Internships Put College Students on Road to Success

By: Christine Olsen, MBA, Career Coach and Internship Program Manager

How do I get job experience if no one is willing to hire me? Get an internship! 

An internship is a structured work experience related to a student’s major and/or career goal that should enhance the academic, career, and personal development of the student. There are a variety of internship models: paid and unpaid, part time and full time, seasonal and year long.  Offering an internship helps employers manage work flow economically and find new team members to help join and grow their business. Done well, the internship is mutually beneficial for the student and participating employer.

Internships allow the student to network and establish mentors and references. Working with professionals in the desired field or industry is a major advantage of an internship. This circle of contacts can be useful for anything from career advice and mentoring to job recommendations. If the intern has proven themselves a capable professional, and the work they have done is impressive, the internship will have served as a foot in the door for full-time employment.

Internships allow students to explore potential careers and gain knowledge of the field or industry from a real-world perspective. They afford valuable insight and help determine if the industry is the right choice for a college student.

They provide important leadership and soft skills development. The National Association of Colleges and Employers’ (NACE) Internships as a Pedagogical Approach to Soft-Skill Development identifies the five most important soft skills cited by employers as being valued in the workplace:

• Communicate
• Work in a team structure
• Make decisions and solve problems
• Plan, organize, and prioritize work
• Obtain and process information

Internships will help enhance a college student’s resume. Internships add valuable work experience to the resume. The internship experience allows the student or new graduate more opportunities to say, “I can do that!”

For the college student or new graduate, internships offer real world experience and the opportunity to try on a job for proper fit. For the employer, who prefers to hire people they are familiar with, internships provide a try-out of potential employees. The value proposition is that internships can be a win-win for both!

At JVS Careers, we work with students seeking internships. We prepare students for their internship experience and match them to employers with fitting opportunities.

OK, I’m sold. So how do I get an internship? Cincy Internships!

Jewish college students in Cincinnati have three opportunities to do paid internships—in Cincinnati or Tel Aviv. With one, simple online application, students can apply to all three internships. The programs were convened by the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, with Cincinnati 2020 in mind, to develop career and networking opportunities to engage the next generation.​ They are administered by JVS Careers, Cincinnati Hillel, and Hillel at Miami University, with funding from the Jewish Federation and The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati.

• Careers Cincinnati connects Jewish college students with paid internships in their field of interest. Interns are provided with networking opportunities in Cincinnati throughout the year that connect them to the local community.
• Onward Israel provides professional experience for Jewish college students or graduate students in their respective fields in Tel Aviv, Israel. Travel expenses and room and board are paid for with an Israel travel grant from The Jewish Foundation.
• Workum Fund is an innovative summer experience for Cincinnati area college students that provides meaningful, career related employment through paid, supervised internships in Cincinnati Jewish communal agencies.

To learn more about internship opportunities or to apply online, visit cincyinternships.org.

Are you a business looking to hire an intern? Here are some things you should know: The Value Proposition of Internships

Christine Olsen, MBA, is a Career Coach and Internship Program Manager with JVS Careers who is passionate about helping people and organizations to achieve their true potential. She has done this throughout her 25 year career in Business and Education in the areas of Finance, Leadership, Training and Development, Recruitment and Career Consulting.

Prior to joining JVS Careers, Christine served as Careers Director in higher education managing advisors and coaching students and alumni through their career preparation and transition.  She facilitated writing marketable resumes, teaching job search strategies, coaching on interviewing, networking strategies, personal branding, business etiquette, and employer hiring trends and culture fit, so that clients would enjoy a significant increase in job offers.

Christine received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Business Education from SUNY Buffalo, NY and her Masters of Business Administration in Finance from Hofstra University, NY.  A native New Yorker, she has embraced Cincinnati as home for the past 24 years as proven by her commitment to quality education for all serving 10 years in Ohio PTA officer roles, as Event Planner for Educator Job Fairs, and as a 12 year elected Board of Education member.

Christine’s goal at JVS is to contribute to positive collaboration with all stakeholders to build trusting relationships that motivate and empower clients to successfully achieve their ideal careers.

To contact Christine Olsen, please call (513) 745-2913, or email at [email protected].