The weather is getting nice. Spring is here! With Spring comes spring quarter. Internship time is looming. Those raining April days will be dedicated to getting portfolios and resumes ready for some potential employment/intern spots. If I were you, I'd be favoriting some listings on Career Zone for the summer.With Berkeley College's Career Zone website, you're pretty much guaranteed to find a couple of internships in line with your field of study. Along with the advisors and career counselors, you're set for some great "real world" experience. (If you take advantage of all that's offered at Berkeley, finding an internship will be no sweat.)
If you choose to look for an internship outside of what's listed on CareerZone....BEWARE. The New York Times just published an article on how some unpaid internships will be made illegal.
Yeah..illegal.
I know that there are some horror stories of coffee-fetching, dog-walking, errand-running and even babysitting. (Read some here at http://thedailyintern.com/). It's funny...if it doesn't happen to you.
Interning is meant to be real world training for your field of study. An ideal internship would be using your new knowledge in in critical thinking situations. You're supposed to have a supervisor guiding you though it all.
If you feel that you're just free labor, talk to your counselor and see if the internship is legit.
Also, here's the link to the New York Times article.
After I read it, I just had to tell you guys to keep your eyes and ears open.
Interning is supposed to get your ready and confident about post college employment in your choice of study. And c'mon, you don't wanna be free labor. Free interning isn't bad if you're learning something. But free interning is horrible if you're babysitting and making daily trips to Starbucks for bigwigs.
So, good luck and keep your eyes and ears open for some good, legit internships. There's tons out there. You just gotta look and utilize all resources ( like Berkeley's career services. )
