What exactly IS an internship

[teller80]

My son started community college this fall, and his adviser suggested he look into getting an internship for his major (business/management). I've always heard the term, but never really thought about what it was specifically. It can't be just a job, is it? If not, how is it different? And assuming he gets one next summer, all he'll of had at that point is one year of college so it isn't like he'll have many skill sets. Thoughts?

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

My son started community college this fall, and his adviser suggested he look into getting an internship for his major (business/management). I've always heard the term, but never really thought about what it was specifically. It can't be just a job, is it? If not, how is it different? And assuming he gets one next summer, all he'll of had at that point is one year of college so it isn't like he'll have many skill sets. Thoughts?

Yes it is a job. But not usually something you can just walk in the door and apply to. It is most often intended to be on the job skills training in a Field that correlates with your degree and/or career interests. Some are paid but often it is unpaid.

I had an internship in the promotions department of a tv stations. I was able to shadow the promotions director and assist with things she did and she even allowed me to help write promotions.

My husband was an engineering student. His interned up was paid and was a full time gig for a semester at an engineering company doing "engineer" things. ( I am not an engineer so I don't now what things those would be.). It is practically impossible for him to be hireable me without the practical experience. Engineering companies want new grad hires to be able to go right in to working and not spend 3-6 months training then how to apply book knowledge.

It really depends on he field and career interests . The school should have something to assist with finding an internship. My college (pre digital age) had a huge file of internship opportunities. When he can apply depends upon the internship and any pre-reqs they have.


Internships can also be for college credit.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Basically it is a job applying for business internships.

The more you get under your belt the better you are able to market yourself for a well paying position upon graduation.

It is competitive with a lot of requirements, one being your GPA. Deadline dates are important to note.

 

[NewRVLady]

My son had a 6 month internship after college
Paid a wage-lowish-he lived in a room in a home outside NYC ,they provided list
He did the grunge work and shadowed other designers
They hired him full time and big salary boost-moved to apartment
He is now a senior designer at the firm-8 years later

 

[wvjules]

I am doing an internship now for a federal agency in DC. Doing an internship is part of my graduation requirements which I originally hated but now that I'm in my job and learning more about my career field, it is a good idea. I applied for many internships and none of them were unpaid. This one pays well, for someone just starting out, not so much for me. :/

I am part of the federal government pathways program. All assigned duties are to assist in our career deveopment. No coffee making, filing, copying, etc. It is intented to be a "pathway" to federal employment. I really like it. I'm an auditor. I started out doing e-data testing and auditing in assistance of the permenant auditors but I have now been given cases of my own to work. It's not the type of auditing I want to eventually end up doing but it fulfills my educational requirments for Penn State as well as my experience for the CPA license as I will have 2000 hours of CPA-verified work. So it's a win-win for me. I may have taken a HUGE pay cut and gotten a nightmarish commute but to me it is worth the pain and suffering inthe short term for the long term benefits I will get from it. Oh,I also have a mentor that is to help me with my career development plan. I have a plan of what I want to learn and do and he is to find jobs that provide me that experience.

Good luck to your son. I highly recommend internships now. He will get experience while getting an education and that is invaluable.

Here is more information on the Pathways program.
https://www.usajobs.gov/StudentsAndGrads

I'm not sure where you are but I'm in the DC area and there are A LOT of them available here. I haven't really looked at other geographic locaitons but I'm sure they have some too.

 

[DopeyDame]

It's a job, but a good internship will also have a large on-the-job training component. It's also for a short, defined period of time. You're there for 3 or 6 months or so, and then you leave. So it's an easy way for both the student and the company to do a "test run" without any long term commitment.

I'm an engineer and we have interns every summer. (I also interned for the 3 summers I was in college.) Experiences vary, but good employers will try to find some type of meaningful work for the intern to do over the summer, and also include them on the big stuff going on - any big design presentations, tests, deployments, etc.

Another big difference between and internship and "just a job" is that an internship is a job that the student wouldn't be able to get. For example, as a freshmen engineering major, no one was going to hire me as an engineer. But I was able to be an intern. Sure, I could have gotten a "job" in retail or something, but that clearly wouldn't have been a professional experience for me.

Hope this helps!

