Are Internship Opportunities Drying Up for College Students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My rising sophomore has had no luck and has been trying since August. Econ major at T50 school - not trying for anything competitive. Just really anything at this point and only a handful of interviews that did not lead anywhere.

I am silently freaking out for DC b/c if they can't get an internship this summer, how are they going to have anything on their resume to get an internship rising into senior year?

Personal contacts of parents, school contacts, career center, 50+ well tailored-applications have led no where.

I think DC will return to last year's regular job and do a short study abroad. It sucks.

They should look at residential life options, see if there is an econ related high school summer program on campus, they can be an RA and ask any professors if they can TA for Econ for college or high school summer courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My advice is to steer clear of liberal arts majors unless heading into law school or med school or PhD programs. You have to have pragmatic skills to be useful in today’s workforce. The jobs that aren’t going away anytime soon are the client facing roles - sales engineering, territory managers, med device sales, consulting, account management. But to land these roles you also need strong analytical skills, data analysis, etc. The back office support roles (comms, mrktg, finance, hr, purchasing, ops) are being heavily supported or advanced now due to ai enhancements. We still need some entry level roles but not nearly as many.

It’s exactly the opposite with AI^^

My kid is at an Ivy (non-Stem/non-business) and has had a successful internship (one last summer and Fall semester) and one lined up for the summer.

Those connections help. The profs in my kid’s small department love him so they coach him to apply to a lot of those opportunities. It’s where the Ivy pays off.

THIS. DC's ivy engineering department (MechE) sends listings from top schools/professors who are looking for top students for research positions, and most of these are open to rising sophomores! Once professors know the students in later years, they forward summer opportunities all the time. Some are great some are not in ideal locations but they all are paid engineering roles and it gives them backups. DC already has two paid backup positions lined up while they wait to hear from the super competitive internship programs. They can hold the spots another month before they have to let them go to another student from outside the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, senior DD at Pomona is taking a gap year because no internships and no grad school in science.

Did they not get in to grad school, or not apply? The statement makes no sense. First, many masters in science apps are open for application until mid march, including some top ones that have funding for top-resume masters students.

In addition, the government has numerous post-graduation one year internships in multiple science areas across the country or even abroad. They pay well. Those deadlines may have passed. Your student should know about these. I had never heard of any of them but DC learned all about them from professors and upperclassmen peer advisors as early as freshman year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My advice is to steer clear of liberal arts majors unless heading into law school or med school or PhD programs. You have to have pragmatic skills to be useful in today’s workforce. The jobs that aren’t going away anytime soon are the client facing roles - sales engineering, territory managers, med device sales, consulting, account management. But to land these roles you also need strong analytical skills, data analysis, etc. The back office support roles (comms, mrktg, finance, hr, purchasing, ops) are being heavily supported or advanced now due to ai enhancements. We still need some entry level roles but not nearly as many.

It’s exactly the opposite with AI^^

My kid is at an Ivy (non-Stem/non-business) and has had a successful internship (one last summer and Fall semester) and one lined up for the summer.

Those connections help. The profs in my kid’s small department love him so they coach him to apply to a lot of those opportunities. It’s where the Ivy pays off[b].

Dang. Why didnt we think of that? Should've attended an ivy.

[Anonymous]

There does not seem to be any shortage of internship offers at our student’s school. More than last year for certain, though they all got one in the end(applied math and engineering, ivy, current juniors). The econ/finance students had internships lined up by august and humanities kids are just starting to hear back(DA offices, museums, nonprofits, DOJ) Stem seems to be in the middle of the two. There are many fellowships in play as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My advice is to steer clear of liberal arts majors unless heading into law school or med school or PhD programs. You have to have pragmatic skills to be useful in today’s workforce. The jobs that aren’t going away anytime soon are the client facing roles - sales engineering, territory managers, med device sales, consulting, account management. But to land these roles you also need strong analytical skills, data analysis, etc. The back office support roles (comms, mrktg, finance, hr, purchasing, ops) are being heavily supported or advanced now due to ai enhancements. We still need some entry level roles but not nearly as many.

