<p>Actually, Christian2, I think it’s the other way around.</p>
<p>The experience of applying for internships provides good background for the experience of full-time job recruiting. The main difference is that there are a lot more companies involved in full-time recruiting, so it’s much busier.</p>
<p>My daughter used on-campus recruiting to try to find internships after her junior year, too, but did not get beyond the first-round interview stage with any employers. She got her paid internship that year the same way she had gotten unpaid ones the two previous years – by answering ads or announcements on websites. But the experience of using the college’s on-campus recruiting system and doing in-person interviews was good for her, I think. When she had to do it again this year, it was not entirely unfamiliar.</p>
<p>So it may be a good idea for your son to think of the recruiting process for internships not just as a way to seek an interesting and worthwhile summer experience but also as a training ground for full-time job recruiting the following year. All the skills he will develop while searching for internships – researching employers, preparing a resume, writing a cover letter, figuring out how to get his college’s computer system to cough up an unofficial transcript, hunting down opportunities outside the formal on-campus recruiting system, learning how to keep up in his courses even if he has to miss classes for interviews, etc. – will serve him well next year.</p>
<p>This is a learning experience for our family, too. My son, my husband, and I all went straight to graduate school after college. My daughter is charting new territory, and we’ve never seen anything like it before.</p>
<p>S is just beginning the process. He had his first on-campus interview last week and thought it went well, we’ll see. Like Marian’s system, he had to submit a resume and cover letter online and complete an online application for companies he was interested in interviewing with (at this point, it was 3 firms). One selected him for an interview, one did not, and he hasn’t heard on the third one. He was discouraged when he wasn’t selected because it was a company he was really interested in, and he said, “I couldn’t even make the top 12 from a tiny college.”</p>
<p>One downside to doing Study Abroad during the traditional time of Spring semester Junior Year is that it makes it harder to get a summer internship, and the summer before senior year is the best time to get an internship. S was mentally engaged in being in Europe and traveling around, and I’m convinced that at least at first he didn’t put the effort into looking for a summer internship that he would have exerted had he been on campus. He did eventually get on the ball and put in a lot of work, but at that point (probably March) it was almost too late. He had a phone interview he said was really awkward, and was also turned down by a company that simply refused to do a phone interview - if he couldn’t show up in their office, they wouldn’t consider him. I certainly wasn’t going to fly him home from Spain to do an interview for a summer internship! He ended up working in a warehouse again over the summer. His resume would be great - he has a 3.8 GPA - but he has pretty much zero experience in the field he’d like to work in.</p>
<p>My son, a newly minted graduated of that remote university that Marian’s D attends, started last fall with the online career center search. He had some phone interviews, and some second interviews, but nothing really happened until he started <em>making things happen</em> about six weeks ago. He did have a 5 week commitment in Europe this summer so he wasn’t back in the states and organized until six weeks ago. </p>
<p>Like someone else mentioned above, he sounds horrible on the phone. However, he’s been through a bunch of final round interviews in the last few weeks and things are looking pretty good. </p>
<p>I’ve tried to suggest to him that he should interview with his resume open on the screen and he should prepare – in written form even – basic answers to basic questions so he sounds more articulate and polished over the phone.</p>
<p>My daughter is in New York City today, interviewing with the first of several companies that have called her to their offices for final-round interviews.</p>
<p>Boy is it a pain to do this sort of thing when you go to college in a remote area! The travel is very inconvenient and time-consuming. Somehow, this aspect of going to Out-of-the-Way U never occurred to her (or me) four years ago. Once we identified a convenient way for her to get home for breaks (charter bus between her campus and our metropolitan area), we figured that travel was not an issue. We didn’t really consider the necessity of traveling to places other than home or at times other than breaks. We certainly didn’t consider what she is having to do right now, which is to arrange travel on short notice at a time when her school is having a break and practically every seat on every form of transit that serves her college community was booked months ago.</p>
<p>Anyway, I thought I would mention the latest developments just to get this thread bumped up and see whether anyone else has any thoughts on the on-campus recruiting process.</p>
<p>On-campus recruiting was a success for my daughter. She now has a job offer, and it’s one that she’s pleased with. The company is highly respected, the salary is good, and there’s a lot of opportunity for learning and growth in the position she has been offered. </p>
<p>She plans to interview with one more company that’s of particular interest to her, but regardless of the outcome of that interview, she has one in the bag. And one is all you need.</p>
<p>Marian, congrats to your D! Great job to have snagged a fulltime offer so early senior year in this economy. I know someone else currently attending that fine institution who is also frustrated with the difficulties of getting out of town without it consuming the major portion of a full day!</p>
<p>Maybe the economy and hiring are finally improving! I have been looking for the green shoots peeking through the carpet of snow . College kids getting entry level jobs is one of them. I hope your D’s experience will be the norm, not the outlier.</p>
<p>Marian, congratulation to your D. I have one question. When will your D has to give the job offer a definite reply? My son last year got an internship offer that required an answer in one week.</p>