<p>One of the reasons D chose her school was the alleged abundance of internships, something the school uses as a big selling point. It didn't sound like they were exagerating, because they're in one of the largest cities in the country. D has visited the internship posting website several times but it seems like they all require experience that she doesn't have, and of course, one has to get that first internship to gain the experience.</p>
<p>She took the initiative to schedule a meeting with the Career Services department, where the person who "helped" her was extremely unhelpful. She told D "apply for the internships where you meet the qualifications." When D said that as a sophomore, she really didn't have any experience, the lady had absolutely no answer. </p>
<p>What level of assistance does she have the right to expect? I guess that I thought that schools/departments took a more active part in helping their students secure internships. Am I wrong?</p>
<p>My D’s major keeps and posts a list of internships and the actual department provides personal, immediate assistance with these applications. Not sure if other colleges/departments do the same.</p>
<p>My son’s college holds a career fair twice a year, one in October and one in February. He got an internship with a major company last year thru the career fair. He went there dressed-up, talked to people and presented his resume. </p>
<p>He started to build his resume as early as his first year at college. He was elected president of the hall at the dorm shortly after moving in, he worked part time at the cafeteria, and he was the RA during sophomore year. Also, he is in a sports team and in a business club that provides some consulting activities to other companies. He also maintains a good GPA. </p>
<p>The college did not help him to secure the internship. He got it by his own hard work and effort.</p>
<p>The school DD is attended does 90% of the work getting internships for kids that want them–and pays a stipend to those that complete enough hours. Her second choice school also does a lot of work getting internships for students, about 75% of their students ask for and get internships. Considering these schools are pretty much in the middle of nowhere, location doesn’t matter that much.</p>
<p>All of the above are good ideas. We’ve had success through the college internship/placement office, job fairs, dept advisor, etc. But the student who keeps trying is the one that will probably get the job. They need to stay engaged.</p>
<p>missypie…D1 had to find her own at her school. She looked at career placement office but couldn’t find exactly what she was looking for. She then went to alumni office and they graciously offered to search for alums in her specific field. This was helpful for networking and in the end she found a local place where she interned during the school year. This experience then lead to contacts for a professional sports team where she interned the following summer before her senior year. That experience then lead to another job offer in her field after she graduated. In the end it was a collaborative effort.</p>
<p>D2 found her part time job in her major through the university job/internship board. That experience has opened many doors to her.</p>
<p>Tell her not to give up. Have the internship office help her with her resume and get some advice from another staff person.</p>
<p>One of the main selling points for my DS was the co-op program at the University of Cincinnati for their DAAP program. His first co-op/internship will be soon, so we’ll get to experience first-hand how the experience works at UC.</p>
<p>Missy- your D should make a list of the things that the advertised internships are looking for that she doesn’t have. Kids often conclude, “I’m not qualified”-- when it should be a motivator to fill in the blanks on their resumes.</p>
<p>An internship at a magazine that requires photoshop- she can learn that by getting herself staffed on her college newspaper or by finding another student to teach her. Experience with SAS or other statistical computer programs- if she takes the first Stats class in the sequence at her college she will learn it. Experience with Raiser’s Edge for a non-profit- she can volunteer at her local Red Cross office or United Way branch in the development office a few hours a week and quickly learn the program.</p>
<p>Experience does not have to come from a paying job- a kid who is proficient in excel is proficient, regardless of where that experience was obtained!!!</p>
<p>She does need to go back to career development and get a professional to look at her resume, make suggestions, etc. and then help her make a plan of attack for industries that she’s interested in. But they are not going to make the perfect internship fall into her lap- she’ll need to direct them as to how they can best help her.</p>
<p>Not every college is as well staffed in career services as they could be. Caveat Emptor here. But every college should be able to generate a list of recent alums working in industries that interest your D who have volunteered to talk to (or give informational interviews to) students; every college should have someone who can help edit a resume; every college should have someone who can help your D brainstorm. She wants to work in TV news? Someone at career services can help her figure out if there’s a local cable access channel and if so, who she can contact, etc.</p>
