Glenn Wagstaff
Shivani Shirolkar
It’s internship application season for many on campus. College is the time to explore your career path and find the right choice for what you want to ultimately do, and fortunately, internships provide you with experience right from the preliminary stage. They’re also fun ways to earn a considerable amount of cash during the breaks.
Students typically apply for internships around their third or fourth year, by which time they’ve learned a considerable amount of skills in their degree program to efficiently apply them to real-world situations; however, it’s becoming more and more common for students to hold internships for the entire duration of their bachelor’s degree.
By taking an internship, you get the opportunity to explore a particular concentration of interest in your field and decide if that’s the one you want to go with when you start working. It also increases your chances of getting a job in that same company. Apart from making your resume shine, an internship can help you form valuable connections in the work force. The NC State Career Development Center is a good place to receive guidance and advice about application processes. Here, you can get help with everything from finding an interesting career path to building upon your resume.
Most companies have their application deadlines for summer internships sometime around the last week of October through mid-November. For example, most of Google applications close during mid-November. Companies in the Research Triangle Park have their deadlines around the same time.
Though six to seven months in advance seems too early for an internship in May, it gives companies enough time to evaluate each application and make their decisions.
Due to the deadlines being so early, you don’t have to worry about them during your final exams. Your application is out of the way by November, so you have fall break and possibly the Thanksgiving holiday to give it your undivided attention.
This also makes students prioritize the internship opportunities they want the most, since those are the ones you’re more likely to work on first. You can use the rest of the time to apply to companies whose deadlines are slightly later – as second choices.
Early internship application deadlines force you to think about a career path well in advance, which means you’re considering all of your options right from the start of the year and not waiting to figure them out at the last minute. The earlier you start looking, the more time you have available to determine if your chosen major is right for you. Many popular internships fill up quite quickly, and applying earlier could help prevent you from missing out on something interesting.
Generally, if you intern in a concentration or field you know you’re interested in, it can be much easier to find a job in the same field with the experience you gained. So having prior knowledge of your intentions helps you get on track and start your career at the earliest time. The Engineering Career Fair, which was held at the McKimmon Center on Sept. 19, offered NC State students an opportunity to meet with prospective employers right on campus. The spring 2018 NC State Engineering Career Fair will be Feb. 7 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
It’s a good thing that internship deadlines are this early in the year, and in fact, it’s a good idea to start working on your application well before the deadline. At first, it does seem stressful to think about all the aspects of applying for an internship this early on; however, it’s a better deal for both you and the company to have a game plan about the summer. With time management, it’s possible to apply to your top choices without getting worn out.