By: Adam Eskender
Heading into college, you are bombarded with so many options and different responsibilities that you didn’t have when you were in high school. All of those options seem great at first but it can be overwhelming to a lot of students who weren’t prepared to make so many decisions. To help sort through the array of options, here is a four-step plan to help you obtain an internship. This will best prepare you to obtain your dream job after graduation!
1. Set Up LinkedIn and Perfect Your Resume
When you first get into college, you will hear a lot about setting up a LinkedIn page to show off any accolades that you may have earned in high school. A lot of degrees consist of networking in order to succeed so having a LinkedIn can help create valuable connections. You should also build a resume that shows off any experiences that you accomplished before college such as having a retail job which shows off life skills that employers like to see. Then as time goes on throughout college, you must regularly update your profile to show off any new experiences you have completed or been a part of.
2. Join/Volunteer with Different Student Organizations
A great way to succeed in a career path that requires a lot of networking is by making connections through joining student organizations. This will help in job interviews especially if the interviewer was in the same organization. This is because they like to see applicants who come from a similar background since they can better understand the experiences/skills that you gained by being a part of that organization. Also, look out for e-board positions to improve your resume as it shows that you can be a leader. When you join a student organization, don’t be discouraged if you join late in your undergraduate years because you can still gain valuable information from being a member. Student organizations can also help build your LinkedIn profile, especially if you don’t have much work experience. A study by Ohio State’s Student Life showed that being involved in a student organization has a beneficial impact on your journey in life after college.
3. Get an On-Campus Student Job
If there’s time in your schedule, you should look into getting an on-campus student job. When it comes to gaining real-life experiences, universities are a good place to start as they are always looking for students to hire even if you have little experience. It also is a great way to understand what life looks like after college as you have to practice and balance a work-life schedule. While difficult, this is a crucial skill to have by the time you leave college.
4. Apply
After you feel you have accomplished the steps above, put it all together!. That means writing down all the skills you have learned from experiences and showing off any achievements you obtained in your positions. Then, you must organize all the information into your resume and LinkedIn profile. The experiences you can accumulate from three years can lead to results that you never thought were attainable. This isn’t a guarantee that you will get any internship you see, but it’s a good step in the right direction for finding an internship that will be beneficial for your career path in a networking-based system.