I'll be a college junior in the fall (gasp) and have yet to do an internship or have any useful thing on my resume. I wanted to know if you had any recommendations on where to apply for internships in the US, GB, CAN or AUS? The field doesn't matter it will be between early May-end of August...and if that isn't in the cards I would be willing to take off for a semester to do it.
I think it really depends on what you want to do. For some things doing an internship abroad might be better than doing it at home. I would suggest that you look into various internship programmes and what they offer. Try going to the counseling services at your college or look at their website and try to look at the information on internships. It might be good if you would also talk to someone about it. This might give you some more options to look into. Apply for the ones that suite you best and your interests. I do think it would be good if you can use the internship towards your potential/future carrier. In this way it will be even more effective on your resume.
I work in Human Resources for a very large company in Stamford. If you have any business interests, I can try to get you a winter or summer internship. Plus, I network with a lot of other HR professionals. Let me know if you'd like a hand... would be happy to help.
I don't know the size of your school but I would recommend talking to the head of your department and maybe seeing if he knows where past students have interned before. I just complete my first internship this summer although part of my connection was family based but I know a lot of people who used connections with in their school to get internships. Hope this helps.
Don't shortchange yourself. You don't have to have had a paying job to have useful things on your resume. Sports teams, volunteer work, school clubs and activities all communicate what kind of person you are and what some of your positive character traits are. The reality is that even if you had worked in highschool, an employer isn't going to care all that much about it by the time you're graduating from university. They're going to want to hear about the things you've done lately - i.e. during college. I don't think many people have their summer job / internship arranged for next summer before they start school in September. Don't panic. I also don't think it's worth interupting your schooling - like you've suggested by taking a semester off - to work just for the sake of working. If you needed the money, maybe, but otherwise, just wait til next summer. Plus - I'd think that you SHOULD care about what field it's in. Take a job in an area that you're actually interested in. That's where you're going to be most successful, because you'll like it! Good luck with your first year!
