It's pretty obvious companies don't care about competence anymore. It is all about who you know and not what you know. In other words companies are lemmings and play follow the leader.
How important are internships?
- Thread starter CyFamilyMom
- Start date
It's pretty obvious companies don't care about competence anymore. It is all about who you know and not what you know. In other words companies are lemmings and play follow the leader.
I'll cut to the chase and say she should just get a regular job after freshman year and earn some money. More importantly, have fun during the summer.
I'm a CoD grad and yes portfolio is king but she's not going to get anything portfolio worthy out of an internship this early.
Freshman year will be tough to get one. I tried for some that seemed plausible, but ultimately ended up studying abroad for that first summer. Best choice I could have made. My program gave me relevant project work that was unique from my classmates.
I scored a co-op the next summer and fall semester (May - Dec) and got a ton of really good relevant experience. With it being more than just a summer, that really springboarded me into getting other internships after my junior and senior year.
Worked out well because I took 4.5 years.. and ended up with 4 really good experiences to talk about in interviews that weren't just generic coursework.
I scored a co-op the next summer and fall semester (May - Dec) and got a ton of really good relevant experience. With it being more than just a summer, that really springboarded me into getting other internships after my junior and senior year.
Worked out well because I took 4.5 years.. and ended up with 4 really good experiences to talk about in interviews that weren't just generic coursework.
Completely agree and I didn't do any of those things. My career could have been much different but I can't say in hindsight much better.
What I've done is developed relationships based on my (hopefully) successes at work and how I've dealt with others in my industry (natural gas). Integrity goes a long way in the gas business.
My wife did the other track - internships, clubs etc... and parlayed that into a great job at Lily as an oracle person but she's ALWAYS been more driven than me. I'm the classic over-achieving under-achiever.
Sounds a lot like you are someone who comes across in an interview or even on paper as someone who thinks they know everything and the only reason you don't get the job is due to the hiring managers incompetence. Competency is a bit more ethereal in today's market. Yes there is a bit of who you know in there but that is more tied to the ability to have basic work social skills.
Back to the question originally: Internships matter based on specific industries. Unless you're in a field requiring it then get life experiences out of college. This market isn't as competitive because instead of 32 applicants for every job a lot of companies are looking at 7 or fewer applicants.
As a freshman she might not know what job she wants post college but I'd look at those jobs and see if internships are even relevant. She can likely get a similar value out of doing some volunteer activity in a leadership role while just holding a summer job that she would from an internship at this point.
(coming from a corporate recruitment manager that deals with non stem related openings)
My vote: try to get one as soon as possible, even it it's terrible. A crappy one now will lead to a better one when they're olde
I had one after my 2nd and 3rd year then skipped 4th year (5 year engineer grad), so I could stay in Ames and "party" all summer. Ended up running out of cash that summer and having to live on about $20/week until I could get more loans that fall. It was a long summer and it would've been infinitely better to have actually made some serious cash.
I had one after my 2nd and 3rd year then skipped 4th year (5 year engineer grad), so I could stay in Ames and "party" all summer. Ended up running out of cash that summer and having to live on about $20/week until I could get more loans that fall. It was a long summer and it would've been infinitely better to have actually made some serious cash.
Only read the first page, but if they have any foreign language skills consider looking at a study abroad or international internship. I remember trying to get one at a John Deere plant in Germany during my sophomore year.
Cyclonepride
Thought Police
I'll add that my niece did an internship in the field she thought she was going into, and hated it. She was able to shift gears into something else before it was too late. Definitely some value in that.
Old guy here; most important thing is to treat every job as an internship whether it's called an internship or not. Learn the inputs and the desired outputs and come up with improvements.
When I recruited, I asked the applicant to give me some examples from their work experience of how they handled (insert issue here); not how they would do it but how did they do it. Their answer could come from an internship or any job. The important thing is the approach a person has to the job.
In my day, kids walked the beans and detasseled corn. I suppose they could put that down on the resume as an internship with a seed company developing an organic herbicide or hybrid seed but the title really means nothing unless you learn something. In the end, the decision to pursue an internship will depend on more on her attitude than the job name.
When I recruited, I asked the applicant to give me some examples from their work experience of how they handled (insert issue here); not how they would do it but how did they do it. Their answer could come from an internship or any job. The important thing is the approach a person has to the job.
In my day, kids walked the beans and detasseled corn. I suppose they could put that down on the resume as an internship with a seed company developing an organic herbicide or hybrid seed but the title really means nothing unless you learn something. In the end, the decision to pursue an internship will depend on more on her attitude than the job name.
I did not have any. Played a lot of video games instead. Did not hurt my career any. Worth it.
Your career of marrying a doctor?
I agree with most of what was said above - basically internships are important, but not really after the freshman year.
I think what CyclonePride said was really important - internships are a great way to figure out if you really want to do the career you've picked, because often the day-to-day tasks are not what you envision in class.
It's also a great learning experience to apply and interview for internships, even if she doesn't end up taking one, figuring out how the process works and how to interview will help her later.
Also, I think I'd want my Freshman to stay local for the first summer or two. If there's something in her field locally, I'd say go for it. But if it meant getting an apartment and living on her own in another city, I would advise against it (depending on the kid, of course)
I think what CyclonePride said was really important - internships are a great way to figure out if you really want to do the career you've picked, because often the day-to-day tasks are not what you envision in class.
It's also a great learning experience to apply and interview for internships, even if she doesn't end up taking one, figuring out how the process works and how to interview will help her later.
Also, I think I'd want my Freshman to stay local for the first summer or two. If there's something in her field locally, I'd say go for it. But if it meant getting an apartment and living on her own in another city, I would advise against it (depending on the kid, of course)
Why even go to college or recruit from colleges? They are obviously not valuing the product. Just go start working as that is all the employers seem to care about.
I'd also like to expand upon this idea. The bolded part is all that large employers are looking for. They have become so process driven that the person they want is just plug and play. There is no thinking required anymore. All they need is someone to sit down ,shut up, and follow the book. Trying to find an actual thought from people who call or ask us questions is extremely rare or nonexistent. They simply take what the computer output has flagged and copy paste that to us and demand answers. It's obvious that haven't read or comprehended anything that would have already answered the questions.
Last edited:
When we recruit at ISU for engineering grads, competency isn't really the question. If they are graduating with a degree in engineering from ISU, they have displayed the minimum level of competence for an entry level position.
The rest is about character, work ethic, and people skills. Someone can have a 4.0 GPA, be president of every club on campus, and done internships at the top engineering companies all 4 years. But if they show up late and come off like a douche during the interview, we're not hiring them.
The rest is about character, work ethic, and people skills. Someone can have a 4.0 GPA, be president of every club on campus, and done internships at the top engineering companies all 4 years. But if they show up late and come off like a douche during the interview, we're not hiring them.
Totally agree with this. Unfortunately, we won't see this until they start working. There are great interviewees (I had 2 people recently who came with glowing resume and experience and looked excellent during interview - both ended up not working after couple of months because they had horrible attitude and work ethic) and there are also "fit" factor that is subjective. You can say the same things to different hiring managers and get different responses that could end up getting a job or not.
Back to the original question: that's why internship is useful to stand out during the recruiting process: you have your degree, but your ex-boss(es) will be the one(s) who can provide further insights about your character, work ethics and people skills. Got my first job in the US here because I interned for 3 months in regional accounting firm in WDM. My former boss (blessed his soul in heaven) vouched my character and work ethic to the hiring manager and that made the difference.
