political figure. Yet another has been offered a job in a western state doing environmental research. I have no idea what any of these jobs pay, but it seems that any job offer is a good thing at the moment.
There are still jobs to be had.
D was in the plant for the first time yesterday. Only 10 people in the front office - all socially distancing, Purell everywhere, masks, daily temp checks, etc… Plant is running on a skeleton staff with only one shift and enhanced cleaning. I was very happy to hear that they are taking so many precautions! More office staff begin to trickle back in starting next week but they are staying on one shift through the summer which will reduce the density in the plant by 60%. As the mom, I feel good about what the company is doing.
I continue to see more parents posting about their students starting work on our FB group as well. The latest was a big construction management company that hired a bunch of civil eng majors for the summer.
I am consciously optimistic at a job market for new grads at this point. Those with traditionally more employable majors seems to be able to keep their jobs. It all can change of course, but at least for now it looks better then in March. My DH workplace is asking everyone who can ( childcare facilities still closed) to return to the office. They also have safety temperature and eye check and of course everyone must have masks. My new grad starts WFH next week with a hope to move to the city where job is located as soon as they bring back option for WFO.
Some good news here. Younger S just left to start his paying gig. When his internship in Spain was cancelled, I tried to set him up with an GIS internship for my department. But then everything hit and we were in a hiring freeze. So, I bought him an iPad and showed him and a friend what to do anyway. They were going to collect the data on their own and give it to the City for free. At least it would be experience. My boss thought they should get paid, so I met with the big boss last week and showed him what they had done in their spare time. He was impressed enough that he is paying them 25 hpw for 10 weeks to finish as formal interns. They are beyond excited, and technically we are now co-workers. (They are not under me.) They are collecting data on cemetery graves, so it’s also perfect for social distancing.
That’s awesome news! D is still waiting on some government internship applications. I hope more city, state and federal offices will start opening up soon.
If you dont mind answering, what general geographic area are you in?
S17 started his Civil Engineering internship today. Large subway/tunnel project in NYC. The program was shortened slightly and all of the fun intern get-together activities were canceled, but he knows he is VERY fortunate to keep his internship. Fingers crossed for a full-time offer!
D had been selected for a wonderful university,-based internship program in Aoril, but due to COVID-19 they couldn’t make an official offer to anyone then. She just learned they are running an abbreviated, remote program…but now it will be limited to just students from that university! Her would-be supervisor was very apologetic, and told her she was his first choice, but that the decision-makers felt they had a greater obligation to their own kids. D was devastated.
Very sorry to hear that, @TheGFG.
For those students with a business interest, check out the AT&T Summer Academy–designed to help kids meet university internship experience requirements during the pandemic. D says it was posted on Handshake. They have space for 100,000 enrollees.
@TheGFG , that’s very useful information.
Is anyone else aware of similar opportunities?
My daughter was contacted less than two weeks before her start date that her summer internship with the federal govt was cancelled. We were expecting it, so had not signed a lease or bought any plane tickets. She sent her resume to several local companies. She heard from one on Monday, but they are all currently still working from home and don’t think she could start until the Fall. She would be back at school by then. They want to talk to her anyway, so maybe next summer. It’s just been so disappointing. She went through a security clearance process that was very time consuming and frustrating, but at least she has it for the future. She’s going to try to just get a summer job, I guess.
There have been so many ups and downs for my D. In one case she was offered a job that originally was to have housing included (and for good reason due to pay and locale), but only now it would be without the housing. We couldn’t find any short term rentals, and of course college intern housing is totally unavailable. So that job fell through.
Most recently, the university-based
internship prgram for which she’d been provisionally selected opted to conduct a smaller, shorter program with just students from that university. They said they felt a greater obligation to their own. Sigh. That decision was particularly tough because she had gotten an update from them indicating that they were still planning to run a program and so she thought she’d at least get a virtual position.
I know how disappointing the loss of these internships are- they can be so helpful for a student to learn what they like/dislike and expose them to various career paths. I would suggest students use the summer to netw
sorry- typing in phone
I suggest students network this summer- contact people to just meet and talk about career paths, ask advice, etc. One of my kids had an internship after sophomore year that he did not like so he asked people to meet that he thought could help him figure out a path- everyone was terrific and one contact put him in touch with a firm that hired him the following year for an internship. My husband and I and our friends love to help young people in this way.
Didn’t visit this site for one year or so but wanted to check how other kids were doing with their summer internships. My kid (a non-STEM Sophomore at pretty well-known college; rising Junior) tried very hard and got a nice paid summer abroad internship lined up with a company and people he liked, but it got canceled due to COVID. When we knew COVID was spreading, we told him to try to find another internship just in case because the first one may get canceled. Sure enough, it got canceled. The company abroad didn’t even offer him an internship next year. Before returning home to do oneline college courses, he saw an ad on LINKEDIN for a position with a large multinational company. He interviewed by Skype and then in person (and then by Skype again), and they offered him a job which he can do from home. One reason he was able to get this position was because of his multi language ability. He has been taking online college classes and working 35+ hours per week. It appears the current employer wants him to work as long as he wants to. Most of his friends’ internships got canceled, so he feels incredibly lucky to be working and getting experience while getting paid good money. He tells me many of his friends whose internships have been canceled have higher GPAs and have great resumes; only substantial advantage he has is that he is fluent in 3 languages and okay in 4th language. Given the lousy job market, he’s now hoping the current employer will offer him a job after he graduates.
He also feels very fortunate that he was able to participate in NSLIY programs before COVID because without NSLIY experience, he would never have become fluent in another major language. I actually consider his NSLIY experience (both summer and academic year) more valuable than his Stanford experience.
Completely agree about networking.
Students can still have a productive summer by learning new skills via online classes and networking. If organized, they could set up a schedule that looks/feels like a job with online classes and networking activity each day during the week. Would actually make for an interesting interview story showing how they used this “unique” time to learn and explore.
Might work out just as well as the internship (or maybe even better - who knows).
My D started her remote internship. We are very thankful that they didn’t cancel and are very impressed with the internship program they put together for the students. It’s clear that they put a lot of time and effort into giving the students the best possible experience they can under current circumstances. In addition to meaningful training and projects, there are still lots of networking, mentoring, and fun (virtual) social events on the calendar. I know they must be spending a tidy sum just on mailing equipment and group event supplies to all interns.
My son is a rising senior and started his (remote) FAANG summer internship this week. His company Fedexed him a work lap top and moniter a few days before his start date. Although, he was really looking foward to the full experience on the West Coast, he is greatful it was not outright cancelled due to Covid. His company even still paid out the housing stipend. He has made good money at his prior summer CS internships but the pay he is getting for this is at another level. It will allow him to pay a good chunk of his student loans. He feels very lucky it even happened. His back up plan, had this been cancelled was to to do part time remote research for his schools robotics lab.
I have recently moved to a rural area. Lots of land and beautiful pastoral views but slow internet service. Slow connectivety was a huge issue for his recent on-line semester with classmates and professors saying they could only understand 30% of what he was saying in Zoom meetings. Took no chances this time with the internship and shipped him back to the Boston suburbs for the summer where there is broadband.
@Shiprock1976 Agree those FAANG internships open up new worlds for students. The food, campus, get togethers, and Silicon Valley (I assume) vibe will be missed by this summer’s interns but I’m glad they continued with the remote internships so students can get some real world experience.