Posts Tagged ‘Internships’

While the title is quite dramatic, a recent article on Forbes.com called When Terrible Things Happen To Interns is worth a read for anyone looking for internships. It outlines some of the problems that you may face once you have actually secured the position.

For example:

[One] ubiquitous problem: the boss who gives you nothing to do. I’m sorry to report that this problem is alive and well at Forbes. In chatting up a trio of interns for this story, one of them asked me for an assignment, since she’d heard nothing from the two editors who were supposed to be supervising her.

Unfortunately, many established professionals don’t know what to do with an intern once they have been hired. This can be for perceived issues of knowledge or skill, or it could be an issue with the workload of the boss. Regardless of the reason, it’s something you may have to address at some point.

Not all internships are like this, but if you want to know some of the common pitfalls, check out the full article here.

Things like this make my day. I recently saw an unbelievable email exchange between a potential internship applicant and a human resources professional.

Apparently, the potential intern asked a question to the HR rep in an email. Then, after not getting a response for one full day, went bananas and sent an email back which scolding the HR rep for their lack of professionalism. He/she even ended their email with the following line:

Please remember that I will be taking into consideration the lack of professionalism you demonstrated by not answering my question in a prompt manner.

Seriously???

I still laugh every time I read it. I’m going to guess that this candidate has never had a “real” job before.

Some of my other favorite lines:

I am looking for a full time job and I would not want to waste my time at an internship that was not going to lead to a full time position.

and…

I’m sorry that I pointed out the mistakes that you had made and your lack of professionalism which upset you. You must remember that you are representing your company and must always act in a very professional manner.

I hope that you (as an Entry Level Job seeker) can see the problem with this. To land an interview with a hiring manager, you will first have to go through some form of HR or screening. Getting on their bad side is never a good idea.

You can find the full story here.

It is a tough job market out there today and many companies are making big changes to internship programs.  If they are not cutting back on their programs, they are only offering unpaid opportunities. Helping out at the Career Center here at Loyola, I have run into a ton of students who are not applying for internships simply because they are unpaid. I’ve heard answers such as:

I don’t want to waste my time

If it’s unpaid, it isn’t worth it

I’ll just go back to my old job until I can find a paid internship

While they are all valid statements, there are some crucial benefits that internships (even the unpaid ones) can offer. I recently facilitated an Alumni panel discussion at the Career Center entitled “Making the Most of Your Internship.” The Alums had several good reasons to take an unpaid internship.

Let’s take a look at a few:

• Experience. There is no price tag you can put on the valuable experience you can gain through interning (of course, you get out of it what you put in). And with the market the way it is today, any opportunity to gain a competitive advantage should not be overlooked.  Internships provide chances to learn the ropes and can help you to develop the skill sets to succeed in your field!

• Networking. Nowadays, they say it is who you know, not necessarily what you know. Internships give you the opportunity to expand your network, especially with professionals in your field. You never know who someones knows, so every contact is valuable! Talk to everyone you can so that when it comes time to finish your internship, you leave with a bigger network!

• Differentiation. Things are tough out there, there aren’t nearly as many opportunities as there were a few years ago, so you need to STAND OUT. Internships can help you do just that. Many employers will ask whether or not your internship was paid or unpaid; taking an unpaid internship stands out! It shows you are dedicated and want to succeed.

Internships are building blocks or stepping stones, helping you move along. Whether they are paid or unpaid, the benefits are invaluable. Remember, there are a lot of people out there who would take the position if offered, so take advantage of the opportunity and make the most of it! It will go along way down the road!

Wow. The career bloggers seem to have found their lightening rod in a post written by Toby Dayton on his blog Diggings. The post talks about how, according to the US Department of Labor, the average unemployed American spends 18 minutes per day looking for a job.

After reading the responses from G.L. Hoffman and Louise Fletcher, I thought it would be worthwhile dropping my two cents into the fray.

Just to play devil’s advocate, here are the legitimate circumstances where 18 minutes of daily job hunting is appropriate:

1. If you are independently wealthy and only looking for a job because you are bored.
2. Your parents have great connections and you are waiting for one to come through.
3. You are ignorant of what it takes to find a job (I’m agreeing with G.L. whole-heartedly on this one).

Time a short anecdote. When I graduated from school a few years back, I was averaging 8-hours per day on the job hunt. This was 2-3 hours of looking for open jobs, and 5-6 hours of writing customized resumes and cover letters for the positions I thought were a good fit. I was applying to 10+ jobs per day. At this rate, it still took 3 weeks before I started getting callbacks for interviews. (Note: The economy was much better back then).

If I looked for only 18 minutes each day, I would have been searching for months before I landed that job. This is far too little time to be spending on the job search.

While part of me hopes this statistic isn’t accurate, the other part hopes that it is, just because it means that there will be less competition for those who are truly worthy of work in this environment.

Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment below!