Internships and Their Ability to Drive Your Career Forward

Each step along the way is important foundation piece for your career.

In part one we broke down how internships are an incredible opportunity to learn. In part two we talked about how internships are a place for personal and professional growth. For the final part of this three part article series, I am going to share how internships can be great for improving your resume and making you stand out.

It’s no surprise that internships are a building block for your career. In today’s world, you need internship experience to be able to differentiate yourself from the hundreds of other candidates applying for the exact same job.

You might have perfect grades and be the greatest person ever, but if you lack experience the road to securing your dream job is much harder. Notice, I didn’t say impossible, but I did say harder.

I don’t think I am sharing revolutionary information here. I am, however, reiterating an important fact that internship experience helps build a full candidate profile. Having internship experience can diversify your resume, improve your chances of getting hired and give you the added confidence to apply for jobs.

Travis Gorsch of the Oakland Athletics says, “Get comfortable being uncomfortable. You have to be willing to make moves for opportunities.” Let’s dive in and discuss how internships and new opportunities can build your resume and improve your career success.

DIVERSIFICATION

The more internships or work experience you have, the more diversification you have on your resume. With more experience you can play around with the formatting of your resume, customizing each role or resume for the specific job you are applying to.

Also, having internship experiences allow you to compare your previous experiences to determine what is the most effective way to tell your story. The average recruiter spends 6 seconds looking at a resume, so if you have more content (aka internship experience), you can figure out the best way to attract their attention.

At the end of the day, internships provide you with the chance to showcase different skills and experiences which can lead to a more diverse and full resume.

INCREASED CHANCES OF BEING HIRED

Any internship experience is better than no internship experience. It is very hard to earn another internship or a job with nothing on your resume. Almost all internships will give you some sort of identity capital that you can use to tell your story and improve your resume.

Here’s the thing. If you are just getting started in college, or in sports, and don’t have any internship experience, that’s okay. In order to get an internship, you are going to need to focus on networking and highlighting skills from your other life experiences that are related to the sports internship you are applying for.

If you are a freshman in college and are interested in breaking into sports, what did you do in high school that is relevant to the internship you are applying for? If you have been in tech sales for 5 years but want to transfer over to ticket sales, what skills can transfer over that make you a strong salesman?

The more experience you have definitely helps your chances, BUT, the more relevant experience you have, the better off you will be in the job process.

ADDED CONFIDENCE

Lastly, having great internship experience can add to your confidence in the job searching process. I remember that once I had a few strong internship experiences, I felt confident that I could land any job I wanted. Whether that was true or not didn’t matter. What mattered was that I was confident and willing to take more chances to advance my career.

As you gain internship experience you will start to have more confidence in your job searching skills and more confidence applying for jobs in a similar space. I knew that once I had my first agency internship under my belt, I’d feel more confident applying to other agencies because I had a leg up on most of the other candidates who were applying to their first agency.

This process is about perspective. How is what you’ve done relevant to the internship/job you are applying for? The more internship experience you have, the more diversification you can have on your resume which will likely lead to a recruiter or hiring manager becoming interested. The more internship experience you have the better chances you have of getting hired. Finally, the more internship experience you have, the more confidence you will have moving forward in your career.

I believe internships are incredibly valuable and are a huge stepping-stone to career success in sports.

As I wrap up this article, let’s do a quick recap of each message in the why internships are so valuable series.

1. Internships provide an opportunity to learn about yourself, people, and the company/industry.

2. Internships can and should be used as a platform for personal and professional growth.

3. Internships are a fantastic way to add diversification to your resume, increase your chances of being hired having a stronger resume, and improving your confidence by having more experience on your resume.

I hope that you enjoyed this series and understand how valuable internships can be for your success in the industry.

If you want to learn more about how to break into the sports industry you can download a free guide here or check out my new course called Elevate Your Sports Career.

This piece has been presented to you by SMU’s Master of Science in Sport Management.

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