It’s exactly the opposite with AI^^

My kid is at an Ivy (non-Stem/non-business) and has had a successful internship (one last summer and Fall semester) and one lined up for the summer.

Those connections help. The profs in my kid’s small department love him so they coach him to apply to a lot of those opportunities. It’s where the Ivy pays off[b].

Dang. Why didnt we think of that? Should've attended an ivy.

Like it or not it helps a great deal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most kids are getting internships through personal connections. Instead of blindly applying on LinkedIn, successful students are finding companies that interest them, figuring out who they know there, and asking for a warm hand-off.

They should go through handshake, their college career fairs or directly on the company's website.

That's what my kid did, and they got several offers. CS/math major.

This, UVA’s career center and faculty contacts got my DD her internships (3)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anybody's kids gunning for investment banking or other high finance internships? My DD at a target school (T15) has been working hard trying to land a summer analyst (2027) position in high finance but so far no luck. Has had 3 first round interviews and a super day coming up next week but no offers yet. I'm just wondering if this year is tougher than previous years.

DD had 3 first round interviews post hireview. Did 2 super days and got her offers this week for 2027 summer analyst. I’m so surprised the process started 18 months before the actual start date. It’s crazy. Looking at her LinkedIn, lots of her peers have signed so it looks like they are coming through.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My advice is to steer clear of liberal arts majors unless heading into law school or med school or PhD programs. You have to have pragmatic skills to be useful in today’s workforce. The jobs that aren’t going away anytime soon are the client facing roles - sales engineering, territory managers, med device sales, consulting, account management. But to land these roles you also need strong analytical skills, data analysis, etc. The back office support roles (comms, mrktg, finance, hr, purchasing, ops) are being heavily supported or advanced now due to ai enhancements. We still need some entry level roles but not nearly as many.

It’s exactly the opposite with AI^^

My kid is at an Ivy (non-Stem/non-business) and has had a successful internship (one last summer and Fall semester) and one lined up for the summer.

Those connections help. The profs in my kid’s small department love him so they coach him to apply to a lot of those opportunities. It’s where the Ivy pays off[b].

Dang. Why didnt we think of that? Should've attended an ivy.

Connections can help, including those from private elite high schools. In fact, they’ve worked quite well for my students. Some of them have mentioned the unspoken competition within colleges; by contrast, they were able to rely on their high school networks for support, where there was less conflict of interest.

This whole emphasis on connections is outdated. It is just another form of old money gatekeeping.

[Anonymous]

Lot of nepotism but soon those will be useless.

[Anonymous]

For econ and social science majors, are any freshmen or sophomores looking at nonprofits? Unpaid, likely. But potentially very good experience that could help on the resume for next year.

If nothing paid comes through, DC is considering pitching specific non-profits on 20 hours a week, unpaid. Could fill in the other hours at last year’s summer job (retail - paid.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My advice is to steer clear of liberal arts majors unless heading into law school or med school or PhD programs. You have to have pragmatic skills to be useful in today’s workforce. The jobs that aren’t going away anytime soon are the client facing roles - sales engineering, territory managers, med device sales, consulting, account management. But to land these roles you also need strong analytical skills, data analysis, etc. The back office support roles (comms, mrktg, finance, hr, purchasing, ops) are being heavily supported or advanced now due to ai enhancements. We still need some entry level roles but not nearly as many.

It’s exactly the opposite with AI^^

My kid is at an Ivy (non-Stem/non-business) and has had a successful internship (one last summer and Fall semester) and one lined up for the summer.

Those connections help. The profs in my kid’s small department love him so they coach him to apply to a lot of those opportunities. It’s where the Ivy pays off[b].

Dang. Why didnt we think of that? Should've attended an ivy.

Connections can help, including those from private elite high schools. In fact, they’ve worked quite well for my students. Some of them have mentioned the unspoken competition within colleges; by contrast, they were able to rely on their high school networks for support, where there was less conflict of interest.

This whole emphasis on connections is outdated. It is just another form of old money gatekeeping.

Except it’s not outdated at all. Parents who genuinely know a lot of people in various industries and professions are able to reach out to their contacts in advance to ferret out summer opportunities (and/or be introduced to others). From there, they connect their kids.

