Internships, They're Awesome

Interning is becoming a common part of College educations, and is an excellent way to start one’s career. During my freshman orientation in business school, the presenting faculty scared us all by telling us we were expected to complete at least 3 internships before we graduated. This tactic worked however, pushing me to start my first internship during my sophomore year. Starting early allowed me to complete more than 3 internships before I graduated, giving me excellent insight into why interning is so valuable.

Interning gives you an edge.

When you graduate college, and begin job searching you will have a degree, which is great, except for the fact that so do hundreds of thousands of other students. And they want jobs too. Interning gives you work experience before you’re finished with school. It allows you to develop valuable skills, and makes you a more qualified candidate than someone without an internship. Especially in today’s current circumstances, anything that sets you apart from your competition is necessary.

Interning let’s you figure out what you like, and maybe more importantly what you don’t.

My internships opened up job possibilities I would have never considered otherwise. (I had never thought of working for a non-profit before I started interning in that sector.) My internships also made me very aware of work I do not enjoy. Interning provides excellent insight into the type of company culture you feel most comfortable with. This allowed me to have a good sense of the type of job/career I wanted to pursue after graduating. A decision most 20-somethings spend a lot of time figuring out.

Interning doesn’t just benefit students.

Employers, you will benefit from having interns just as much as they will benefit from the internship. Interns allow you to increase your organizations capacity. Interns bring fresh insight and new perspective into your organization. Best of all, internships can serve as extended interviews, allowing you to “try-out” a potential new employee before hiring them. Internships can actually benefit entire regions. They create a sustainable workforce, and can encourage students to stay in a region even after they’ve graduated, effectively avoiding a “brain drain”.

Now that I’ve (hopefully) convinced you to get an internship, or hire an intern, I’m going to talk about the Regional Internship Center (RIC). The RIC is an on-line clearing house for students and employers looking for internships/interns. The RIC is an extremely valuable resource to anyone involved with internships in the Southweste
Pennsylvania region. Students can post their resumes, employers can post available positions, and the talented RIC team goes above and beyond to make sure those student and employers have any help they need.

The Regional Internship Center is unveiling their brand new website tonight at Carnegie Mellon University, and we couldn’t be more excited. In addition to being more user-friendly, and aesthetically pleasing, the new website offers great features to make finding and creating internships in Southweste
PA even easier.

Check out the new website at www.theregionalinte
shipcenter.org and find your new internship, or new intern, today.