Internships on the Rise
If there is a common fear sweeping the campuses of colleges across the nation, it is the scarcity of entry level jobs and employers as a result of the current recession. Amidst reports of unemployed graduates months after graduation, a recent New York Times article points to a bright spot in the employment market for college students: the number of interns firms are hiring has been steadily increasing.
Due to offset rising costs and slowing demand, firms have been more heavily promoting their internship programs and hiring low paid inters. While this is inevitably bad news for soon to be graduates, college freshman, sophomores, and juniors should benefit as this will allow them to gain valuable experience making them more competitive in the job market when they graduate in a few years.
“It is a brilliant, recession-proof way to double your work force, said Drew McLellan, whose McLellan Marketing Group in Des Moines has long hired unpaid interns. It’s more money to the bottom line for you.”
Intersnhips are also no longer for only college graduates. An increasing number of seasoned professionals are leaving their corporate jobs to work in low paying internships in hopes of switching careers or starting their own businesses.
“Connie Rivera, 57, also used an internship to change careers after she left her job as chief executive of the American Dietetic Association in Chicago in 2000 to pursue her passion for gardening. She got a job at a local garden center to learn the business. For 18 months she did grunt work — answering customer telephone calls, watering plants, helping with payroll, she said. In 2003, she opened her own garden and landscape business. She now has 42 employees — and one intern — and says she expects to have $4 million in revenue by Dec. 31. I took a $250,000 pay cut, but it was the kind of research I needed to do to write my business plan,” Ms. Rivera said.”
I will soon be linking to a post I am working on covering how start-ups and small businesses can recruit top interns for their companies and lure them away from larger corporations such as Google or Goldman Sachs.
