Your Career Timeline is Unique to You

As a generation, we are beginning to understand that social media is everyone’s highlight reel and that comparing yourself to what you see online is not good for your mental health. I think we also need to acknowledge that this includes comparing your career timeline to someone else’s. As college students, it’s very easy to feel like you are falling behind in terms of planning for your life after college. I recently fell victim to this ploy right before Christmas when I saw a bunch of fellow sophomores announcing their impressive summer internships on LinkedIn. 

It’s important to remember that we are all on different paths. As a pre-law student, many of the internships that would be of interest to me are not posted until after the first of the year, with deadlines as late as May 1st. Many of the internship announcements that I have seen were in the finance/economics markets. Finance/economics is an extremely broad field, and so even within this area, internship timelines appear far vaster.

One of my best friends, who is studying Engineering at UMass Amherst, recently had a career crisis after someone informed her that she wouldn’t make a lot of money in her desired career path. I’m sure we’ve all heard the advice that money shouldn’t matter if you’re in a job that you love and are happy in. However, for a lot of people, money can be a motivating factor. Many people could also argue that it can’t hurt to be making a lot of money fresh out of college to pay off any debt. However, I still think it’s ridiculous that someone said this to her, because engineers do actually make a lot of money. A starting salary for an engineer in Boston can be six figures, which is objectively, a lot of money. Obviously some careers do make more than others, but don’t let that deter you from doing what you want to do. Money can be a very taboo topic, but it’s important to note that not everyone is going to make the same amount of money. Career paths are also not linear. What you make your first year may be doubled before your third year if you work hard enough or the company blows up.

So, in terms of internships, please don’t panic when you see someone on LinkedIn announcing their “exciting opportunity for the summer”. If you want to work instead, do that. If you want to take the summer off, do that. Also remember that some fields have a lot of available internships, while others do not. Some require prior experience, and some are not even open to undergraduates. The amount of internships that I thought sounded interesting and looked into only to find out they were only open to law students was astronomical. 

If you’re worried about having internships to apply to grad school, don’t be. At a recent Pre-Law Society meeting, they told us that it’s actually better to do something that makes you stand out. The guest speaker had done over a year of psychology research before even deciding to apply to law school. That was not an internship, nor was it related to law in any way. He believed that this opportunity made him stand out amongst other applicants. 

It can also be difficult when you hear that someone’s summer internship offered them a full-time position after graduation, when yours did not. Do not discredit the knowledge and experience that internship gave you. There will be plenty of job opportunities that come your way. Who knows, that person may not even like their job once they adjust to working full time and may switch career paths entirely. No one career path is entirely linear. Weigh your options, but at the end of the day, your faith in yourself and satisfaction with what you’re doing is the most important thing. Comparison kills self-confidence, so avoid it as best as you can.