At the beginning of this year, while many of my STEM friends were looking for internships, I was relieved to learn that as an English major, doing an internship before I leave college isn’t necessary for my future success. At the same time, the prospect of finding some way to get hands-on work experience was appealing, especially because college, while great, is ultimately not the real world. But unlike STEM internships, it didn’t seem to me that humanities internships were widely available, except in the realms of political science and the like.
Gladly, I ended up being very wrong! Here at UCR, as part of the University of California system, we help run a program called UCDC, which I was incredibly lucky enough to qualify for. Through it, I was able to secure an internship in the DC Public Library system, and I’ll be helping with archival work and metadata development-– things that will be absolutely crucial knowledge for my time in grad school and my future career as a librarian.
Since then, I realized that there are truly an amazing number of internships out there for humanities majors. The opportunities don’t necessarily fall into your lap, but they actually do exist and are indeed incredibly valuable if you want to get that experience before graduation. If you’re a humanities major and want to get into an internship, I would absolutely recommend looking into what programs your university offers for internships within the country or state you live in! There’s a surprising amount of opportunities that you may not have known about otherwise. Similarly, asking professors who work in your desired field might help you get some leads for a potential internship, or at the very least independent study if that’s an opportunity your school offers.
Job sites like Handshake and LinkedIn can be somewhat helpful; in my experience, Handshake has been more useful since you can search specifically for internships or, at the very least, jobs based at your university, which has the potential to work similarly to an internship – you can develop the skills necessary for a future career, whatever that looks like for you.
Although internships might not be necessary for humanities majors, if you’re itching to get some work experience on your resume that feels relevant to what you’re studying, don’t lose hope. I didn’t think that there would be many chances for internships out there for an English and creative writing major, but I can confidently say that if I managed to secure an internship, I believe that just about any humanities major can.
