Gaining Career Related Experience: Are You Internship Ready?
An internship is a professional learning experience that offers meaningful, practical work related to a student’s field of study or career interest. Internships provide opportunities to gain professional level experience, explore career options, and in many cases, earn compensation. Internships can also help you find full-time employment and boost your marketability for graduate school. Students can participate in internships at any stage, but most students obtain their first internship after sophomore year, and many students complete multiple internships.
Undergraduate Students:
- In 2022, 47% of Rutgers undergraduate students who completed an internship had two or more job offers after graduation.
- In 2022, 62% of Rutgers undergraduate students who completed an internship received a job offer from at least one of their internship sites.
Graduate Students:
- In 2022, 44% of Rutgers graduate students who completed an internship had wto or more job offers after graduation.
- In 2022, 38% of Rutgers graduate students who completed an internship received a job offer from at least one of their internship sites.
So, how do you know if you are ready for this challenge?
Explore, Get Involved, Gain Experience!
First, you should know that there are many ways you can develop transferrable skills and gain professional experience outside of an internship. Here are some great ways to do this on campus:
- Joining a student organization
- Volunteering on campus or at a local nonprofit
- Working part-time
- Participating in research with a faculty member
These are just a few of the valuable experiences available to you that help build skills to include on your resume. From these experiences you can begin developing key skills employers seek such as time management, teamwork, and leadership. These experiences are the steppingstones to increasing your marketability for future internship opportunities.
If you’re already involved in one or a few of these opportunities and want something more focused and immersive, an internship may be a great next step. You can think more deeply about your readiness by considering where you are within the Career Journey Model, using career assessment tools like Traitify, or checking out the CES career interest communities with the goal of identifying one or two that align with your career goals.
Obtain an internship!
You’re ready to move forward and start considering internship opportunities! Once you have identified your major and career interest community, you can begin to research and pursue internships and/or part-time work experiences.
Long-Term Planning for your Internship:
- During your first and second years, begin gaining experience and build your resume.
- Review Get Involved.
- You can also review the internship and co-op course options like RICC to earn credit for your work experience.
- Research options for awards to see if you qualify for financial assistance.
- Students are encouraged to be “Internship Ready” by their third year in college.
Increase your Internship Competitiveness:
Competition for high-profile internships has increased over the years. Internship employers have numerous applications to review so gaining experience to compete for these internships is vital. Identifying a major before gaining experience is not required.
“How do I obtain an internship when I don’t have any experience?”
- Start by joining a student organization, participating in research, volunteering at a local organization, or participating in study abroad. These activities allow you to begin developing or enhancing skills such as time management and interpersonal communication.
- Become an active member of an organization or group and then work towards gaining a leadership role.
- Employers value the skills students gain in these experiences.
- Part-time jobs also allow students to gain essential skills employers seek as well as help students build their resume.
