While summer and winter breaks are a great time for
students to take a break from school, they are also a wonderful opportunity to
experience work in the real world. Whether it be through a part-time job,
co-op, or internship; employers are consistently looking for work and relevant
experience on a student’s resume.
When
is a good time to start? As soon as you can!
It is never too early to start gaining experience in
your field of interest. However, it is important for juniors and seniors to
actively look for these experiences, as they are entering the work force much
quicker than underclassmen.
So
what kind of experience should you be utilizing over breaks?
As you can see in the visual above, many students
attain work experience through paid internships, volunteer work, field study,
part-time jobs, and much more. The important thing to keep in mind when
attaining these positions, is to keep your options open.
Your odds at getting offered an opportunity are
typically better when you have numbers on your side. So do a little research…or
a lot of research. Last summer, I applied to over 40 internship positions. I
believe I received feedback from half of them, interviews from a quarter, and
then offers from 4 of them. Prioritize your needs in an internship or related
experience and apply to everything that qualifies under that. Think about your
availability, compensation needs, the type of technical skills you would like
to learn, and location of the opportunity. Maintain open communication with
employers you are contacting about certain positions. Even if they can’t take
you for an immediate break period, they may be able to in the future.
Why
is it important to work over break?
While your degree and classwork is very important to
whatever career you decide to pursue, it is not solely reflective of your work
capabilities. Classes are great for theorizing, disciplining yourself, time
management, and providing background knowledge in a field. However, actual work
provides specific technical skills, meaning behind why you are doing the things
you are doing, and a background knowledge on what’s it’s like to work in the
real world.
In addition, working over break provides employers
with insight about your work character. Seeing that you didn’t just take the
break time to watch TV and sleep shows your commitment to jump start a career. Working
over break periods are a great opportunity for you to become a competitive
candidate for a job. They also provide you with insight about the type of
worker you are. You may enjoy multi-tasking or just working at one project at a
time. You may enjoy working at a computer all day or more travelling. These
kinds of preferences can only be discovered through implementation. If you can
learn these things about yourself sooner, rather than later, then you will be
saving yourself a lot of time and money when you enter the real world.
So
where should I look for internship and job opportunities?
Part of your tuition pays for job searching resources.
With that being said, you may as well take advantage of them!
Be sure to create profiles on these sites and begin
your searches here!
- Hokies4Hire: https://www.myinterfase.com/vt/Account/LogOn?ReturnUrl=%2fvt%2fstudent
- CareerShift: http://www.careershift.com/Default.aspx?sc=VT
- Going Global: https://www.career.vt.edu/scripts/GoingGlobal/login.asp
In addition to the above resources, other sites to visit
include:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/
- Indeed.com: http://www.indeed.com/find-jobs.jsp
To find out more about how to attain experiences,
start with this site: http://www.career.vt.edu/Experience.html
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