Advice for Finding an Internship in a Struggling Economy
Unemployment rates throughout the nation have been rising steadily. Jobs are becoming harder to find for professionals at all stages of their careers. Now many experts say that internships programs are beginning to suffer the effects of the national recession.
One company that recently had to do away with some of their internship positions is Caterpillar, Inc. Those in charge of the business recently announced that they would be decreasing the size of their workforce by around 20 percent, due to the economic strain. As part of this effort, 14 students lost their internship positions with the company.
Sadly, just as these positions become even more important to students they’re becoming scarcer. Now that it’s even harder for those entering the job market to find work, having the competitive edge that participating in an internship program gives an applicant is much needed.
Students who decide to intern and are lucky enough to find a program are more desirable to hiring managers. These individuals are seen as more responsible and as having at least some real work experience under their belts. In addition to this, interns who don’t find a job with the company they worked for before entering the employment market usually at least find themselves with several letters of recommendation. These come in particularly handy for those who have not held jobs while in college.
Although companies may be decreasing the number of internships they provide, only one style of program will likely be effected in a big way; paid internships. Since many of these businesses are having to scale back the size of their professional workforces, they don’t exactly have the money to pour into programs that train students.
Despite this, there should still be plenty of non-paid internships to go around. With offices having to cut the amount of money they spend on workers, many businesses will have a lot of over worked staff members. College students who are willing to work for the experience alone will be in high demand, if for no other reason than to help handle some of the excess work caused by vacant positions.
Those interested in finding an internship should first talk to their advisors, other college professors, or even their campus’ career center. These individuals usually know which businesses are looking for new interns.
If this doesn’t yield any results, social networking may come in handy. Make a list of all the professionals that you know who work in a field you may be interested in and then contact them. They may very well know about companies that are stilling hiring interns. Looking for positions on online internship search sites may also show you some possibilities you wouldn’t have encountered otherwise.
Tags: internships