Posts Tagged: summer internships

It’s summer internship season again, and, according to an article on CNN.com, companies are hiring plenty of interns this year, despite–or perhaps because of–the downtown in the economy.

During my colleges years in the mid-1990s, internships were more of a “nice-to-have” rather than a “must-have” credential. I spent two summers working as a camp counselor in Los Angeles and plenty of my friends worked as lifeguards and waitresses. I don’t think it ever hurt us in the job search department. Today, however, it’s not uncommon for college students to spend every summer in a different internship. While I hope that today’s students are still having plenty of fun in the summer sun, it’s a fact that in today’s competitive work world, internships have become essential.

One of the reasons internships are so important is because more and more companies are using their intern programs to replace on-campus recruiting. An internship is now a thinly disguised audition–for both the student and the employer–rather than a charitable learning opportunity. This makes sense: what better way for both sides to find out if a relationship is a good fit than to test it out for a few months before fully committing?

If you’re working as an intern this summer, here are some tips to ace your audition and earn a future offer if you’d like one: (more…)