 

[Colleen27]

It really depends. Ideally an internship is a job that offers on the job training and real world experience in the student's field of study, which allows him to build his resume, network with others in his field, and prepare for the world after college. But you have to look for the right opportunities and steer clear of situations where companies are exploiting the internship label as a means of avoiding hiring adequate support staff. An internship that involves mostly getting coffee, changing print toner, and doing other low-skill office chores doesn't offer a professional edge.

 

[design_mom]

I agree. An internship is generally for a specified period of time and involves on-the-job mentoring and training. They don't expect you to have all the skills when you arrive and will help teach you the skills.

The benefit is that you have some real-world experience in your field when you graduate, which hopefully will make it easier for you to find a full-time position in your field. But, as some other posters have mentioned, you need to be careful that you're going to get the experience you want/need... and not be the "errand boy" or something.

I interned for a summer in graphic design, which in turn led them to offer me a part-time job while I finished school and a full-time job upon graduation. I have also been the mentor to a number of summer interns.

 

[Southernmiss]

Also, in my experience, many internships are garnered through connections at the college the student attends.

My brother had a fabulous electrical engineer internship about 20 years ago that led to his long term successful career with a power company.

My son has an internship now as a receptionist with an accounting firm that handles medical clients. DS was "highly encouraged" to apply for this internship by one of his professors. Seems as if they were looking for just the right person and the professor recommended ds. The last 2 people who had the same internship are still with the firm and have moved up after completing their degrees. DS is now a junior in college, but got the internship before he had any accounting classes at all. It's given him a great taste of the a different aspect of the accounting world that he would not have been exposed to otherwise.

 

[wvjules]

Also, in my experience, many internships are garnered through connections at the college the student attends.

My brother had a fabulous electrical engineer internship about 20 years ago that led to his long term successful career with a power company.

My son has an internship now as a receptionist with an accounting firm that handles medical clients. DS was "highly encouraged" to apply for this internship by one of his professors. Seems as if they were looking for just the right person and the professor recommended ds. The last 2 people who had the same internship are still with the firm and have moved up after completing their degrees. DS is now a junior in college, but got the internship before he had any accounting classes at all. It's given him a great taste of the a different aspect of the accounting world that he would not have been exposed to otherwise.

How is being a receptionist considered an internship?

 

[NewRVLady]

How is being a receptionist considered an internship?

Read her post- they KEEP these folks after graduation!!

Some if my sons grunt work was pretty silly too- driving all over the place and buying products at stores( they were designing things for a competitor in each case) . Son said it really helped him learn the area , esp when he stayed there

 

[NotUrsula]

How is being a receptionist considered an internship?

It's dues-paying facetime. In some professions it is a test to see if you are willing to do what you're told no matter how dull or irrelevant you think it is. In others there is just a long tradition of using students as unpaid labor.

I'm a librarian, and typically we don't do true internships, but they are gaining ground lately. The old tradition was that you did part-time paid library work while in school, and then moved up to full-time paid work once you got your degree. Interns are cheaper because you don't have to pay them, which is attractive to government agencies in times of budget stress.

 

[wvjules]

Read her post- they KEEP these folks after graduation!!

Some if my sons grunt work was pretty silly too- driving all over the place and buying products at stores( they were designing things for a competitor in each case) . Son said it really helped him learn the area , esp when he stayed there

I read her post. It sounds like he is a receptionist and can possibly be hired as an accountant after graduation. No where does it say he does any accounting. I don't know about you but to me an accountant and receptionist are different jobs.

IMO, for it to be an internship he needs to do accounting. Not receptionist type of work. What I love about my internship is they aren't even allowed to give me that type of work. Everything I do has to be directly related to my career goals. Grunt work doesn't meet that qualification and I would learn abosoutely nothing from it.

 

[wvjules]

It's dues-paying facetime. In some professions it is a test to see if you are willing to do what you're told no matter how dull or irrelevant you think it is. In others there is just a long tradition of using students as unpaid labor.

I'm a librarian, and typically we don't do true internships, but they are gaining ground lately. The old tradition was that you did part-time paid library work while in school, and then moved up to full-time paid work once you got your degree. Interns are cheaper because you don't have to pay them, which is attractive to government agencies in times of budget stress.

Again, to me, face-time and paying dues isn't an internship. An internship is basically on the job training. It sounds like the old tradition was an internship. Isn't library work part of being a libriarian and it is on the job training?

