Intern! Intern! Intern!

Now that you have your bomb résumé, you should start talking about internships. It is increasingly becoming harder to find jobs after college. Interning can be used as that step in the door to your career, and might even be easier to do while still in college. 

Why should I Intern?

If you are a graduate with perfect grades and the best major but have been looking for a job for 6 months, then you probably already know the answer to this. For those of you who are still in college, there is still a chance to get your work experience up. An internship will be one of the most important job experiences you have. It is a great way to learn the skills you need to really sale yourself to employers after graduation. Also, internship in the field you are studying in will show employers that you are serious about your future. Even better for you, interning may show that, that career is actually not something that you are willing to commit to.  

Does it Matter where I intern?

ABSOLUTELY! This is an important step in landing your dream career. You want to work for a company that will look great on your résumé. This is supposed to benefit you. Unfortunately, there are a lot of unpaid intern scams. I cannot stress this enough, but DO NOT INTERN FOR FREE! You will know which internships are free by the post acknowledging that you MUST receive academic credit to intern. Paid internships do not require credit. Although some unpaid internships may be with good companies, the law says that an unpaid intern may not take the place of a paid employee. From my own knowledge, this is exactly what companies plan on doing. 

Speaking of my own experience, I have been on interviews where I was asked to:

•Work closely with the Director on projects throughout the season

•Help coordinate appearances, helping to contact potential clients and act as a liaison between the department and the community during the appearance request process

•Assist in the preparation for various events and help execute those events, including but not limited to, auditions and photo shoots

•Responsible for assisting in writing bios, as well as weekly stories during the season

Doesn’t this sound like work? They also wanted me to commit to being an unpaid intern for a year. For me, that meant not being able to pay my rent. Even though this was for a well-known company, I had to understand that because of the nature of the job, I might be walking away without a reference and no money. Therefore, I think that we students should stick together and not take any unpaid internships. This way companies will stop taking advantage of us. NO MORE FREE WORK!  And if any of you are like me, you’re walking away from college with over $30,000 in student loans. Those bills will put a stop to any desire of taking on an unpaid internship.

Well, then where am I supposed to intern?

I know that I just made it more difficult to search for internships by taking away the easiest ones to get, but it is honestly for the best. There are still plenty of internships out there that will pay. I am a bit biased, so I will throw you Disney in the lead. You can be under any major and participate in the Disney College Program. Disney offers plenty of jobs available in the Walt Disney Theme Parks. There are positions in hotels, stores, restaurants, costuming, photography, acting, technology… You get the point! But maybe the Disney spirit is not right for you. Well, I have created a short list of available internships for students of all sorts of majors and GPA status’. Hopefully this will help you on your search!

Of course this isn’t even the half of them. Go on these companies’ websites and see how they would work for you. Some do have GPA requirements, but it’s all for competition. I mean, come on! These are PAID internships. Do not forget, experience is an important factor in your job search after college too.

BE PREPARED!

Yours truly,

      Michaela