Maybe you didn’t start to think about getting an internship until it was too late. Or, maybe you thought about it constantly for two semesters, filled out numerous applications, attended career fairs, and still no internship.
Zip. Nada.
Yeah, it’s unfortunate. I’m sure your friends are posting on Facebook announcing they’ve accepted an internship with "such and such" company or establishment. Maybe you feel like you’re not being proactive towards your future by not having an internship as well.
But, don’t get too stressed out if you’re like me and the internship search was not as bountiful as planned.
Your summer can still be significant even without the resume-building internship you thought you would spend your months off from school pursuing. There are endless ways you can spend your summer to make the most out of the short time you have.
If you’re stressed about appearing attractive to potential employers or anxious about preparing yourself for the career field you want to break into, there are options outside of an internship that can get the job done.
For one, there are websites like edX and Lynda, where you can take courses in your field of preference. For instance, edX is an entirely free service that has courses from Harvard and other universities across the country. EdX provides courses like “Digital Branding and Engagement” and “Debt Sustainability Analysis” that take a deeper dive into subject matter you’re actually interested in and could see yourself using in the real world.
Lynda, while does entail a monthly subscription, does come with a free trial month and courses about everything from the Adobe Creative Cloud suite to software development that could be really helpful in landing a career in a field you’re interested in.
So, while you’re not gaining experience at an advertising firm or accounting firm or successful startup company, you’re gaining experience that you can leverage to showcase not only skills that put you ahead of other applicants, but also some very important character traits.
Taking courses like these shows that you are a motivated individual who takes the initiative to improve yourself. These are traits that are highly transferrable to the workplace, whether that be taking initiative on a project or going above and beyond what your position’s expectations are.
Also, these are traits that cannot be taught. In taking these courses, you signal to your potential employers the kind of employee you are.
This is highly, highly valuable and should not be underestimated.
Secondly, anyone who has to read resumes as part of their job will tell you: it’s less about what position you do and more about the skills you learn from it.
Seriously, whether you intern at Google or for the local community arts outreach program, on hundreds of resumes, the things that stick out are the skills you learned and what you accomplished while you were there.
So, while you currently are internship-less, you can still achieve the same effect by volunteering.
Whether that be at a domestic violence refuge house or a dog shelter or a company in the area that you are interested, when you offer to work for free, people don’t tend to say “No”.
Why volunteering? Well, if you actually commit to it and treat it like an internship, you will become ingrained in the daily function of that organization. You will come to be involved in projects or given responsibilities that expose you to many of the skill sets that other internships teach you.
Plus, given an entire summer’s worth of consistent volunteering, you would be hard pressed to not accomplish or contribute significantly to the operation or success of the organization. Boom. That’s resume gold.
Double plus, employers will appreciate the fact that you didn’t watch Game of Thrones all summer and took the initiative to get involved.
Triple plus, volunteering is a great opportunity to network by creating opportunities to meet new people who may or may not have some experience in a field you are interested in.
Thirdly, for anyone looking at going to grad school, law school, PA school, medical school, or any other form of higher education, there are standardized tests you have to complete. Since you conveniently have this two-month window where you can study and take the GRE, LSAT, or MCAT, do not waste it!
If you are coming up on your senior year, why not rip the Band-Aid off now and take whatever prep courses you need to take now rather than trying to fit it in to your last few semesters?
Chances are you’ll be able to get a higher score because you can focus entirely on preparing for the test and you won’t have to sacrifice your remaining college weekends to taking practice tests.
Finally, if you’re not sure what you want to do after you graduate this home we call Florida State, take this time to figure it out!
Whether that entails taking a road trip to visit grad schools or PA schools or looking into potential locations you might want to move to after you receive your diploma, taking the time to explore where you might want life to take you is a valuable endeavor that helps you get to know what it is you want and what is right for you.
And, there aren’t many windows where you can do that. So, this is a unique opportunity that won’t come around very frequently in the years to come.
While not having a summer structured around an internship is not what you had in mind, it is by no means worthless.
