I agree with your husband. And to the PP who says they should not be relying on daddy in college, why not? The kids at HYP are, I guarantee you. You think they're sending in their resumes blind and just have their fingers crossed? Even the ones with great grades are having mommy and daddy hook them up if they can. It's the way the world works. |
It's practically the whole reason HYP is coveted and prestigious (but the kid who don't have those connections don't know they won't benefit from it until they get there). |
Regarding careers, internships/personal relationships are more important than one's college. |
I got the impression OP didn’t mean they’d have an internship with their father’s organization, but that dad would be trying to call in favors from people he had helped professionally over the years to get them to hire his kids. Not quite the same as a nepo job, if only because the connection won’t be obvious. It’s basically networking, which is a professional skill. |
network/connections are much so important that most people just do not realize until it is too late. A college student who attends UMD with network/connections guarantees to get an internship over someone who attends HYP but without connections if they apply for the same job/internship at the same company. I've seen it multiple times at five places where I've worked. This also happens in the Fed gov too. |
Most companies have rules against nepo but people work around that rule. I've been doing it for the past five years. I hire college students from my former colleagues and in return, they hire my son, daughter, nieces, and nephews. That's how it works in the real world. |
+1. My husband has been ready to retire for a couple of years (MD at a global investment bank) but is delaying that until our child gets that coveted post-junior-year internship. |
Disagree (and I think your orientation person is the one doing kids a disservice). And we wonder why we're barely launching capable adults into the world? I'm grateful my own father recognized that researching and landing internships was part of the learning process (which I did entirely myself and which led to multiple job offers after graduation). Park the damn snowplows. |
+1000 It doesn’t even have to be a F500, consulting, etc. Doing internships related to your career field will position you in a better place than unrelated summer jobs. The summer at freshman year it’s fine to work as a camp counselor, as a lifeguard, etc. But the summers after sophomore and junior year students really need to have internships. It’s very competitive out there. |
How can you tell it’s a nepo internship? My DH got my DD’s friends internships at a well known financial services company. They were paid and did actual work (and we loved by the employees because they were great workers). But there is 100% no way they would have gotten the internships without his help (internships had already closed). |
Yep! This is exactly how it works. |
professional skill of dad |
Internships on college are critical. Does not matter how you got it. I am hiring for an entry level position and just got a resume from a 2024 grad at the same top 25 school my DS attends (he is a rising senior). She is in the same major and has a nearly perfect GPA. I was shocked that she was still looking for job. Then i looked closer at her resume. While she has GREAT on campus activities and a great GPA, she has only had one tangentially related internship. By contrast, my DS will soon start his third internship directly in his major field. I guess I’ll eat my words next May if he doesn’t have a job either, but to me, that’s the difference. He looked at her resume and said it’s a problem that she has as many bullet points under her sorority leadership than the one actual work experience. He’s right.
I am in recruiting and absolutely yes, good consistent and related internships can trump being in a more well known school. |
Likely no, at least with the smart one... I usually advise them not to mention anything about knowing someone in the company, to avoid potential issues with HR or DEI. |
It is a very challenging job market out there even for grads with multiple internships. My DS graduates in May '24 with a degree in CS and three CS internships, after his freshman, sophomore and junior, and he still has no offer. |