I have a little secret. I never had an internship. Nor did I really worry about one. I have a great reason why, and it isn’t that I am a trust fund baby or am highly connected and the internship offers poured in. You see, I worked full time from freshman year through completion of my master’s degree. I figured that would be more valuable and would provide money now, which is what I needed to survive.
I often wonder had I completed an internship, would it have taken my career down a different path? I didn’t think I needed an internship as an undergraduate because I was 75% sure I would be continuing on to law school and would worry about interning then. I thought I wanted to be an attorney, and then my plans changed. (They do that in life! I still can’t fathom how we are supposed to be so sure of a lifelong career when we are 20 years old, but that is for another blog post…)
Now that I am well into my career, I am on the other side of the table. I have exhibited at countless career fairs and I can usually tell before you even open your mouth if you are an eager beaver freshman or sophomore, bright-eyed and enthusiastic about your future profession, or if you are a frantic senior who for whatever reason, didn’t land that internship and is now of the “What’s next?” mindset. The thing is, because I networked and because I like to hear people’s stories, I also know what the recruiters are looking for in candidates, and I can tell you what to do if you didn’t get that internship.
Here are 5 things you can do if you didn’t get that internship:
The bottom line is that when it comes to an internship, sometimes we don’t land the dream internship we hoped for, but there are still ways to garner EXPERIENCE and that is what the recruiters and firms are looking for. Get creative and you will get the experience. Then, when it comes time to land the actual JOB, you will be able to use these same creative skills coupled with the experience you recently gained to have a few offers on the table, and then you can choose which role suits you best!
For more career tips, subscribe to Passing Insights, the Surgent CPA Review blog.
Shirley Claude is a Business Development Director for Surgent CPA Review. Shirley is a graduate of the University of Central Florida in Orlando, and holds a master’s degree in organizational management from the University of Phoenix. Before joining Surgent, Shirley worked in Business Development for an education technology company overseeing East Coast growth.
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