Internships 101: Frequently Asked Questions
INTERNSHIPS 101: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: What is an internship?
A: An internship is a position in a business that offers students or recent graduates an opportunity to use skills learned in the classroom and gain others It is a “real-world” experience in a chosen field.
Q. Do I need an internship?
A: In a word, “Yes.” First, you need real-world experience, work that will become part of your portfolio. Second, you need an opportunity to interact with practitioners in your career field. Next, you need a chance to observe the work environment that you hope to make your career.
Q: Why is an internship important?
A: In addition to work experience, internships will make you competitive in your pursuit of a job after graduation. Internships provide essential opportunities for you to build on your professional network. They will help you make career choices and give you an idea of what you want to do — and often what you don’t want to do — with your career.
Q: Should I get more than one internship?
A: You should get as many internships as possible. More is better, as they will give you more opportunities to refine and augment your skill set and make yourself more versatile and appealing as a job candidate.
Q: What if I have just one internship before graduation? Am I doomed?
A: Well, not necessarily. If you have work experience that complements your career aspirations or you have work samples from volunteer work in organizations, you can build a perfectly credible portfolio.
Q: So the key to an internship is practicing skills learned in the classroom.
A: Precisely and, along the way, learning new ones. Internships are also experiences in which you can learn from your mistakes. This is also a time to practice having a good work ethic. Work hard and carefully. Get to work early and be willing to stay late. Show your eagerness. Take a professional approach to your work.
Q: I’ve been offered an internship that gives me an opportunity to shadow people in one or more departments. May I get course credit for this?
A: Not really. While shadowing provides great value through observing others, it is no substitute for doing the work yourself, doing work that will become part of a portfolio. So, if you’re just observing, you’re not doing. No doubt you will absorb knowledge from a veteran practitioner, but you need work samples. In your search for an internship, be aware of work of tasks that will yield work samples.
Q: I just passed the GSP and one of my parents has a friend who says I can come by and help with stuff at his marketing office or work from home? Is this a good internship?
A: I need much more information to answer this question. Many family friends think they’re doing you a favor by allowing you to hang out at their place of business. In fact, many such places don’t really have an internship program and have no idea how to keep you busy doing something that’s productive. Naturally, you think have a name company on your resume is going to launch your career. It seldom does. Such scenarios tend to leave students bored and discouraged. They typically have nothing to show for their experience because they don’t have skills. They fill the time doing administrative tasks and running errands. Students early in their Masscomm studies would be much better off spending time working with student organizations. Be patient.
Q: I found a template resume that looks great. Is there anything special I should do for a masscomm-focused resume?
A. Yes. Employers in our ever-changing industry want to see how technologically savvy you are. Move SKILLS to the top of your resume and list useful computer skills or languages that will boost your usefulness in the digital age. There is no need to state that you’re good with people, have strong oral skills or that you’re a multi-tasker. Nor do you need to list RELEVANT COURSEWORK if you’re, say, a public relations major applying for a PR job. Your employer knows the courses PR majors take. Email me at and I will send you a sample resume. As for cover letters, they should NOT be generic letters; they should NOT be narratives of your resume. They should be unique to each employer. Let’s discuss.