What to know if you’re looking for an internship this year

HIGHER ED

Internships are more crucial than ever for landing a job after graduation

1. Employers are increasingly turning to internships as part of their recruiting pipeline. 2. Erica Kryst, executive director of Cornell Career Services, said that she has seen employers focus more on college juniors they hire as interns, rather than on seniors applying for full-time jobs. “Internships are almost viewed as a long-term interview process,” she said.

8 out of 10 employers said that internships provided the best return on investment as a recruiting strategy.

- National Association of Colleges and Employers

Some schools and companies are working to expand access to internships. Often, that means more pay.

1. City College of New York works to ensure students get paid or at least subsidized for internships, including by sponsoring paid internships with faculty members, college centers or external organizations.

2. Chicago-based Parker Dewey facilitates short-term contract projects, such as blogging or data clean-up, that typically are done remotely, require 10 to 40 hours of work and pay $20 to $25 per hour.

Internship formats are changing to accommodate students’ needs.

1. Some organizations are offering short-term, paid “micro-internships” or fully remote internships with a variety of options for length and weekly time commitments.

2. Applicants for internships at Parker Dewey reply to just one or more short-answer questions. Employers aren’t allowed to filter applicants by GPA or major and therefore must weigh student responses more heavily than resume or pedigree.

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