When you’re already consumed with classes and extracurricular activities, adding an internship might seem daunting, but the benefits of interning far outweigh the costs for many college students. By taking an intern-level position in your desired career path, you can gain real-life experience to round out your college degree, not to mention make connections that may serve you well when school ends. Just how much do internships matter to the college experience? What can you expect to gain? To help answer these questions, here’s a closer look at some of the short-term and long-term rewards that come from interning during your college years:
- College Credit: Many universities already recognize the value of internships enough to make them count toward college credits. This means working in your intended career path could move you faster toward your degree, while also giving you great experience. If you aren’t sure about your own school’s policy, ask your advisor about how the process works.
- Real-World Experience: Whether you’re majoring in education, biology, accounting or art history, taking an internship in your field gives you a way to experience not just the academics of a particular subject matter, but also real-life experience. Rather than just listening to lectures and taking tests related to your expected career path, you get a way to practice the career you’re moving toward, learning whether or not it is indeed for you. This is not only an advantage for you, but also it’s an advantage for future employers, especially since 95 percent of them say candidate experience factors into hiring decisions, according to research cited at Quint Careers.
- Extra Money: Not all internships are paid, of course, but the ones that are amount to what’s essentially a temporary job, giving you extra spending or school money even as they give you new experience. Many will pay entry-level or even higher wages as an incentive for enticing top talent.
- Future Job Connections: Taking the future job potential even further, according to an article at CNN, one of four interns at The McTigue Financial Group in Chicago, a network office of Northwestern Mutual, become financial representatives with the company after graduation. What’s true at that business is true at many others — companies often promote from within, particularly from their internship pool. The same article says that the possibility of gaining a future job through an internship has raised the quality and number of applications for internships today, as well as the expectations on the part of the employer and the new hire. While you may be getting coffee as an intern, you may also be performing an increasing number of skill-driven tasks.
- Relevant References: Even if you don’t walk away from an internship with a job offer, you likely will earn the connections that mean great reference letters and recommendations for other roles. As Penny Loretto writes at About.com, “By doing a great job and completing more than what is required of you in your internship, you will be creating a great impression that can provide a great reference letter at the least … when you leave the organization at the end of the internship, you should ask for a recommendation letter that you can keep on file for future reference.”
- Increased Salary Potential: Another asset of taking a college internship is that it ups your value in the eyes of employers significantly enough to increase your starting salary. Just as employers typically offer more pay to candidates with more job experience, they also usually offer higher wages to candidates who’ve worked relevant internships.
- Increased Confidence: Nothing prepares you for a job in a particular field better than working in it. With an internship, you gain relevant skills and confidence so that when you do enter the working world, you know you have the qualifications to do it well.
Whether you’re at the beginning of your college career or nearing graduation, consider the benefits that come from an internship in your field. Not only will you show future employers that you’re qualified, but you’ll also give yourself greater knowledge and confidence to move forward.
Alison Blankenship works in the marketing department at TextBook Rush. For 6 years, she has been focused on user experience and engagement.