A Tale of Two Internships
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness
Dickens memorable and oft quoted opening to A Tale of Two Cities is rather fitting as we enter that time of year when students across the country are securing their summer internships.
In my experience, internships fall in one of two categories. Those in which the interns are treated as a privileged class and takes the form of a very long, extended, and often profitable (at least in the short term) field trip. And those where the interns are actually challenged to rise beyond their experience and create real value.
Now when I say in ‘my experience’, it is worth noting that I had summer internships in both my junior and senior year of college (so this has been going on a good long time). These two internships could not have been any more different from each other.
My junior year, I interned at the factory where my father was a line foremen. My fellow interns were also son’s of middle management. Together we spent a long summer, mainly on the roof of the factory, working on better tans, comparing notes on hangover remedies, and discussing upcoming parties. Occasionally we were asked to shovel or straighten out an area, but we did little to truly earn the $1K per week we were paid (a great deal in the early 90s).
My senior year, I interned with a non-profit organization. The pay was minimum wage. To make matters worse, my commute was over an hour (the factory was only 10 minutes away). I am fairly certain my father thought I was nuts! But that summer I did some extraordinary things, public speaking and fund raising, legal and historic research, archaeological field work with Temple University, and any number of other experiences for which I was categorically unqualified!
Years later, I would pattern my own internship programs after that senior year experience (although in financial services we pay much better). I take special pride in providing undergraduates with experiences that fully overwhelm them. And just like my own experiences decades ago, they always find a way to rise to the occasion.
A little over a decade ago, I had the misfortune of inheriting an internship program created to provide local university lacrosse players with some extra cash and a line item for their resume. The players knew that my boss (and their assistant coach) had little expectation, so my initial interventions were not well received. They spent a summer playing video games on their work computers and padding their bank accounts. But the experience they missed out on would have been priceless…
The factory where I did my junior year internship and the bank where I babysat lacrosse players for a summer, both went bankrupt. But then, those were the worst of times and an age of foolishness…
If you are looking for an internship or building your own program, try to find/create one that provides those amazing opportunities. One that allows interns to go beyond their comfort zones and add real experience to their resume… experience that created real value. These opportunities are the true best of times.
Note — the image above comes from PosterText.com.
