Former Interns Cite Job-Specific Tools as Unmet Need

This post was written by Alex Lassiter a recent graduate from the University of North Carolina and current member of the InternMatch student advisory board.  The board is an independent group of seven current students and recent graduates that meets once a month to discuss key issues and challenges for students looking to transition into the professional world.  The board has unique insight into the tools and resources that students need to be successful in the career process.

While college students everywhere are frantically preparing their resumes, cover letters and elevator pitches to attain theidealinternship, how many of them are preparing to succeed in the internship itself?  Schools and career services are doing everything in their power to push students in front of potential employers, so that they can lock in internships—but there is a difference between preparing to get a job, and preparing students to succeed in a job.  This was the topic of the most recent InternMatch Advisory Board meeting.   How many students feel that their schools prepared them for the skills necessary to succeed in their internship?  Alternatively, does this responsibility lie within the bounds of another party?

Our panelists cited multiple skills they wished they had during the course of their internships; however, most noted job-specific tools as largest disconnect between college and internships.    Skills in job-specific software like Microsoft Excel and TweetDeck topped the former intern wish-list.  But who is responsible for teaching these skills, and if they were available, would students take advantage of them prior to starting their internship?  The answer to the latter is likely dependent on the student; however, to encourage students to take advantage of intern-prep, some universities offer job-specific ‘boot camp’ classes to students who are interning in a specific field.

One example of this is UNC-Chapel Hill, who offers a class for future investment banking interns.  The curriculum targets banking specific software like Bloomberg, and CapitalIQ, which enables students to learn the practical skills needed to succeed during their summers.  Still, with many career departments facing strained resources, the majority of universities can only afford to focus on preparing students to get the internship.    So, who can provide students with these extra services?  This is where the board feels that InternMatch can help.   InternMatch could give prospective interns crash courses in job-specific tools, thus enabling students to better succeed during their internships.

The implementation of such a plan would require more planning and testing to determine if students would take advantage of the proposed service.

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