With the major change in the nature of the American job market following the historic economic collapse in 2008, internships stop being icing on the cake that is your resume, or gravy on your resume potatoes. Where internships used to be a luxury — something brag-worthy to fill out your resume — they have now become more fundamental. They are now the potatoes, and master’s degrees and having a dad who is a friend of a CEO is now the gravy.
If you leave college and embark into the job market without internships, you are unlikely to find much success without a good deal of luck. Participating in multiple internships in your field of choice while in high school as well as college is imperative to your career success. But that is just the beginning. Internships are now becoming more and more of a reality for people who already have degrees as well.
There are many pros and cons of getting an internship after graduating from college. For some, it may be a necessity. For some, it may just be a benefit. For some, it won’t be practical. But whether you have graduated from PSU online or Florida State University, getting a post college internship should be on your radar. Figure out whether it is right for you with these pros and cons.
Pro: Experience that is Easy to Get
The unfortunate reality about getting career quality work is that you need to have experience. But the only way to get experience is to get hired for career quality work. Basically, you need to have experience to get experience. That is why unpaid internships have made their way into the business world in the first place. Hopefully you have already been able to gain some experience from college and high school internships. But you will have different, more noteworthy internships available to you now that you have a degree. Companies will be more willing to take a risk on someone lacking in experience since, you know, they will not be paying you anything.
Con: You Won’t Get Paid
Money for a college graduate is not everything, it is the only thing — especially after your six-month student loan grace period ends. You may not be able to afford to spend all of your time at an internship that is not paying you any money. When you are fresh out of college, it might make more sense for you to get a job in a field other than your own, or one you are overqualified for. It may not benefit your career in the long run, and it may require swallowing your pride, but it also involves actually getting paid cash money. And that’s a pretty big bonus.
Pro: Making Connections
Again, you have hopefully made connections in your college and high school internships. But now that you have a degree, those connections will change from “maybe they can hire me in the future” to, “maybe they can hire me now.”