As a junior in college, this is the prime time to apply for summer internships. My days are spent scrolling through LinkedIn, Indeed, and Monster in order to find that perfect fit for me.
When applying for an internship, there may be hundreds of studying vying for just a few internship opportunities. Each candidate has unique talents and experience. Everyone puts their best foot forward in order to make their resume stand out among the resumes of all the other candidates. In the world of internships, it's survival of the most experienced.
Although internships are meant to be an opportunity to gain experience in your field of study, I have found that many internships require previous job experience in that field. Some students may already have an internship under their belts as they apply for the internship their junior year, but for those who don't, lack of experience is stressful. It seems as right from the beginning, one is at a disadvantage to other candidates. From a company standpoint, it makes sense to hire someone with previous experience because they will be easier to train. Companies want to take on the most talented and skilled candidate as they can. However, for those unexperienced college students, they are hoping for the opportunity that one company will take a chance on them.
As a student who is currently experiencing this situation, it's stressful and disappointing. However, I came across one quote that really stuck out to me. This quote reads, "Skills can be taught, but attitude can't".
I think this quote is essential for job candidates and companies to keep in mind. Although one candidate may have an impressive resume full of experience, they may be a lazy and unmotivated individual. On the other hand, the unexperienced college student who has passion and drive for their field of study is passed by because of their little to no experience. Innate talent is hard to come by and it is heart wrenching that candidates are being passed over because they only have part-time job experience.
Luckily, it seems as though increasingly, businesses are starting to hire for attitude, train for skill. If more businesses did this, I believe their company culture would be greatly impacted. Companies needs to keep an open mind and take a chance on eager, unexperienced college students seeking internships. In the world of Finance, it's known that a high risk investment also has the possibility of a high return. Going along with this, interns usually are not a huge part of a company, they are only a small percentage of employees. Therefore, the workforce is usually well diversified, which allows some high risk investments.
So why aren't companies investing in potential highly productive, unexperienced college students for their internships?
