As a junior in college, it has never been more vital to apply for internships. Don’t let me scare you, it’s not for every major of course. I started out college as a nursing student, I had my whole career laid out and I was getting all of the certifications necessary to get experience in that field and an internship wasn’t one of them. I changed majors at the beginning of my junior year to Communications, and I’ve learned the importance of internships since then.
Apparently, if you want to get into marketing and public relations (or any corporate position), you need experience. I mean, that makes sense when you think about it, but no one talks about how hard it can be to get that experience. You have to carefully curate your LinkedIn account, perfectly develop your resume, and take the time to search and apply to the internships within your parameters. Even with all that, you may not be qualified.
I didn’t realize how much experience you needed to even try to break into your industry after graduation. To be more specific, I’ve been searching for internships in marketing/social media content creation either near UMass Amherst or remotely. For a student internship, I need to have prior job experience, comfortability with graphic design platforms, and a well-developed social media presence of my own or for another brand/company. As a college student, I don’t have that experience yet. That’s why I’m applying to internships: to seek that experience and learn from the position so I can take it into my further endeavors. It turns into a paradigm of not being qualified. Not qualified enough for the entry-level internship position required to be qualified for a post-graduate position.
On top of that, going to a rural college outside of any major city creates even more complications. The only in-person internships are unpaid, and in this economy, it’s very difficult to give time out of the week to not be paid for the work being provided. All of the paid internships are remote, which leads to a big applicant pool making it difficult to stand out without having that strong social media presence.
The worst part is that companies nowadays have given up on contacting you for a rejection. I have applied to dozens of companies and I have only heard back from one. It seems like they’ve taken the idea of “ghosting” to heart. I’m stuck in this spot of not knowing whether or not I’m still being considered for the position, or if I’ve been effectively tossed to the side and forgotten. I don’t need a personalized declaration of the rejection, but just an email stating that I have been rejected would be polite.
Perhaps I’m unique in my experience and other people have no problem getting an internship that they want, but the model that’s been laid out for us is still problematic. It shouldn’t be so difficult to get hired into an entry-level position. The amount of requirements that companies are demanding for free or minimum wage pay is absurd. College students are smarter than you think and they know their worth; they won’t be a mat for companies to step all over and take advantage of because they’re young. Why would someone want to go through the tedious process of applying for an internship and being ghosted by the company when they could work for local businesses and be treated with more respect?
I’m not trying to condemn all internships and businesses and blacklist myself in the corporate space; I’m just trying to give an opinion from a student who’s currently going through the application process. The process is lengthy and stressful and you’re not alone. If you’re struggling to find something and you’re stressed about finding a summer internship, don’t sweat it. Other people are struggling too and an internship isn’t going to make or break your entire professional career.
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