Internships, Job Hunting, and Plan B

It is time to apply for fall internships, so I sought advice from the Dean for whom I am presently interning. I had a plan, and thought it was pretty well laid out.

Ha. No.

As it turns out, planning my own career path is like trying to proof read my own resume. Not a good idea.

My Dean runs a large student support center that offers a remarkable range of resources to the students clever enough to take advantage. She displays a great deal of respect for her Coordinators and Assistant Deans and the mutual respect and collaboration within the center is text book quality. Some days, I feel like a bug on the wall, gobbling up great ideas of how it is done, and how it is done well.

The center offers everything from Career Services, Experiential Ed, Community Service Learning, Tutoring, First Year Advising, Undeclared Advising, to Disability Services. Each of these divisions runs a full calendar with workshops and support activities. It has been a fabulous experience because as I rotate through the different areas, I have been able to discover my strengths AND my weaknesses. Passions and Luke-warms. I consider myself a lucky intern.

So – back to the internship application plan:

I was considering the importance of seeking internships at different types of institutions to make myself “more marketable.” Currently, I am interning and studying at a small, private university and I thought I should round out my experiences by interning at a large state institution and a community college.

Through our conversation, she helped me understand many things, and here is what I walked away with:

• I should be job hunting. NOW. (as well as applying for internships). Seek out all the opportunities through Career Services and get my resume and interview skills polished up. Seek advice from the Assistant Dean of Career Services. He is connected in my field and will have more advice.

• Seek internships where I might fit best in terms of personality and passions instead of simply adding notches to my belt.

• Be realistic about time management. Add the commute time into the internship hours, time needed for family, studies, eating, sleeping and grocery shopping.

• Don’t forget about the price of gas. Consider the expense of the commute to the internship site.

• Given the economy, seek additional volunteer experiences that could be aligned with “Plan B.” If not at a college or university, where else might my masters degree be marketable, and where could I see myself being successfully employed? Go there and volunteer. Become known.

• One of the schools I was considering for an internship, has recently been shaken up by questions of possible improper financial expenditures and is under investigation. My Dean’s advice? Wait until the dust settles. THEN apply for an internship there.

• Apply to the large state institution, but consider the competition when applying. Also, consider the environment. Coming from a small private school where cross division collaboration reigns, to a large state school where compartmentalization rules means the internship experience would be narrowly focused and a completely different culture. Would I be happy there? Would I be growing there? Or was I just trying to pad my resume. Consider the potential quality of the experience.

If you are applying for internships, what advice have you been offered and what tact are you taking? If you are already a Student Affairs professional, what thoughts do you offer your students?