Internships at AU

Colleges and Universities A-Z American University
1

<p>Hey everyone,</p>

<p>I love AU and I’m going to be applying ED this fall (rising high school senior) and I just had some questions for current students/recent grads and the parents of students and recent grads about internships. I was in DC about a week and a half ago visiting AU and GWU, and GWU kept talking about how great the internships were there. I get the feeling that it is mostly because they are located in DC, and the AU internship opportunities would be just as plentiful. Any input would be very much appreciated. I plan on double majoring in CLEG and Finance and doing Army ROTC.</p>

2

<p>The answer yes, internships are just as plentiful for AU students. Most have one or more internships over the course of their four years. I doubt there are any internships available to GW students that aren’t also available to qualified AU students.</p>

3

<p>some schools have relationships which allow them to have internship slots specifically for their students. This means that students are only competing for those slots with other students from their school. Is this the case at AU? And if so, where do these slots exist?</p>

4

<p>pushydad, you would have to check with the career office for that specific information. I know that AU has some special relationships in which only AU students are considered, and I am sure other schools have some also.</p>

<p>However, DC runs on internships–and virtually all are open to students from all schools, although of course sometimes an alumni connection can help, or a personal relationship with someone who is giving the applicant a LOR. Also, sometimes one intern who is leaving an internships “finds” the next intern for the employer. </p>

<p>S3, who just graduated, had wonderful internships from second semester of freshman year on. The mentors he gained along the way have helped him in securing subsequent internships as he refined his interests and developed more advanced skills. From talking with his friends, this is more usual than not.</p>

<p>S3 is fully employed and off the family payroll, doing exactly the kind of work he wanted to do. He had two internships with definite job possibilities–one he did not want to work with certain people, and the other organization currently has a hiring freeze–but has indicated they would love to get him back in the future. His current employment was a direct result of the experience he gained from one of his internships, although he did not intern for this employer.</p>

<p>He is living with two other AU grads; one is also fully employed in his area of choice, and the other had two job offers but chose to go directly on to law school, where he wants to obtain a joint JD/MBA.</p>

<p>The best advice you can give your daughter is to develop skills that employers will want to use–she should be skilled on as many software packages as possible, be comfortable crunching and manipulating data, develop project management skills, and develop the ability to put herself forward and be comfortable in personal/social/business situations.</p>

5

<p>Out of curiosity, boysx3, what was the field of study your S3 wanted to go into?</p>

6

<p>AU was actually #1 on US News’ ranking for percentage of students completing internships the year before last, with 85% of the Class of 2010 completing an internship:</p>

<p>[AU</a> Ranked 1st in Nation for Internships| Washington, D.C.](<a href=“http://www.american.edu/careercenter/news/CC-AU-Top-Ranked-for-Internships.cfm]AU”>http://www.american.edu/careercenter/news/CC-AU-Top-Ranked-for-Internships.cfm)</p>

<p>Oddly, last year’s list left out AU entirely, which is odd as an 85% internship rate would have placed second (edged only very slightly by Clarkson University’s 86%). While that percentage probably does fluctuate year-to-year, AU still should have made the list, as #10 had something like a 45% internship percentage and I am positive the number doesn’t change <em>that</em> much. Hopefully AU re-appears on next year’s list. </p>

<p>I can also share some personal experience. When I was an undergraduate at AU, I completed four internships, and one directly led to a job after graduation. At one point, I had two simultaneous internship offers, and for the one I turned down I was able to recommend a friend for who did complete that internship (on boysx3’s point of one intern “finding” the next). </p>

<p>What AU offers in terms of internship opportunities, largely due to location but also to a large and involved career services center, as well as motivated and professionally-oriented students, is definitely comparable to what would be found at GWU, if not better.</p>

7

<p>AROTCDank, my son had concentrations in marketing and in international business. He is also very interested in sports marketing.</p>

<p>Right now he is working in marketing, doing exactly the kind of work he has always wanted to do. He is working for a very well funded and stable start up that was incubated at Harvard Business School. The company he is working for found my son through his LinkedIn account…they were searching for someone with his range of experience, and were not in the least fazed at how young he is.</p>

8

<p>Boysx3, may I ask how your son in particular landed his internships? Were they obtained through American’s career services, or through outside connections, such as a professor, a relative, a friend’s friend, etc?</p>

9

<p>OHDavid–all of the above.</p>

<p>I actually have had 2 sons at AU–S3, who I have mentioned more in this thread, just graduated from Kogod. My middle son just graduated with his MPP from SPA (a graduate degree).</p>

<p>DC is really a small, interconnected village. For example, he would find a potential possibility at the career center–and they will help you hone your resume/cover letter/application for that opening. You mention that you are applying to a professor–and learn he has a connection there, and send a recommendation for you. Or you discover a friend interned there previously, and she sends a recommendation for you. </p>

<p>Or a friend is leaving an internship, and brings your resume to her supervisor–and you take her place. The position may still be posted at the career center, but sometimes not–interviewing is a time suck against getting work done, and sometimes an employer will decide to just hire the person recommended (after interviewing, of course) instead of going through a big search. My son found one of his internships this way–and he passed on this internship to a friend when he went on to his next opportunity.</p>

<p>Or your internship is coming to an end, and your supervisor has a discussion with you about what you might like to do/explore next–and uses his professional connections for you. My son who completed his MPP found his “next steps” this way. He wanted to explore different career tracks, and his supervisors became wonderful mentors helping to explore different paths. By the time he was ready to graduate, he had a clear idea of the path he wanted to take, and he started his dream job on July 1, courtesy of the efforts of THREE of his previous internships. It was so funny–he received an email asking him to apply for a position at an organization that is a plum to work at, and when he interviewed, he was told that when it got out that the organization was going to be hiring for this position, all three of his previous employers had immediately promoted his candidacy, before the job was even posted.</p>

<p>or you go to office hours, more than once, and develop a relationship with a professor, who hears of a possibility, and puts you together with the opportunity. My son had a seminar class with a professor who is associated with the World Bank–who knew of my son’s interest in microlending–and who called him a semester later when he learned of an internship in that area.</p>

<p>And for each of these scenarios, you might go to the career center for help, even if the opening was not formally theirs–</p>

<p>They will also help you practice different kinds of interviews, etc.</p>

<p>I guess my point is that opportunities are not necessarily segmented by source. The career center is very strong, and it has lots of opportunities that are posted. But the informal market in DC also exists, and the career center will help you out even if the opportunity is not 'theirs." Students pursue opportunities both ways. The longer you are “out there” the more of a network you develop–and DC is all about the network.</p>

10

<p>@boysx3-- Just out of sheer curiosity, what does your son with the MPP want to pursue with his degree (i.e. politics, lobbying, NPO)</p>

11

<p>I ask because that’s a course if study I’m considering, if I don’t do ROTC.</p>

12

<p>My daughter did not find her summer internship through the Career Center but they were great at helping with her resume and cover letter. She also used an office there for a skype interview, which was better than holding it in her dorm room (less noise and possibility of distractions).</p>

13

<p>AROTC, my son is doing policy development and advocacy work–and loving it.</p>