 

[sonnyjane]

How is being a receptionist considered an internship?

It's dues-paying facetime. In some professions it is a test to see if you are willing to do what you're told no matter how dull or irrelevant you think it is. In others there is just a long tradition of using students as unpaid labor.

My public relations internship was paid ($10/hour) but I was still a peon. I sat at the front desk answering phones and welcoming clients (receptionist). i also was in charge of stuffing, sealing, and adding postage to hundreds of envelopes a day as this was back when press releases were still mailed out by hand. I did end up getting hired after my 5 month internship was over, but most internships are just at NotUrsula said - a way for companies to get students to do their dirty work for little to no money. It's part of working your way up the ranks.

 

[sonnyjane]

Again, to me, face-time and paying dues isn't an internship. An internship is basically on the job training. It sounds like the old tradition was an internship.

Just being there and seeing the inner workings of the company is "on the job training". Some companies let the interns do more than others, but my friends and I did several internships in the communications world and mostly did all the same stuff no matter what company. Even though we weren't "working" we were still learning. For example, they'd ask us to attend meetings to write down the minutes. Seems like a crappy job but sitting in on the meeting itself is "on the job training". Sometimes we were couriers for the boss and would drive around town dropping off files. Other times it was as mundane as alphabetizing records. I would never expect that an intern would have their own clients or even their own projects that weren't approved prior to submission by an actual employee.

 

[wvjules]

My public relations internship was paid ($10/hour) but I was still a pee-on. I sat at the front desk answering phones and welcoming clients (receptionist). i also was in charge of stuffing, sealing, and adding postage to hundreds of envelopes a day as this was back when press releases were still mailed out by hand. I did end up getting hired after my 5 month internship was over, but most internships are just at NotUrsula said - a way for companies to get students to do their dirty work for little to no money. It's part of working your way up the ranks.

Those aren't internships then. I'm not sure what to call them but certainly not an internship.

Pee-on? The peed on you?

 

[sonnyjane]

Those aren't internships then. I'm not sure what to call them but certainly not an internship.

Pee-on? The peed on you?

Curious how old you are (ballpark). That was very common of internships when I was in school. These internships were all done for college credit as well. We just had to write a paper about what we learned. They were organized through the university. I was lucky that I at least got some type of pay. Some were completely unpaid!

 

[wvjules]

Curious how old you are (ballpark). That was very common of internships when I was in school. These internships were all done for college credit as well. We just had to write a paper about what we learned. They were organized through the university. I was lucky that I at least got some type of pay. Some were completely unpaid!

I am 41.

For my education requirment I had to do journal entries every day about what I learned. I also had to be evaluated mid-internship and when I complete my 300 hours. Then I have to give a presentation. I have completed my hours, evaluations and journal entries. I just need to make the presentation and then I've completed the PSU educational requirment of my for-credit internship.

For the intership requirements of my job (we acutally had to sign an agreement) I get treated just like every other employee. I am on the same federal evaluation cycle, same sick and annual leave accumulations, same GS pay schedule, same telework opportunities, and now I do the exact same work as the full-time auditors. The only difference is that my audits, currently, are those with no obvious complicating factors. Having to do grunt work would be useless. It does not enhance your education or experience, at least in my opinion it does not.

Oh, and it wasn't provided through the university nor did they assist in obtaining it. I had to seek out and apply for all internships. I landed a great one.

 

[sonnyjane]

I am 41.

For my education requirment I had to do journal entries every day about what I learned. I also had to be evaluated mid-internship and when I complete my 300 hours. Then I have to give a presentation. I have completed my hours, evaluations and journal entries. I just need to make the presentation and then I've completed the PSU educational requirment of my for-credit internship.

For the intership requirements of my job (we acutally had to sign an agreement) I get treated just like every other employee. I am on the same federal evaluation cycle, same sick and annual leave accumulations, same GS pay schedule, same telework opportunities, and now I do the exact same work as the full-time auditors. The only difference is that my audits, currently, are those with no obvious complicating factors. Having to do grunt work would be useless. It does not enhance your education or experience, at least in my opinion it does not.

Oh, and it wasn't provided through the university nor did they assist in obtaining it. I had to seek out and apply for all internships. I landed a great one.

Ahhh. Government jobs are entirely different.