Internship season is in full swing, with many college students vying for limited and competitive positions at some of the biggest companies.
Many students are required to have completed an internship in order to graduate, and most companies look for internship experience when hiring recent graduates. With the market getting more competitive every year, college students are becoming even more desperate to secure the perfect internship for their resumes.
Internships can be a great way to network with professionals in your field and make important connections to help further your career. They can aid in sharpening the skills you already possess. Not only do companies look for the experience when applying for postgraduate positions, but it can also help to flush out real interests within the field.
For some, internship season can be quite stressful. It can be very overwhelming, without guidance. Students are looking for the best internships, but so are their classmates. Internships are competitive and become even more so at big corporations, who usually offer only a handful of internships per season.
“When I sit in my classes, I look around me, and I think, “Oh my gosh, these people are going to steal my jobs,’ or, “These people are going for the same things I am,’” said Simran Puri, a freshman mass communication major.
As the competitiveness increases, so do the anxiety levels. Some students can apply to 10 internships or to hundreds and still only hear back from very few.
“It just frustrates me. I think I have applied to like 62 or 67 internships now, and I’ve gotten maybe, like, four interviews out of all of those and no offers yet,” said Peyton Cusick, a junior computer science major.
This is a common issue among college students due to the volume of students applying and the lack of internships. Students have started to apply for as many internships as they can, even if the position does not interest them. Any internship is better than no internship in the eyes of employers and students.
“It definitely depends on what kind of internship you’re applying for,” said Siddhartha Narker, a senior math major. “In tech, it’s hard to get one because you have to have a lot of experience and a lot of technical ability. Generally, they do get pretty competitive, especially for the big companies.”
Narker’s summer internship aided him in landing a post-graduate position with the company starting in May.
Internships are meant to be a positive thing that companies can use to narrow down their hiring pool while also giving young people who are entering the professional workforce a taste of what their future holds. It is meant to be mutually beneficial. However, it seems it causes added anxiety for many students.
Some have learned to play the system to ensure they get interviews from their top choices.
“Most internship application softwares that they use is just, like, a literal robot scanning your resume for buzz words,” Cusick said. “It’s not even a real person looking at the resume or applications, which is also annoying because I can’t even talk to a real person to give me a chance.”
Others suggest one-on-one networking is the way to secure the dream internship.
“The internship market is super competitive right now,” said Brenna McGloin, a senior business major. “It really all depends on how you network. You have to have really good networking skills.”
Regardless of how one lands an internship, the process is still quite the roller coaster. In the end, internships should be an opportunity to widen networks, sharpen skills and learn about a specific position within a field.
“Instead of competing, think about working with your classmates,” Puri said. “That’s the one thing they look for is cooperation. Cooperation, not competition.”
