At times, the pressures and parties of college can make students forget the end game: getting a job.
It shouldn’t be just any job either; it should be a professional job worth four years of tuition.
For those who remember, there comes a crucial step in the process that provides a glimpse of where all the study hours and tests lead. It throws us into the professional work environment in a sink-or-swim test of our commitment and dedication to our chosen field.
Just as students acclimate to the trials of regular schoolwork, internships thrust them into a bizarre transition stage between school life and the working world.
This semester marks my first legitimate internship. I work with a major newspaper, The Arizona Republic, and the transition has been a learning experience.
All the cliche notions of the working world — commutes, cubicles, collars, coffee, corporations — struck me as peculiar caricatures before I watched myself fulfill them all over the past few weeks.
Perhaps even more bizarre is the sense of being stuck between student life and work life.
After putting in an eight-hour shift, I come home to incomplete school assignments and looming deadlines. Bosses and teachers fail to understand the time commitments I juggle, each assigning what they assume to be reasonable workloads that swiftly compound.
It is easy to sympathize with my fellow interns. We often get the worst jobs and hours — fetching crack-of-dawn coffee for the person who holds your would-be job can bring you pretty low pretty quickly.
Internships can be a great, if unwelcome, way to learn how you handle stress and the truest test of your commitment.
Passion for your work obviously helps. In my opinion, any activity pulling eight hours out of an already jam-packed schedule at intern-level pay — if paid at all — needs to be short-term, a means to an end.
However, an intern’s success usually boils down to the people with whom he or she interacts. An understanding boss and friendly coworkers can make all the difference in your work experience.
The best bosses will take pride in introducing you to the workplace, and while they’ll never replace your school friends, coworkers can help you regain the feeling of that lost hang-out time.
Working also helps establish why you’re taking all those boring, required classes. All that “practical knowledge” that you couldn’t care less for suddenly comes in handy. After work, you can return to classes with renewed vigor for the curriculum.
The bum economy makes real-job prospects scary, but don’t worry; it’s an intern’s paradise. Now more than ever, employers need to find cheap, flexible labor, and if you’re willing to sacrifice pay and convenience, plenty of opportunities await.
Don’t forget, internships are temporary. If you prove yourself now, bosses could remember you when the economy turns around.
That’s the ultimate value of interning: learning to play the game. The right amount of experience now can make the world after graduation much easier.
You can arrange a water-cooler break with Channing at channing.turner@asu.edu.
