You may have heard the famous quote by Albert Einstein: “The only source of knowledge is experience.” This quote can hold meaning for your own life as it highlights that the best way for you to understand the outside world is to experience it firsthand. This is one of the main reasons internships are a vital part of your collegiate journey and such an influential force in helping you reach your career goals.
Internships can be defined many different ways but essentially it is an opportunity to help you explore a certain career path and understand skills needed as a professional in such a field. It also provides professional growth as you become more marketable for future opportunities through hands-on experiences.
Let’s imagine for a second you are a senior business major about to graduate from college and are now starting the job search and looking for opportunities in the field of marketing. You probably have seen plenty of full-time to part-time job postings on websites through your job search process which states that the organization is looking for an individual with a minimum of one to three years of experience.
Now here is the conundrum: How do you get a position after graduation when you have no experience and are a new graduate looking to transition into the field? This is why internships are so important in college because it provides an avenue to gain such experiences and exposure to your area of study without needing prior years of experience or a completed degree. You can’t wait until senior year to explore internship opportunities because, just like a regular job search, it requires time and preparation.
Meeting with your career adviser early on in your collegiate journey, or at least a semester prior to the time in which you would like to start your internship, would be a good game plan to obtain such opportunities and approach the process strategically. Internships can come in many different forms as they can be paid and unpaid as well as at times provide academic credit.
In addition, internships can also be a great way to explore a certain major or career path as what better way to understand your fit within the field than to see it up close and personal. I mean deciding on a career can be tough at times and you wouldn’t go and buy a car without test driving it first, so why go into a career field without test driving it through internships? At the end of the internship, you’re going to leave with an experience that helped you develop key skills needed in the field, and if you decide it is the right profession for you, then you now have someone in your network who could potentially hire you upon graduation.
Overall, internships are a vital part of your college experience today and should be explored strategically as they can make you a more well-rounded student and professional upon graduation. Your career goals cannot be reached overnight but getting an internship can lay the foundation for your professional future.
