Planning for Summer Jobs or Internships

When preparing for any major life decision it can begin to feel like your whole world revolves around one big life change coming in your future. College is no different, in fact, it’s the first time in many people’s lives they experience this feeling. You have so much on your plate in terms of decisions to make that the last thing a high school graduate wants to think about is how to devote their last summer before college to bettering their educational prospects. 

Even so, there are some realities of the situation that demand putting some thought on if you’re going to pursue a summer job or even an internship. Either can have very positive effects on your future and your present! Whatever you're considering, summer job, internship, both or neither, we have some info and advice to help you maximize your summer for both yourself and your future!

Summer Jobs

Pretty up front and obvious advice here, but the benefits of taking a summer job are twofold: you can make some money for yourself and it looks good on a resume. The former is self-explanatory. Every student would like some spending money to use on their time off! Where the planning comes into play, though, is with the ladder.

If you’re lucky enough to have your heart set on a specific career you should put some thought into how a job, even a temporary one, can relate to your future job search. Say, if you plan to become a veterinarian, you can pursue a summer job in dog walking just to show prospective employers that you’ve been dedicated to a life serving animals for a long time. This follows for working in any other industry as well: engineer, advertising or whatever the case may be. Consider relating any temporary career choices to what you hope to be your permanent career choice of the future.

Internships

Similar to the advice we just gave about your summer job, your internship should ultimately relate to your chosen field of study. Luckily, that’s kind of the thing about internships already, so that doesn’t require much thought. If you’re lucky enough to get one it’s probably already in a field that is relevant to your interests. 

The advice we’d recommend when it comes to planning your summer internships is to cast a wide net and to take advantage of all possible resources at your disposal. When you’re applying for internships, make sure that you aren’t putting all your eggs in one basket. If you pin your hopes for a whole entire summer on a single internship (or a small pool of them) and you are unlucky enough to not get any of them, you could easily end up scrambling to come up with planning your summer altogether! So make sure you have a few backup plans in place.

Secondly, you should check to see if your college has any programs that allow you to get credits for your internship. This can be an easy and cost effective way to get closer to graduating while you're not even in class! Just make sure you contact your university and ensure you know the process for receiving the credits you’re owed for your internship, because they can be pretty involved.

Even with all the things jumbled around in the head of a college student, during their semesters and in-between, there’s something important we want you to remember about how to spend your summers: have fun! It’s your time away from the hard work you’ll get back to in your next semester. You should certainly take some time to consider how your jobs and internships will affect your college life and beyond, but don’t let it cause you any undue stress. Consider your own mental health and relaxation as well!

You’ve just learned some advice for planning for summer jobs or internships. If you’d like to learn further about navigating this and other decisions in your application process, we’re here to help.