Summer Internship Gone? Now What?

There is no denying that COVID-19 is affecting our economy. Every industry is having to re-evaluate the company and employers, leading to many summer internships getting canceled, including mine. I was supposed to be working as a marketing intern for Comcast in Portland, Oregon. I was extremely excited about the opportunity to practice all that I have learned for a real corporation. When I was on the internship hunt, I just kept saying, “I just want a company to give me a chance I know that I can do it.” Well, there it was a company that was willing to give me a chance. Unfortunately, I will not be able to show that I “can do it.” So now what? 

With many internships getting canceled, it does put a bit of stress on students thinking about post-grad. Many companies want to employ people with experience, but many students will not be able to get that experience with the canceling of internships. I have talked to students that had their internships canceled, who expressed the same amount of concern about how this will affect their job application process in the future. There is nothing that we can do about it, but many students have this, so now what feeling? Right, when my school switched to online, one of my teachers stated one thing that stuck with me, “keep creating.” Every day I think about that. Keep creating is the answer to the so now what question that many of us are asking. We have to keep making stuff and practicing the skills that we hoped to show in our internships. When we get back to normal life and begin to apply for jobs, we have to show that we are adaptable and capable of any task. Spend the time to create work that you can showcase to future employers. Start passion projects, work on your brand and message. So when prospective employers ask why they should hire you even though you have no internship experience, you can say, “My summer internship got canceled, but I spent my time working on this so I could keep practicing my skills.” So the internship is gone; it does not mean that the drive and determination have to go. I plan on holding myself to my word and start some new projects this summer and practice new skills that I have wanted to try. May this be a summer full of creativity.