<p>Missypie - I pm’d you. Also, I know that a lot of the business school internships at DD’s school were filled in the October-November time frame.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone. She has just started her search and knows that there is a lot she can do herself. I think she was just sort of stunned that the only help the lady was willing to give her was to tell her to look at the web site. I do think she should try the office again. School starts this week and perhaps she was talking to the “B” team last week.</p>
<p>D’s school must have a great system b/c D gets emails from people internal to the school with opportunities as well as emails from outside entities/people about job opportunities, research and internships - I mean a lot of them (Bio, Chem and CS)</p>
<p>In my opinion, unless it’s a school like Kettering, any pitch you get about a school’s career services should be suspect and independently verified if possible. Your best bet is to just look at the statistics and use that to gauge how in demand students and graduates from that school are compared to other schools. She should have her resume reviewed by someone who knows their stuff, but unless she is in Business school that will not necessarily be anyone in their career services office. </p>
<p>As for the entry-level experience problem, I’ve noticed a lot of postings at my school that have listed nonsense like “1-3 years experience” for entry levels jobs, but people get these jobs right out of college. It’s something that a lot of companies add and don’t really expect. I don’t understand the reasoning, but it’s done. If she sees something that looks good, even if it says it wants experience, tell her to apply.</p>
<p>Personally, my college has 2 career fairs, one is sponsored by the university and the other is sponsored by two clubs (which is actually the bigger of the two). There is a website where companies post job postings. The college offers a list of companies where they know recent alumni work, but not the name or contact of this alumni (as far as I know).</p>
<p>S2’s major required an internship for 9 credit hours…had to be eleven weeks long and had to put in 400 hours and had to be unpaid. The dept. gave no help in finding the internship.</p>
<p>S2 spent a lot of time on the computer searching for an internship that could be related to his major. He did some online applications then called various agencies and asked if they had an internship available for the summer. He was offered was offered two… much to our relief…since it was a “must have to graduate” thing.</p>
<p>What school is that? That’s bizarre… Any idea why they have such a policy?</p>
<p>To my knowledge, no one I know personally has ever done an unpaid internship. I just don’t see them. Were the internships he found unpaid normally, or is he refusing the pay?</p>
<p>D1 did pretty well with internships, but she is a real go-getter to start with. Her career center did help with formatting her resume, helping her identify skills she had that should go on the resume, and mock interviews. That seems like the minimum the career center ought to be helping the OP’s D with. They also had a few postings that were local that were specific to her college (one of her three internships came through that). But ultimately the college could not help her get the actual internship. She had to get out there and ask for it, apply, interview, etc. </p>
<p>It sounds like your D might lack self confidence, which can be a problem. Have you looked over her resume? D2 and I just did this a couple of days ago, since she is about to start looking for a summer job (she is a HS senior). She has some technical skills from robotics that she can play up, and also did a lot of volunteer hours in a warehouse packing food for a foodbank that gave her some skills to list. I don’t think she would have thought of either of those as something to emphasize until we talked about it.</p>
<p>I agree with the posters who say to look carefully at what the requirements are for the postings she does not feel qualified for. Is there anything she can self study for or take an online class in? Can she get a job on campus that helps build any of the skills being requested?</p>
<p>She actually doesn’t lack self confidence. She thought she would avail herself of the services supposedly offered by the school, which turned out to be rather wanting.</p>
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<p>I have a feeling that the person to whom she talked is inexperienced herself. When D brought up the “experience” requirements, the lady told her to apply for those positions for which she had the required skills. That, of course, is the opposite of what you level headed CC’ers are saying. The lady should have been saying “it says ‘experience in X’…let’s talk about what you may have done that would count.” </p>
<p>I can certainly help her work though the various requirements. I did, however, like the idea of her looking for help from her school instead of from her mother.</p>
<p>I have never heard of a college which has exactly one employee in its career services department. Time to make an appointment with someone else!</p>