The Benefits of Summer Internships for College Students
May 3, 2011 by admin
Filed under College Students
With nearly three-quarters of students enrolled in four-year colleges and universities taking on at least one internship during their school career. The benefits of internships for college students (and even recent graduates) include—but are certainly not limited to—the following:
Learn more about your field or industry. Along with job shadows and informational interviews, internships are one of the best ways to truly learn about your field from a real-world perspective. While the classroom certainly teaches students important information, there’s something different about implementing those teachings with a real client or customer.
Apply knowledge learned in the classroom. Again, there’s a big difference between learning about strategies and tactics and actually applying them. Interning for an organization helps students learn how their classroom knowledge applies to real situations and reinforces concepts taught in classes.
Gain valuable work experience. In most fields, no longer can a college graduate land an entry-level job with merely a bachelor’s degree and no prior work experience. Internships help students get this real-world experience while still in school. Internship programs are a great way to generate more work samples for your professional portfolio and give you real accomplishment stories for your resume and online profiles.
Decide if this is the right path for you. Working for a company in your industry can give you valuable insight into whether or not the industry is the right choice for you, potentially avoiding the costs of obtaining a degree in a field you’re not interested in. It’s best to know as early as possible, and an internship can help you do that.
Develop and build upon skills. Learning new skills in an internship can help you in future employment opportunities and might give you a leg up on your competition in future application processes…
Read the original content at usnews