JUMPSTART
YOUR CAREER IN COLLEGE
I wish I could
require every student in every major to become involved in as many
internships, volunteer activities, and work experiences as possible
before graduating. Whatever form it takes and whether it's on or
off campus, paid or unpaid, engagement teaches valuable lessons.
Through these activities, which run the gamut of doing for others
to doing for yourself, you learn about being a world citizen, being
mindful of neighbors, joining the community to change what's wrong,
sampling the good work of others, defining and finding yourself.
Through these
activities which you yourself choose you can learn about where your
family has come from, who you are now, and who you want to be. You
learn this very often in comparison with others who have very different
experiences and backgrounds. Never before has a college campus been
such a microcosm of the whole world with foreign students, those
who have emigrated here with their families, and those from different
races, religions, economic backgrounds - all with different ideas
and values and histories. College is often your first chance to
find friends from a more diverse student body than you could have
ever imagined. And you'll be surprised by the people you come to
care about through working together in a soup kitchen, a cancer
walk, a work-study assignment in the student activities office,
or interning together for a biotech company.
Make yourself
search out these opportunities, sample them, and sign up. You may
find, as so many other students have revealed, that through these
so-called extracurricular experiences that college takes on new
meaning.
Internships
Internships are a real-world, practical complement to classroom
theory. Going outside of college, whether you're paid for it or
not, provides a great perspective to find out more about what exists
in the world as well as more about what exists inside you. Taking
the chance to make the match between your talents and your interest
in the real world is one of the challenges of college. This kind
of opportunity lets you learn more about an industry, company, special
interest or cause to help you determine how and where to start your
careering process.
Some internships
offer a salary; some don't. But even if you don't get paid, you'll
have a chance to experience an organization firsthand, test whether
you enjoy its work, possibly find a 'home' for yourself, and if
so, land a job offer.
Typically short-term,
internships usually begin with fairly menial tasks within an organization.
You are often assigned to be a gofer, running errands and performing
small necessary tasks for anyone who needs something done. Or sometimes
you are assigned to assist one person who might be working on one
special project. Either way, both these kinds of assignments have
their advantages.
Being assigned
at large lets you see, albeit superficially, a lot more of what
goes on within the organization. This general shotgun approach opens
doors for you to make connections with any number of people. It's
the equivalent of "mailroom" duty for a talent agency,
television network or movie studio. You must notice who does what,
and what interests you. Then it's up to you to make yourself known,
liked, and appreciated by offering help above and beyond your assignment.
Your future steps depends on the links you forge. This test of attitude
is so powerfully necessary that a few studios have set a policy
of limiting their investment in inexperienced people. They will
hire you for the mailroom for only six months with the provision
that if you can't make a connection inside in the period of time,
you're not suited to work which is so heavily dependent on transactional
behavior. Other kinds of businesses don't hire through mailroom.
Accounting firms for example, find a better investment in hiring
experienced accountants than going through the expense of training
inexperienced men and women who may turn out to be unsuited to the
firm.
On the other
hand, landing a specific assignment gives you direct experience
in learning the difficulties and rewards of working together with
a team. You become better known to the people you work with because
the group is smaller. Either way, students report that their internship
are the very best way to find out what goes on, test whether it's
for you or not, then if it is for you, get the edge on a potential
job, or if it's not, change directions.
Read
more in Adele Scheele's Jumpstart Your Career in College. Get your
copy today!
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