Get Experience While You Are in College

When you were a kid, you could earn money by raking leaves or babysitting. When you were in high school, you could work at the local sandwich shop, the bowling alley, or summer camps. But you're older and the world has different expectations of you. It's time to move away from the bowling alley—unless your plan is to own your own alley someday. Continue working at the Gap only if you think your future career will be in retail.
Even college juniors and seniors must show "real" work experience on their résumés to land terrific jobs. Whether you want to work in administration or finance, public relations or healthcare, employers want to see relevant experience.
When you do graduate, having a degree is not enough. If you have not been able to work in your field of interest during your college years, you may be forced to take a job outside of your field after graduation.
You will need to market yourself aggressively. You are competing with thousands of other graduates who have the same degree, and perhaps even went to the same or similar schools. In addition, you are competing with experienced people who have been downsized.
For starters, get whatever job you can while you are in school. When you are very young, employers just want to see that you've worked somewhere. They don't want to be the first one to teach you how to dress for work, come in on time, not squabble with your co-workers as if they were siblings, and not give your boss a hard time as if she were your mother. Sometimes it takes a little experience to remember that you're at work. These other people are not your family or students in your dorm. Relationships at work are supposed to be professional.
But if your first jobs do not fit in with your career direction, get on track as soon as you can. When I was in college, I cleaned tables in the cafeteria, worked in the dietician's office in a hospital, was a telephone operator, and eventually started my career in computer programming. I stayed in computer technology for the next 10 years and loved it.

Making the Most of Your Internship

Most students don't take internships seriously enough, and get stuck running the copier and getting donuts for the staff. Be sure to read what you're copying. Ask to help on projects. Make yourself valuable. Help wherever they need things to be done, and do a great job. In addition, read the company literature and find out about the organization. Build relationships so you can contact people later for references and referrals to other employers, or even so you can work there again.

Getting Paid or Not

Some internships are paid; some are unpaid. Most students cannot afford to work for free. They need paid internships or part-time jobs. Be careful about companies that promise a stipend at the end of the assignment. They don't always pay what they promised. Before starting, ask other students who have worked there.

Internships tend not to be paid in glamour and highly competitive fields such as broadcasting, film production and fashion, and even some aspects of health care. However, companies that want the best interns often have to pay for them.

Stay a While or Go?

Internships tend to last for three months in the summer, or require only one or two days a week during the school year. If you stay a short while, employers can rarely give you anything meaningful to do. You learn what you can and then move on. It takes three months just to get settled into any job.

If you stay longer than three months in one place, you are more likely to get actual experience. For example, if you take a short-term public-relations internship, your job will be to make copies of press releases and send them out, while you absorb the action around you. However, if a company knows that you're going to stick around, they're more likely to invest the time in training you to actually write press releases, let you telephone the media, and start to grow your career. If you return to that same company summer after summer, or even work there during the school year, by the time you graduate, you will already have significant experience and will not be considered an entry-level person.

Finding Work

Although your school may help you find an internship or part-time job, the responsibility is yours. The Julie case study shows what she did to land a part-time job (actually, the firm called it an "internship" since they expected to train her, but they paid her very well). The Internet has plenty of websites devoted to specialized internships, such as those in Washington , DC . Just go to Yahoo, and key in "internships." Also be sure to look at www.internships.com .

Trade associations are another good source of contacts. Using the public relations example, you could join the student chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. You could also try to meet people at the professional chapter in your local area. People there will tell you what is happening in their firms, and may even put in a good word for you. Associations are powerful.

Start looking early

Don't wait until three weeks before summer break. Start in January to look for summer work. Start in your junior year to look for work for after graduation.

If you know you want to work for a certain organization, start early to try to land an internship or part-time job. Try to meet as many people as you can, let them know how much you want to work there, and which semester you would like to start. Stay in touch with them.

Yes, it's true: You can't get a job without experience and you can't get experience without a job. But if you start early and are diligent, you can graduate with a lot of experience under your belt. You may even get a job offer from an employer you worked for while in school.

Select specific organizations for which you want to work

If you work for larger employers, you will have a brand name to put on your résumé. If you work for a smaller employer, you are more likely to get hands-on experience. If you don't know which environment you are most likely to prefer, try working at one of each. If you think you will want to work for a large employer after graduation, get that kind of experience during your school years. Large employers like to see the names of other large employers on your résumé, and small employers want to see that you know what it's like to work for a small employer.

Send out cover letters and résumés, and be sure to follow-up with the companies in which you are really interested. Some organizations may require writing or other samples for certain jobs, so keep some of the best examples from your classes.

How to Turn an Internship Into a Job Offer

Some organizations, large or small, have a policy of selecting talent from the interns who have worked there. They try you out and you try them out.

On the other hand, other companies use interns as a source of cheap labor. You get experience, but they would just as soon replace you with other interns rather than hire someone full time on payroll.

Once you come on payroll, the cost to your employer skyrockets. They now must pay you a base salary, and give you full benefits. If you are now earning, say, $12 an hour as a student, the company pays you only for the actual time you work. Even if you worked 40 hours a week, every week, that would amount to $25,000 a year. But if the company brought you on at a $25,000 salary, you would now get paid holidays and vacation time, health insurance and other benefits. Your employer may spend 30 percent more than the $25,000 base, and you would have paid time off.

If you're hoping that great internship will turn into a job offer after graduation, ask employers what their policy is: Do they hire interns or not?

Perhaps you're shy about asking to stay. But if you've done well and they seem to like you, say something after you've been there a while. Don't mention it casually. Ask for a meeting with your boss, and say that you really enjoy working for them and would like to continue after graduation. "I know you can't promise me anything, but what do you think the chances are? Do you ever hire interns after they graduate?"

Ask about their history and their policy. Perhaps they make offers to half of the interns. Perhaps they have in the past, but don't see it happening this year. Perhaps they didn't know that you were even interested in working there after graduation.

Get experience. Develop references you can use later. Learn about the world and learn about yourself.