It’s impossible to go through college without hearing the word “internship.” Honestly, it’s impossible to go those four years without even slightly thinking of the word. At their very core, internships are supposed to introduce students to the professional world; they are supposed to be gateways that let you explore potential career paths and figure out what you want to do. However, these days it seems like in order to acquire an internship in the first place, you have to already be well on your way in that specific career path, and this is especially challenging for students on the hunt for their first one.
Internships are now a part of the same rat race as applying to college and getting jobs. On the bright side, this has allowed them to become more common and extensively planned, but this has also made them equally competitive. Unfortunately, it seems like a prerequisite for a lot of internships is having an internship before it. No, this is not written in the qualifications, but for the amount of experience and comfort in the field you are expected to have, it seems like you can only get that from another internship.
And that’s where the problem lies.
I completely understand that companies want students who are passionate about the field and will contribute good work. Their employees are already working full-time jobs, and being a teacher is not on any of their to-do lists. But there is a difference between having interest and qualifications and needing to have years’ worth of projects under your research portfolio or 15 programming languages and development platforms in your toolkit.
This isn’t to say that college students should not go out of their way to learn these skills and prepare for behavioral or technical interviews, but it is to say that for those who do not, companies should show them where to begin. What I am asking is not for companies to expect less from students but to be more guiding and transparent about what they want from interns.
They could hold pre-application season bootcamps going over the tools they want applicants to know, or their qualifications section could point applicants to resources that offer training or expertise in the required skills. They could also explain the reasoning behind some of their qualifications, like why they want a specific grade range to apply or why a specific skill is important.
Increased transparency allows students to learn more about the role and also understand more about what is expected of them. These small changes could also lead to a shift within the application process, which itself could be seen as a learning experience, and more applicants could find their career goals attainable. Less discouragement from applications of any sort is always good in the long term.
The idea of an internship was crafted to be mutually beneficial. Students get real-world professional experience, while companies get some extra help and also find potential recruits. In order to keep the mutually-beneficial relationship going in an increasingly competitive professional world, maybe we need a change in perspective in how we view internships and how we aid passionate students in acquiring them.