Photo by Jeswin Thomas on Unsplash
Once the domain of college students looking for ways to launch their careers and demonstrate their professional expertise, more and more high school students are now looking at summer internships. Some view it as a way to get a deeper look at fields they might be interested in, while others hope that demonstrating the maturity and focus of experience in the professional world will help to bolster their college applications. There’s nothing wrong with exploring areas of interest, and gaining work experience in any capacity can teach students valuable lessons that translate into both their academic and professional lives down the line.
But sometimes students can let their enthusiasm and, yes, ambition get the better of them and forget that they still have time, and a lot of room to learn and grow before the weight of the career search is really upon them. So how can a well-meaning, inquisitive student search, apply for, and hopefully pursue a summer internship in a way that maximizes their experience, no matter where their academic and career paths take them? Here are some tips to keep in mind as you start down that process.
Keep your options open.
Getting a look at what it’s like to work in any field is valuable. Sure, you might have your heart set on becoming a surgeon or a physical therapist one day. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be interesting or beneficial to gain some first-hand knowledge about what it’s like to be a teacher or a software engineer as well. The working world is never as rigid and compartmentalized as it might seem, and no matter what your career path ultimately looks like, it will inevitably involve interactions and exposure to all sorts of different people and professions. So, don’t limit yourself now by fixating on only one or two career tracks in which to pursue internship opportunities. There’s a whole world of possibilities out there, and teachers go to the doctor and engineers need real estate agents just like everyone else. Keep your options open. Because finding out what you don’t want to do for the rest of your life can be just as valuable as finding out what you do and gaining exposure to different fields will only serve to benefit you, whatever route your career path might take.
Try to connect with the people you’d like to know.
As a high school student, your professional contacts are going to be somewhat limited. Most students are really only connected to their family members, and their friends’ parents. If any of them work in a field you’d like to learn more about and can hook you up with some kind of internship opportunity, great! Their relationship with you goes beyond just the professional realm, and there’s no better way to get a foot in the door than when a respected member of the field vouches for your character and work ethic. But don’t assume that they’re the only people who might be interested in sharing their experiences or helping you secure an internship.
Take some time to look up some professionals in the field you’re interested in, either through online directories or using something like LinkedIn, and send them a message introducing yourself and seeing if they have any internship or job shadowing experiences available. People are busy, so you probably won’t hear back from everyone you reach out to. If that’s the case, so what? All you’ve lost is the time it took to send the message. But you’d be surprised how often those same busy people are willing to take time out of their days to help students who express a genuine interest. And if they don’t have an internship or opportunity available, a lot of times they’ll be happy to connect you with people who do. But you never get a chance to make a connection if you don’t reach out in the first place.
Don’t think of your interactions as “Networking”
You’ll hear a lot of career and professional coaches talk about “networking,” or attending events and soliciting contacts that might be beneficial to you later on. That’s not really how you want to look at your summer internship. “Networking” basically takes what could be real, human relationships and turns them into transactions. It implies that if someone can’t be of direct help to you in your professional career, they aren’t someone worth getting to know. That’s a cheap – not to mention short-sighted – way to look at things and you shouldn’t treat your internship search or the internship itself as a simple transaction. In much the same way that you don’t want to close doors on fields that might seem only tangential to what you think you want to do, don’t view the people you encounter along the way simply as resources you can exploit for your own professional gain. Being the type of person that people want to help will always pay off better than a big rolodex of casual acquaintances.
Don’t treat it like it’s “just” an internship.
Working hard and doing a good job always pay off, whether you’re a high-powered CEO or a summer intern who is only around for a few weeks. Just last year, I had a student take tip number two and reach out to several college professors they’d never met to see if there were any opportunities to help out in a lab over the summer. They showed up on time, asked questions, did good work, and the short-term internship turned into a paid, part-time position a few days a week during the school year. And this summer, they’ll be getting paid even more, working full time on a research vessel studying dolphins off the coast of Portugal alongside a crew of mostly grad students and post-docs. Now how many high school seniors can say that?!
Internships aren’t boxes to check on your college applications, and they aren’t inherently more impressive or interesting for admission officers to read about than the student who gets a summer job bagging groceries around the corner. But done right, they’re a great opportunity to gain a lot of the same skills and lessons you’d receive from the grocery store, while also gaining some insight into possible career paths for the future. So if a summer internship seems like something you’d like to pursue, try to ensure that you’re pursuing it appropriately and doing work that you – and possibly your future coworkers – can be proud of.