Despite the difficulties of today’s job market the fact remains organizations are continuing to hire. In addition, recent government statistics show that college graduates still command the lowest unemployment rate among all demographics, although the number is still historically high.
So, the good news is that jobs are out there. The bad news is that except for a few specialties the opportunities are fewer, the competition is greater, and the locations may require a major move. And finally, that dream job may not be available at all, requiring significant compromise. In fact, even public service jobs, such as AmericaCorp, are massively oversubscribed with applicants. So what should a new grad do?
One option is an internship. I well understand that a realistic appraisal of personal or family economic conditions may preclude any alternative to finding a full time paid position. But for many, especially young people who can live at home and/or combine a part-time job with an internship, this may be a short-term viable option.
The advantages of an internship are substantial. An internship is a wonderful opportunity to work in an area that has relevance to your career aspirations. It is also a relatively low-risk way to really test your goals, especially if the internship offers some meaningful access to the organization and its challenges. In fact many internships do enable an ambitious graduate with clear career goals to test whether these goals make sense. It is not exactly the same as having real responsibility and being tested in the crucible of budgets, sales quotas, customer deadlines, profit and loss metrics, and project deadlines, but it does provide access to those who do.
An internship is an excellent way to become familiar with the business, cultural and work demands of a going enterprise. It provides an opportunity to start a network, a critical resource in the job search. An internship also enables access to resources for learning, particularly if the position is an assistant to a senior manager.
The search for an internship requires skills similar to the job search. They include:
- Clearly articulating the type of internships most suitable to your career goals.
- Researching those organizations that might be both a good fit and provide the right type of learning environment.
- Identifying resources to help explore options, research opportunities, and examine alternatives.
- Developing marketing material to promote yourself successfully such as a resume, cover letter and a portfolio
- Building a strategy that points in the right direction with an action plan that supports those goals that include intensive networking.
- Sharpening interviewing skills and learning how to prepare for that crucial interview with research, responding to those challenging questions, and creating that strong positive impression.
School and other resources can be invaluable such as the career services office, networking opportunities with staff, career fairs, company websites and, of course, family connections.
One underutilized, but highly effective tool is a well crafted portfolio of achievements, awards, letters of recommendation, notable events (sports, academic, volunteer work), hobbies and artifacts that represent the best of your accomplishments.
You can use it to highlight your work and academic experience in a way that helps both you and the interviewer follow your achievements as you have grown. When you create the portfolio, you have to take a very hard look at yourself and pull out all your accomplishments and attributes.
When you present yourself to prospective employers you start off with a blank slate. The challenge is presenting a positive, believable and accurate picture of yourself that has substance and credibility. A portfolio provides a comprehensive record of accomplishments and adds credibility. Many people never take the time to thoroughly examine themselves, but knowing who you are can help you establish yourself with an interviewer to achieve goals. In fact, you can learn a lot about yourself going through the exercise of gathering all the artifacts and information for the portfolio.
Portfolios are now being developed for cyberspace as well.
Some refer to these portfolios as personal websites or Career Web Portfolio. These portfolios are much simpler than the full portfolio, but still gives the job seeker a very powerful tool to get in front of the interviewer in a visual manner.
Internships are not for everyone. But the right internship can be a genuine start in the right direction for a fulfilling career.