BY ERICA GUSTAFSON, OPINION EDITOR
One of the biggest things my St. Bonaventure University professors stressed to me was to get active and apply for internships. As a senior strategic communication major in the Jandoli School of Communication, internship hours are actually one of my graduation requirements. I am required to complete 400 internship hours in order to graduate.
In all honesty, I did not really jump at applying for different opportunities during my first two years as a Bonnie. I would consistently tell myself that I had plenty of time and procrastinated until the end of the 2020 fall semester.
When December of 2020 came, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I realized that I would need to complete about 90% of my 400 internship hours in just over a year. If that was not enough pressure, I was applying and searching for these positions during a global pandemic.
Lucky enough, I put the pedal to the metal and applied to over 30 different internships within a number of days. After completing the end of my junior year at Bonaventure as the Opinion Editor of the Bona Venture Newspaper, I was able to complete my 100 hours of the on-campus internship experience. I had two interviews and was offered both of the different internship positions. I went on to simultaneously work for these very different companies until the end of August.
Though I procrastinated and had to deal with a lot of work thrown at me at once, they were some of the best experiences I could have ever asked for.
This is one of the biggest things that I have learned in my time as an official Bonnie. Though I did not learn this in the classroom, internships are some of the most valuable experiences I could gain moving on into my future professional career.
In an Indeed article written by the Indeed Editorial Team on February 22, 2021, they went over 12 reasons why an internship is essential. In summing up these listed reasons, they wrote, “An internship is important because it can present you with new skills and opportunities that you would not receive otherwise. Interns not only gain technical knowledge within the industry of their choice, but they also learn how to interact with professionals in a workplace setting, and develop essential soft skills like time management, organization, adaptability, problem-solving and teamwork.”
It is getting more difficult than ever to start an entry-level position that does not require you to have some sort of experience level. Internships give you that stepping stone from leaving high school summer job positions to entering the workforce as an entry-level paid worker.
In a 2020 CompareCamp.com article by Arthur Zuckerman, he wrote about key internship statistics for 2020. Zuckerman states, “Studies show that having an internship experience leads to full-time job prospects and higher pay.” Studies show that 43% of those who graduate from college are underemployed in their first jobs, and 70% of companies offer interns a full-time job.
Though you may not necessarily be required to complete internship hours like myself, internships are an extremely important stepping stone that gives you a leg up in starting your career with a bang.
