Gabriella Blanco/ Staff Writer
Graduating college and sliding into your dream job is the ideal for many graduates. Too bad time has made that as fictional as the American Dream.
If you want to dive into their field right away, then seniors and recent graduates need to get an internship. I’m about to graduate, so I understand how much you want to start working after trudging through four or more years of academics, tuition and stress.
But you should be aware that most jobs nowadays demand more than one year of experience, and the only way to get that experience is to start small.
The most successful careers happen to those who literally start from the bottom to get to the top. It might seem demeaning to take an internship after graduation, but sometimes, that’s the only way to go.
There’s nothing to lose by accepting a few internships the first year post-graduation. It’s better to tuck them under your belt to build up that experience section on your resume.
Building yourself up to your dream job through an internship could even help you figure out if this is what you truly want to do in life. Unlike picking and changing majors back in freshman year, dropping a career is harder to do. That’s why, with an internship, you get a taste of the real world in your field and you get to decide if it’s the path for you.
There’s another thing about internships that may explain why some people aren’t too keen on them: the pay and likelihood of being hired as an employee is slim. Interns being underpaid or unpaid despite all the work they do has been a long-running joke for a reason.
But that isn’t to say that every internship is unpaid.
Depending on your field, paid internships can be easily found. However, there may be opportunities that start off unpaid and are later upgraded to a paid status after a period of time. The money may not be much, but it’s a start.
As for landing a job offer from who you’re interning for, it’s as likely as it is impossible. Just like getting a full-fledge career, it all takes time.
Post-graduation life is all about patience, so just keep your head high and your options open.
DISCLAIMER:
The opinions presented within this page do not represent the views of Panther Press Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect individual perspectives of contributing writers and/or members of the University community.
Photo by Vasily Koloda on Unsplash.
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