Internship recruitment can be a grueling process that spans weeks, even months. With summer internship season coming in the near future, I wanted to talk about why getting internships outside of our majors is so underrated. Throughout our college careers, it’s normal and even expected to wonder about our career paths and the decisions that we’re making today that could impact our futures.
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With that in mind, seeking internships outside of our majors can be a healthy choice that can teach us new skills and allow us to embrace different facets of ourselves. For example, as a neuroscience student, STEM classes are a major part of my semesters and while STEM fields are creative in their own right, I have come to find different skill sets that I would like to explore while I’m at college.
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While not everyone wants to turn their hobbies into a job, there are others that have an interest in things that could lead them to land an internship. Not having enough experience in outside fields could lead students away from looking for opportunities outside of their majors and even their own majors but taking initiative can go a long way.
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By utilizing social media, especially LinkedIn, you can get to know people inside the industry you’re interested in exploring. You don’t necessarily have to pull out the “let’s get a cup of coffee” card to everyone you want to network with but conducting informational interviews is a great way to know more of the everyday life of someone working in that company you’ve been eyeing.
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You can also create your own personal website or blog, using websites like Wix or Medium, where you can keep a record or portfolio of sorts that you’d want to share to a recruiter. There is a fine line between taking your interests and hobbies to the next level to explore your options and taking the joy out of what you do in your free time. It can be a worthwhile shot to hone in more into what you love to do outside of your classes if you’re feeling burned out from your major or unsure of what you want to do next. With online classes and even online extracurriculars, our daily routines can feel monotonous so why not seek something outside of our usual routines or comfort zones?
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Every interest is worth exploring and expanding and could lead students to see if a certain profession is right for them or know with certainty that it’s not for them. It’s also another chance to see a different work culture that can differ greatly from our majors’ daily work culture. In certain corporate cultures, it’s hard to see your impact on a company or clients while in others, you can get direct face-to-face interaction with the people you’re impacting.