With the spring internship season approaching, now is the time to perfect resumes and scour the job posting for potential opportunities, according to Oklahoma Christian University’s Career Services. Working to help students secure internships or part-time jobs for next semester, Career Services is available to help students with job searching, interview skills and resume writing.
Susan Hoover, the director of Calling and Career at Oklahoma Christian, said internships provide an opportunity for students to discover what they like or dislike in a job or future career.
“Internships are good for kind of making sure that you’re on the right path within your major or your career choice,” Hoover said. “You can try it on for three or six months, and if you hate it, whether you hate the setting or the type of work, you can kind of narrow your choice as far as jobs and types of jobs.”
Hoover said she strongly believes students should seek out internship opportunities because of the experience gained in working.
“Internships are really a good thing, because it’s a rare instance in life that you’re not going to get again,” Hoover said. “After you leave college, you are going to have to pay bills, mortgages, insurance and all of that, so this is kind of a nice time for you to try some stuff on without that big commitment.”
Last summer, senior Jeffrey Edwards held two internships as a human resource recruiting intern and a marketing and sales intern in Florida. He said the sales internship was a “horrible experience,” but he values the resilience, endurance and communication skills he developed while working. He also said this experience helped him earn his current internship.
“It was a unique and challenging learning experience,” Edwards said. “Even though it was probably one of the worst experiences of my life, at least in the job realm I would say it was a good experience because it helps me put things in perspective. It was really challenging and really pushed my limits as a person. It’s always going to be a talking point in interviews.”
According to Hoover, internships are posted through several online job posting sites, including nation-wide sites such as Handshake, LinkedIn, Indeed and Oklahoma-specific sites such as Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits, PRSA-OKC, AMA-OKC, Greater Grads, JobsOK and Oklahoma Society of Professional Engineers.
“There are a lot of websites out there that have internships on them,” Hoover said. “But in addition to websites, just talk with your professors and your advisors, network with them or with your own network, and ask them if they know of anything.”
Hoover also said some companies do not post or update job opportunities online.
“Check career pages on company websites—some companies only update these pages and do not use LinkedIn or Indeed,” Hoover said. “Bookmark them and check back once a week, or you might be able to sign-up for e-mail alerts, so you’ll be notified as jobs are posted.”
Hoover said going home over break is a good time to start looking for opportunities back home and networking with people there.
“You can talk to people at church or from high school that you know that are maybe still around the area, parents’ friends or something like that,” Hoover said. “Just see if they know of anything. Be on the lookout for those internships online and it may take a couple of months before you see something that you are interested in, but I would keep checking back.”
Before applying for internships, it is important to have a good resume, and Hoover said she can help with student resumes in 30-minute appointments, which can help prepare students for the interview process.
“Making sure that your resume looks good increases your chances of getting an interview when you do apply,” Hoover said. “We can also help with interview skills as well, so if that’s something you’re nervous about or want to work on, we can help with that. We can set up a mock interview with an industry professional, so it’s someone in your field who knows the lingo, the jargon and knows the questions to ask, but there’s not that pressure with the job on the line.”
Applying for internships and jobs also creates an opportunity to face rejection. Hoover said she knows it is hard, but students should not stop trying to apply for positions. According to Hoover, students need to keep looking and not be afraid to ask for help from professors, Career Services or other people in their personal networks.
“Ask if they can provide any sort of feedback to you as to why you weren’t selected,” Hoover said. “Some companies have policies preventing them from doing that, but if you can get some sort of feedback so you know what to work on—if you need more experience, if you need to improve your GPA, if you need to work on your interview skills—those kinds of things will help guide you for future jobs.”
According to Hoover, students should look for emails and announcements next semester about the Spring Career Fair Feb. 19 and other career service events.
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