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You'll soon be a College student, and trust us-you will be busy! You'll have classes, a $6 an hour on-campus work-study job, Dorm friends, class friends, and hopefully, a significant other. You'll have piles of e-mails to reply to, a half-dozen phone messages to deal with, and your pager won't stop buzzing. Then someone tells you to work for free? Are they crazy?

Well, you are if you don't believe that internships are the bread and butter of the job world. There's no shortage of college graduates with decent grades and worthwhile extra curricular involvement. What there is, however, is a huge shortage of graduates who have the grades, credits, and valuable job experience. And how, you ask, do you get that experience while you're still in school?
An internship, of course!

An internship is a job in a field related to your major or Career goal that's either volunteer- or credit-based. Most student interns work for one or two days a week, often around their class schedules. The company gets free help, you get experience, a recommendation, and, if you're lucky, a job offer upon Graduation.

And wait, there's more! Internships have additional benefits. They help you figure out if you're choosing the field that's right for you.

Enrich your Studies with Real-World Experience

As any Career Counselor will tell you, participating in at least one internship
during college is the best thing you can do, short of earning straight As! You'll get a leg up in the job world, big time! Here's some advice from those who have been there:

"As they say on TV, just do it. Chase down those internships. Go to the guidance office, even cold call some places. If there's one company you really want to intern at, be persistent. Write and call and be nice. It's not your school's job to prepare you for the real world. It's yours. Get on it."
~ Jeremy, New York University,
New York, NY

"I was a broadcast journalism major until I set foot in a local newsroom as part of my school's internship program. [I found it was] not a place for me. I changed my major within the week. If I hadn't done that internship I would have wasted four years and too much money to even think about."
~ Carmen, University of Southern
California, Los Angeles, CA

"I would advise new students to start an internship as soon as possible. Get into the habit, and see it as the most important part of your education, in terms of your own learning as well as job experience for the old resume."
~ Amy, University of Oregon,
Portland, OR

"With some internships, you have to be very careful. A lot of employers see college internships as cheap, free labor. Spending two days a week filing papers is not what you want to do, no matter what anyone says about 'working from the bottom. Get your nose dirty poking into everything you can, and make yourself indispensable. When you tell them you're leaving because it's graduation time, you might be surprised at the offer."
~ Jodi, UCLA,
Los Angeles, CA

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