Anyone’s college junior struggling to find summer internship?

[Anonymous]

Most of them are. It is not the end of the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is a Junior in college.

He has been interning during summer since end of Freshman year.

He has applied for each internship like it was a job search. Each year he has applied to 250+ internships and heard back only from only 1 or 2 each year. 3.9 gpa kid in CS. Solid skills. CS is brutal. However, for the past two years, he has also got call back offers from companies he has interned with.

So, yes, terrible economy. But, when it is a terrible economy, then you need to dig in and get more skills. Even if it means working without pay.

Parents, guardians and relatives need to support these students as best as they can so that their future is bright, even if their present is hard.

+1. My sophomore CS major applied to 190 summer 2025 internship openings from August to October 2024. Only one interview but fortunately it resulted in an offer.

[Anonymous]

Almost April. My junior son has no summer internship. MIS major at a top business school. He didn’t apply to enough. Should he take classes and try to get a fall one?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Almost April. My junior son has no summer internship. MIS major at a top business school. He didn’t apply to enough. Should he take classes and try to get a fall one?

Mine is just working at his summer job at a pool.

[Anonymous]

My rising Junior got one of the REUs that was not defunded. So happy for them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These kids’ future seems so bleak lately

Not having an internship this summer does not make for a bleak future. Promise.

[Anonymous]

Mine is in IR and kind of has one. Their 2nd major is a foreign language and they are taking levels 1&2 of a more obscure language in the same family as the primary language (think French major taking Spanish, but different family) at a critical language university. The class is for actual employability reasons— the primary language is very high demand and adding at least the basics the second language will be an additional employment boost for specific geopolitical reasons. Luckily, part of the program is an unpaid, 3-4 college credit internship at one of three locations in the local ethnic community. Given what happened to IR internships after the election, they’ll take it and are thankful to have it.

But 2 foreign language classes plus a 3-4 week internship plus producing whatever is needed for the college credit for the internship is going to be a zero downtime summer. Also, their language isn’t not usually taught in high school (hence being in high demand) and they started from scratch, so they are hustling to become as fluent as possible. So, third summer of doing language immersion at not somewhere in the DMV. It feels like I never see this kid. Which I hate. (But it’s not about me, right? Sigh. Admire the hustle and determination. Miss the heck out of the kid).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These kids’ future seems so bleak lately

Not having an internship this summer does not make for a bleak future. Promise.

I have a junior. It’s about more than the internship. They will almost certainly be graduating into a recession (or depression) and all the news seems bad these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These kids’ future seems so bleak lately

Not having an internship this summer does not make for a bleak future. Promise.

I have a junior. It’s about more than the internship. They will almost certainly be graduating into a recession (or depression) and all the news seems bad these days.

I have a junior too. Life is long.

[Anonymous]

I pulled out all the stops last summer, hitting up people with connections, when DS was a sophomore. He got an internship that was pretty flimsy. Thankfully, that helped him this year to secure a summer internship with a reputable company.

[Anonymous]

DS riding junior at a SLAC. Secured multiple paid summer positions through alums and networking by mid-January. Did not apply to any positions online. I think Handshake, LinkedIn, Indeed, etc are way too random.

[Anonymous]

My sophomore from UMD was able to do get one through a defense contractor in Arlington. Think he primarily used Handshake. 190 applications from July to October 2024 to get summer 2025. Feel very fortunate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is a Junior in college.

He has been interning during summer since end of Freshman year.

He has applied for each internship like it was a job search. Each year he has applied to 250+ internships and heard back only from only 1 or 2 each year. 3.9 gpa kid in CS. Solid skills. CS is brutal. However, for the past two years, he has also got call back offers from companies he has interned with.

So, yes, terrible economy. But, when it is a terrible economy, then you need to dig in and get more skills. Even if it means working without pay.

Parents, guardians and relatives need to support these students as best as they can so that their future is bright, even if their present is hard.

+1. My sophomore CS major applied to 190 summer 2025 internship openings from August to October 2024. Only one interview but fortunately it resulted in an offer.

Wow, well deserved, PP! Congratulations!

[Anonymous]

My CS college freshman got a return summer internship. We had no idea when accepted in 2024 how crazy this year was going to be.

[Anonymous]

They should have applied a long time ago. My sophomore interviewed this year for Junior summer. Got his second choice.