COVID is in the middle of many young people’s roads to success. It is already hard enough for students to find and start a career, and 2020 is not making it any easier. Imagine working hard your whole life for your dream job or position to be “unavailable for reasons related to COVID-19.” This worst-case scenario is becoming a reality, virtual classrooms and remote working have created a barrier between the prospective interns and the corporations they want to involve themselves in.
“Job fairs have been somewhat limited,” sophomore business management major Gretchen Nolan said. She wants to find an internship that applies to her degree but she feels constrained to what the CCPD job fairs have offered. “I specifically want an internship where my talents are useful and I can develop. I am doing this for my future.” She is frustrated with how few companies are looking for interns. Nolan is not alone in this plight, yet she understands “It’s just the state of the world right now.” Though she is annoyed with how covid is affecting her professional life, Nolan is optimistic to start her future career as soon as she can.
Mason Smith, a sophomore accounting major, has been to three separate job fairs between this semester and his freshman semesters. He too has issues with the virtual direction companies have been going down. “Doing it [finding internships] online feels informal and made it a struggle to get that one-on-one personal feel.” Smith continued to voice his opinion about the ‘virtual barrier,’ as “it takes away from building in-person social skills, key to establishing a successful career.” He has realized that finding an internship by means of a job fair will not be easy, he is already exploring other resources he has in the accounting field.
“The number of internships has declined slightly, or it looks different in the way the internships are completed,” Erin Gabriele said. Gabriele works in the CCPD office and explained that not many internships have been cancelled, but many have gone remote. “Students as interns are completing virtual interviews and then completing their internships remotely.”
It is also worth noting that Gabriele touched on internships in the healthcare field as well. “But you also have to remember that we have healthcare interns that are working on the front lines,” Gabriele said. “It’s possible that those face-to-face internships have increased. ”
Some students who had their internship offers rescinded and are left wondering if they should include that on a resume. The National Association of Colleges and Employers says that students should. Students need to include on their resume that it was cancelled specifically due to COVID. NACE also suggests putting the internship on LinkedIn, as well as saying the internship was ‘cancelled’ as ‘rescinded’ sounds like it could be the student’s fault. If a student takes a new internship, this needs to be taken off the resume and LinkedIn to be replaced by the new internship.
Students have had many different experiences with internships because of COVID. Everyone is working together to try and make it the best experience possible. These companies want students to come in because they need to hire people. The students want the field experience and maybe even a job at the company that hired them for the internships. Nobody knows what the future holds, but hopefully students can intern normally again soon.
