Throughout America, many students in their late teens and early twenties spend their summers working in restaurants, shops, or amusement parks, their goal to make money to use towards their next year of school.
At Tufts, however, many students feel the need to procure not just any summer job, but a summer internship. Many seek internships to gain insight into an industry, while others believe it is necessary to have a professional summer position on their resume to help them work up the corporate ladder and give them a leg up over the increasingly stiff competition for jobs after graduation.
With the economy in its current slump, many University students seem to be having a difficult time finding internships. This difficulty, when coupled with the increased pressure to acquire an internship, is proving problematic.
Senior Jon Bram blames the economy for causing his difficulty in finding an internship this summer. "I had a really hard time finding an internship because of the lousy market," Bram said. "Unless you know someone, [finding an internship] is practically impossible."
Marie McCool, Assistant Director of Internships and Employment Outreach at Career Services, says otherwise. McCool serves as the point person for all areas involving internships, coordinating online services, internship fairs, and the University's Winternship program.
Though fewer paid internships were available this summer due to decreased company budgets, McCool said that "there are still a number of paid internships that are available. It's just more competitive for students, from a student's perspective."
To McCool, networking is the most important aspect of preparing oneself for future internships, "regardless of what's going on in the economy." According to McCool, networking with alumni is key. "[Alumni] came from the same place the student did. They had the same basic training and they know now, with hindsight, what it is [students] could be doing to best position themselves for internships and jobs after college."
Networking is so important because it gives students the chance to determine if a certain industry is right for them. Making the effort to network also shows an investment on the student's part in the company, which a potential employer always likes to see. McCool points out that anyone - parents, friends, neighbors, even professors -- can be a potential networking contact.
Career services offers the online Career Network to help students connect with alumni. One of the perks of the Career Network system is that a student may do a search by major to see the career paths of alumni with that major. "It gives [students] a real world view of the variety of opportunities available even within one major," McCool said.
Professor and former Dean of the Colleges Charles Inouye believes that embracing an unusual internship experience can be immensely rewarding. "The window for you to experiment and do wild things is pretty short," Inouye said. "If you're a city kid, head for the country. If you're a hayseed, like me, maybe you ought to slug it out in Manhattan for the summer."
McCool believes that some internships are not only rewarding, but necessary. "I think the importance of internships has only increased over the past few years, and I don't see the trend stopping," she said. "[Internships'] importance will continue to grow, both from the employers' and the students' standpoint, for a number of reasons."
| When searching the Tufts Career Network's current alumni listings by major, it's clear that even those in the more obscure disciplines can find successful like-minded individuals. | |
| Discpline | Majors Listed |
| American Studies | 53 |
| Biology/Psychology | 45 |
| Education | 28 |
| Engineering | 41 |
| English | 314 |
| International Relations | 436 |
| Mathematics | 58 |
| Medicine | 7 |
| Music | 34 |
| Political Science | 305 |
Additionally, many employers use internships as a recruiting tool, hiring interns for future jobs. Having already trained the interns, the employers can cut down on recruiting costs.
"Having industry experience will only allow a student to make a smarter decision about what they want to do after college," McCool said. "[It will make] them better equipped to make the decision about whether they're better suited for [the job] or not."
McCool maintains that internships allow students another networking opportunity. "Even if that's not the place you want to work, you know other people in the industry," she said. "And those are potential sources for networking."
Though many students and administrators view internships as categorically positive opportunities, some feel that "ordinary" jobs can be just as rewarding. One such student, senior Celyn Takeda, believes that students can sometimes derive as much value from a "typical" summer job as from an internship.
"I've found that internships can be a double edged sword. While you can gain valuable experience in your career path, it's not guaranteed," Takeda said. "I've had an internship that taught me nothing, even though it was in the field I wanted."
"I think a real summer job can be just as valuable because a 'resume builder' job might be just that: a line in your resume," Takeda added.