This is all much easier when their kids are at top colleges and seem like genuinely solid, qualified prospects and/or when the parents’ relationships are deep and real rather than merely transactional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anybody's kids gunning for investment banking or other high finance internships? My DD at a target school (T15) has been working hard trying to land a summer analyst (2027) position in high finance but so far no luck. Has had 3 first round interviews and a super day coming up next week but no offers yet. I'm just wondering if this year is tougher than previous years.

DD had 3 first round interviews post hireview. Did 2 super days and got her offers this week for 2027 summer analyst. I’m so surprised the process started 18 months before the actual start date. It’s crazy. Looking at her LinkedIn, lots of her peers have signed so it looks like they are coming through.

Congrats to your DD! It is crazy how things are so accelerated now. Keeping my fingers crossed that my DD can convert her super day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My advice is to steer clear of liberal arts majors unless heading into law school or med school or PhD programs. You have to have pragmatic skills to be useful in today’s workforce. The jobs that aren’t going away anytime soon are the client facing roles - sales engineering, territory managers, med device sales, consulting, account management. But to land these roles you also need strong analytical skills, data analysis, etc. The back office support roles (comms, mrktg, finance, hr, purchasing, ops) are being heavily supported or advanced now due to ai enhancements. We still need some entry level roles but not nearly as many.

It’s exactly the opposite with AI^^

My kid is at an Ivy (non-Stem/non-business) and has had a successful internship (one last summer and Fall semester) and one lined up for the summer.

Those connections help. The profs in my kid’s small department love him so they coach him to apply to a lot of those opportunities. It’s where the Ivy pays off[b].

Dang. Why didnt we think of that? Should've attended an ivy.

Connections can help, including those from private elite high schools. In fact, they’ve worked quite well for my students. Some of them have mentioned the unspoken competition within colleges; by contrast, they were able to rely on their high school networks for support, where there was less conflict of interest.

This whole emphasis on connections is outdated. It is just another form of old money gatekeeping.

Except it’s not outdated at all. Parents who genuinely know a lot of people in various industries and professions are able to reach out to their contacts in advance to ferret out summer opportunities (and/or be introduced to others). From there, they connect their kids.

This is all much easier when their kids are at top colleges and seem like genuinely solid, qualified prospects and/or when the parents’ relationships are deep and real rather than merely transactional.

connections will never be outdated. that's how my kid got their internship- through one of my connections.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My advice is to steer clear of liberal arts majors unless heading into law school or med school or PhD programs. You have to have pragmatic skills to be useful in today’s workforce. The jobs that aren’t going away anytime soon are the client facing roles - sales engineering, territory managers, med device sales, consulting, account management. But to land these roles you also need strong analytical skills, data analysis, etc. The back office support roles (comms, mrktg, finance, hr, purchasing, ops) are being heavily supported or advanced now due to ai enhancements. We still need some entry level roles but not nearly as many.

It’s exactly the opposite with AI^^

My kid is at an Ivy (non-Stem/non-business) and has had a successful internship (one last summer and Fall semester) and one lined up for the summer.

Those connections help. The profs in my kid’s small department love him so they coach him to apply to a lot of those opportunities. It’s where the Ivy pays off[b].

Dang. Why didnt we think of that? Should've attended an ivy.

Connections can help, including those from private elite high schools. In fact, they’ve worked quite well for my students. Some of them have mentioned the unspoken competition within colleges; by contrast, they were able to rely on their high school networks for support, where there was less conflict of interest.

This whole emphasis on connections is outdated. It is just another form of old money gatekeeping.

Except it’s not outdated at all. Parents who genuinely know a lot of people in various industries and professions are able to reach out to their contacts in advance to ferret out summer opportunities (and/or be introduced to others). From there, they connect their kids.

This is all much easier when their kids are at top colleges and seem like genuinely solid, qualified prospects and/or when the parents’ relationships are deep and real rather than merely transactional.

connections will never be outdated. that's how my kid got their internship- through one of my connections.

and I will add i completely agree with that last part. this connection of mine is deep and also my kid is at a well regarded school and is very qualified for the position.