<p>I want to share my daughter's story with other parents because it may offer you future ammunition when you are trying to advise your own student. She attends University of Illinois and I already posted before that I have been extremely impressed with the career development afforded students in her science department. U of I urges its students to seek out internships each summer they attend there, but, of course, strongly urge students to seek out internships the summer before their senior year.</p>
<p>My daughter took this advice to heart and applied for several paid internships out of state last fall and was lucky enough to receive several offers. She accepted one with a multinational based in the New York area. She returned home in early August and raved about the range of things she was exposed to while there, and she also learned that she could multi-task on the job as well as successfully navigate office personalities and politics. </p>
<p>But the reason I am posting this thread is that after she finished her internship, she received a job offer last week from the multinational, and this offer includes a sizable signing bonus. This means that she has not yet started her senior year but already knows where she will be working upon graduation next spring. I also suspect this means that she will enjoy her last year at U of I much more than she would if she felt pressured to spend the school year applying for jobs or to grad school. </p>
<p>So if or when your beloved student tells you that summer internships don't matter, please feel free to pass on this happy story.</p>
<p>It’s always terrific when a young person graduating from college gets to move on to something they really want to do, and it’s even better when they don’t have to spend their entire senior year looking for that something.</p>
<p>One of my kids accepted an offer for an after-graduation job in early November of her senior year and considered herself very lucky. But your daughter is almost three months luckier!</p>
<p>D is a rising senior and doing her third internship. She will be able to continue on a 2 day a week basis in the fall. She loves the work and the people and while it would be wonderful if she were offered a full time position, it may not happen. Even so, the learning experience has been invaluable as well as the industry contacts that she is making.</p>
<p>Congrats, glorymom and daughter! I had a similarly successful internship experience, albeit post-graduation.</p>
<p>I couldn’t find a job in my field (journalism, sigh) so I sought related opportunities. A paid six-month Student Conservation Association internship with the USFS in fall 2010 turned into a partially-funded master’s program and a student-to-career appointment with the agency. I’m finishing my second summer as a field ranger/interpreter in Alaska and will move into a full-time job when I finish my degree in May.</p>
<p>Make those connections! It’s about building a network of people who respect your skills, value your passion and trust your ability.</p>
<p>Some things to add:
Not all fields have appropriate internships.
Those of us (well not me) that can offer internships, paid or not, to those that need them, please do. It makes a big difference to these kids.</p>
<p>Engineering son (a field where internships are not required, but should be) had a paid internship between soph and jr years and again this summer (different firm) between jr and sr years. He was told to expect a a job offer before he leaves (this week). Internship came with nice salary and stipend for summer living expenses (apartment). Like OP’s daughter, he will enter Sr year with employment in hand upon graduation. So happy for him, especially in this economy. Kudos to his school (SUNY Buffalo) for a great Fall job fair (for internships and graduation employment). Son secured both summer internships with firms represented there. </p>
<p>AGAIN: Please post a plea on FB for others to copy for all who can provide internship experience to college students to do so. Building a resume is quite important for all these kids. (For some majors internships/observation hrs are required and easy to get: ie: student teaching, PT OT Speech, Audiology… we always take kids, but others like business, marketing, engineering, etc. where internships are not required it can be harder to get someone to hire you for the summer.)</p>