We're seeing quite a few students coming in asking us about internships. This is great - to have people coming in and asking us about productive uses of their summers is exactly what we want! But some of you are quite concerned that you can't get the 'right' sort of internship, maybe because you're a first year and the schemes you can find are only open to penultimate years.
So I thought I would issue a bit of reassurance.
It does not matter if you are studying, for example, engineering, and can't find an internship with a related company. There are still internships available for first years (just have a look at the programme from our Summer Internship Fair to see the sort of things available).
Yes, these tend to be in finance, or what might be termed 'general management', or in summer camps. But that doesn't mean they are useless as far as you are concerned.
These roles, or organisations, might not be your first, or even second, choice of career or employment sector. But they will still give you very useful experience of using some of the skills that all employers want.
For example, almost every employer wants people who can work well in a team and solve problems. They don't mind that the team of people you worked in was a set of camp counselors in Canada. Or that the problem you solved was how to increase a particular brand's market share. They do care that you had an opportunity to use those skills - and you have a great example to use in one of those competency-based questions employers love to ask you.
You will also learn about the sort of working style and culture you prefer - whether that be relaxed, flexible, likely to change at the last minute, or more predictable and structured. That might make the difference between you applying for a placement in process engineering in a large plant, or a smaller conasultancy that goes into many different companies to help them increase efficiencies in their production.
So go on - try something completely different! You have nothing to lose - and a whole lot of insight and useful skills development to gain!
We are here every day to help you with applications for internships and to answer any of your career questions - click here for times and how to book.
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