The Guide to Internships

By Alexander Valdes | Published by May 12, 2019

It’s no surprise that Kean University has a multitude of ways for students to find internships. Even though access to internships is relatively simple, some still have issues acquiring one.

At Kean University, there are places where students can speak to specialists who work to help with internships, whether it be helping students create their resumes, work on portfolio’s such as one’s on LinkedIn, or you can try your hand at going about internships on your own by visiting student bulletins such as the one in the Communications department that is filled to the brim with internship possibilities.

Professors at Kean University such as Prof. Jeremiah Sullivan make it their goal to aid students in their search for internships and help them with whatever worry or concern they may have. Students typically are afraid to go through with internships, whether it be out of fear of moving forward with their lives or a feeling of not being ready.

“First thing is time. I think that time is a very important thing when it comes to internships… I think time and confidence are two very powerful things that kinda play off each other for students” said Sullivan.

Time and confidence do, indeed, play a factor in the acquisition of internships for many students. Some may have odd school hours or a part-time job that eats up any time they have to seek out an internship for the career of their choice. Students may even feel like they aren’t ready and that fear then dictates whether or not they strive for it.

“I think students should use our career center as kind of one part of their approach and whatever else the University can offer them, talking to professors, things like that,” Sullivan said.  “Going online and starting to really introduce themselves and their own personal brand is important, so tools like LinkedIn are really powerful for that, and a third thing students can do is go out there and post their resumes on internship sites.”

All of the methods that Sullivan suggested are designed for college students to succeed. What all these methods have in common, though, is one thing: the ability and desire for the student to go out and strive for that internship to further one’s own goals and career.

“I think the difficulty some students will find is that a lot of competitive or robust internship programs really require, ironically enough, some sort of experience, a really high GPA that shows commitment to the major the student has,” said Laureen Delanc,  managing assistant director of internships for career services. “I think the other difficulty is actually knowing where to start looking for internships.”

It is rather confusing how most internships require students to have experience when the point of the internship is to offer students those experiences in the career of their choosing. It almost seems counterproductive.

“Networking is going to be extremely important going forward in their academic and professional career. Networking can begin as simply as asking your friend, talking to your professors, going and creating a Linkedin profile… it doesn’t have to be professional to a CEO’s standards. Your profile won’t be Bill Gates’ profile,” said Delance.

Students who have already gone through internship opportunities look to help out their fellow Kean students. They look to provide insight, not as an advisor, not as a professor, but as another individual who took that first step to achieve something.

“Well I kinda got lucky because I sort of made myself known for what I want to do as a filmmaker and I kind of just shoved that down people’s throats,” said Kean student Noah Silkolski. “My mom was connected to someone who was connected to someone who connected with another person who knew a filmmaker to do a small project for their company coming up, so it was kinda like that. I just put myself out there and people started to know me as “the filmmaker” and as soon as someone needed a filmmaker, they looked to me.”

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