Experience is key!

I’ve been talking to a lot of people lately about internships, jobs and graduation. I think there are a lot of people that don’t really realize just how important a college internship is! It can be a lot of work, time consuming, and stressful at times, but it’s also one of the most rewarding (and, hopefully, fun!) things you can do with your time in school! I mean, it’s something that will help you get a much better, higher paying, job when you graduate and have to actually become a real adult in the real world with real responsibilities and real bills!

You want a job after you graduate? You need experience. You want a paid job in college? You need an internship first. You want a paid internship in college? You usually need an unpaid internship first! It’s almost impossible now to find a (good) job in your field after graduation if you didn’t put yourself out there at least a little bit while you were still in school! It’s so important to figure out what it’s really all about before you just jump right in immediately after graduating.

I’m not saying that this stuff is only important for video and other media-related, creative, majors (graphic design, social media, web, etc.), either: there a ton of all sorts of different types of majors that require experience, especially internships, in college!

I was just talking to Melissa today about all of this and she made the point that even a lot of “entry-level” first jobs will require a few years of experience before you can get even those positions. That doesn’t really make much sense to me (you either, I’m sure!), but that’s just how it is. I think a lot of employers just clump classes, your degree and internships (“experience”) all together in one big category when you apply, automatically tossing you out of the resume pile if you don’t have that experience they’re looking for.

All in all, even though it can be tough to put in so much work and (usually) not get paid for it, during a semester or year-long internship during your college career, it’s definitely worth it in the long run! Especially if the company you interned with asks you back (paid!) at the end! Think about it: you got your degree, put in all that time and hard work, don’t you want to get the best job possible when you’re done?