Internships/jobs without strong GPA
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Anonymous
Apply for an internship in a city with a minimum wage of $15. Apply for internships in nonprofits and progressive organizations where hiring unpaid interns is increasingly frowned upon (my HS senior has an internship now in his likely field at a company whose clients are non-profits, and pay every interns DC minimum wage - $15/hour). Apply for summer fellowships, etc offered by your kid’s university that will give stipends for off campus summer internships. If you must do unpaid limit hours to $30/week to leave time to work for money at same time. |
Anonymous
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" OP here- thanks for the responses. He isn't looking for an internship this coming summer, it's the summer following his junior year that he wants to have an internship. He is aware that he will need to work on getting summer 2020 internship secured soon after he starts his junior year. This summer he will work waiting tables and make as much $ as he can.
Apply for an internship in a city with a minimum wage of $15. Apply for internships in nonprofits and progressive organizations where hiring unpaid interns is increasingly frowned upon (my HS senior has an internship now in his likely field at a company whose clients are non-profits, and pay every interns DC minimum wage - $15/hour). Apply for summer fellowships, etc offered by your kid’s university that will give stipends for off campus summer internships. If you must do unpaid limit hours to 30/week to leave time to work for money at same time." +1 OP, Your DC has a weakness already without a strong GPA. They can't afford to not try to get something THIS year. As someone suggested, despite it being LATE, DC should really expend some shoe rubber and ask every professor who might recognize him. When they don't have anything, he needs to ask for the name/an introduction to another professor who might have something. It is much better to have a tenuous 20 hr/wk job with a professor this summer to build up a decent recommendation for next year's internship and a lower paying table waiting job in a college town than a higher paying table waiting job in DC and NOTHING professional AT ALL. |
Anonymous
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GPAs is really meaningless to me.
Every year the financial company I work for hires about 40 interns. About 35 of those interns are kids from people who are already working for the company. The remaining five is truly from actual interviewing candidates. The system is completely rigged. I have to say that I am also one of the guilty one as well. I hire interns because I know either their father or mother and those relationships are very important to me. I've passed over many qualified candidates and picked a particular candidate because of the relationship with their parents. I do it because one day when my kids need an internship, those people will provide internships to my children. I've been with the company for ten years and it has been like that every year. I am sure HR knows about this but looks the other way. It is not how much you know but who you know that counts. |
Anonymous
Thank you for sharing this. |
Anonymous
+1. He's going to be even more behind if he doesn't get his act together and do something substantive this summer. He'll look like an even bigger slacker. |
Anonymous
| Many schools offer paid internship/research as a start for students. It gets the attention of the next place and leads to internships outside of school. My DD started with a math research project followed by an online math grading job (netmath), then wolfram (great for math interns) and eventually an internship at NASA. Make sure you are looking at what services your school offers. It only takes one to get the rest. |
Anonymous
+1 Or schools have an agreement with several internship sites and regularly place students there. |
Anonymous
I agree with this. The internship opportunities build upon each other. Both of our children had an internship every single summer (some were paid; some not). We did have to call around to get the first internship after freshman year summer for one DC because she had dilly-dallied with applications. We called some think tanks and got DC in. But from that time forward, DC did all her own applications, had great recommendations from previous internship and got a more prestigious internship every summer. Had she not had the previous internships (think tanks, U.S. Senate, Oxford), she would not have been able to compete for the fellowship she is now in. I'm the person above advising that the parents get on the phone and call everyone they know and just flat out ask for an unpaid internship in DS's field of study. I've personally experienced this from friends who have called me and asked for internships for their kids in my law firm. If that is not possible, then do what I suggested about contacting every single professor in the department (obviously your son, not you, the parent) to see if there is any unpaid internships on campus for the summer. You never know, sometimes a professor will say "Sure!" and viola you have an independent study and maybe a great letter of recommendation. Also, send your son back to the career counseling office and seek its help in finding something in your son's field of study. Times have changed since we were in college and worked summers. The job market is very competitive. The way to get a position is through prior internships and recommendations. |
Anonymous
+1 I give internships at my firm to friends’ kids who in turn can give internships to my kids.... |
Anonymous
Maybe but GPA really counts when you apply for think tank internships, Hill internships, fellowships, etc. |
Anonymous
Do not be so naive. A lot of the think tanks are run by ex-members of congress and/or people who previously worked in the government and they tend to give intern jobs to people they know, like kids from lobbyists, current government officials, congressman/woman, etc... Hill internships work the same way. Those internships go to kids from parents who are big donors, lobbyists or kids from people who work for the congressman election campaign. Why do you think they say it is a "resolving" door. GPA does not mean anything. How do I know this? Because my sister works as a lobbyist. How do you think her kids get internship at think tank with 2.5 GPA? |
Anonymous
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Agree with 6:50.
GPA doesn’t matter much in DC for most unpaid internship. Who you know does. Of course, if you are dim you will land at an unpaid internship at a thinly disguised partisan think tank, not a more serious one, or the DNC/RNC The good internships are paid and go to extraordinarily smart kids, sometimes with connections and occasionally not. They are also filled by Feb. |
Anonymous
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I think networking is the answer here and considering unpaid internships that can offer exceptional experience if networking doesn't work.
My DH is an executive at a large company- he recommended our neighbor's son because the kid used to watch our house when we were on vacation and showed himself to be completely trustworthy and reliable. Who does your family know that can write a letter or put in a word? |
Anonymous
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The level of social and economic privilege in this thread is gross.
I don’t dispute that this is how the world works, but we need to at least pay interns to combat this rigged system. Of course most if you won’t agree because by continuing to limit the applicant pool to rich and connected college students, we can perpetuate the status quo. We will also miss out on the talent of tend of thousands of kids. |
Anonymous
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"They are also filled by Feb."
+1 The most eye opening thing my DC learned during their freshman year of college at a second tier engineering school is that the placement office had their summer job fair in September and recommended applications go in no latter than November 1. |