Did you know the hourly average pay for a paid internship is $18.73? Did you know 71% of employers offer paid internships?
There’s no better time than now for your student to find a spring or summer internship! Helping your college student find an internship or job can seem daunting, confusing or stressful. The O’Brien Center for Career Development at Merrimack College is here to help! Below are some ways we can help you to enhance your student’s professional career:
- Utilize Handshake
Handshake is our online internship, co-op, and job database. We currently have over 2,000 posted jobs and internships for Merrimack students. Students can filter these results to include internships specific to their major or study, location, employment industry, and many more. Merrimack College students can also make their Handshake profile public so companies and employers can search for them. It’s important that your student build their Handshake profile with a picture, education & work history, resume, skills, and completed projects so the employer can see if they would be a good fit for their company as well.
2. Network, Network, Network!
As a parent, use your professional network or business connections to help find an internship for your student. Here’s a great example, cited from Help Your College Student Find an Internship.
“When Gary Nosacek, a father with 30 years of radio experience, noticed a new Christian rock radio station went on air, he encouraged his daughter, Elizabeth, to inquire about internship opportunities. A marketing major in her junior year at the time, Elizabeth wasn’t interested in rock music. But, she and her father both agreed that it might be easier to land an internship at a new station rather than one that was already well-established and most likely well-staffed.
Even though Nosacek was no longer working in radio, he still had contacts in the industry and knew the new station’s program director. That connection helped his daughter land a meeting, which led to an internship to run the station’s promotion department. The position gave Elizabeth strong work experience in marketing, which included handing out merchandise at community events and conducting audience research through phone calls. She now has a marketing job with Mazda.”
This is just one of many examples where students of any grade or age are able to tap into a parent’s network to help grow their professional development.
Work with your student and help them land an internship today!
Quote cited from https://www.discover.com/student-loans/college-planning/help-your-college-student-find-an-internship.html
