The definition of an internship is the position of a student or trainee who works in an organization, sometimes without pay, in order to gain work experience or satisfy requirements for a qualification.
What if you already have a job? Do you still need an internship? Maybe…maybe not. There is a lot of debate about students working their way through school only to be required to have an internship to graduate. Here are our tips for turning a current job into an internship:
- Talk with career services at your college. They can help you understand what is required for your major and what might qualify as an internship. We recently coached a student who has been working for four years in a grocery store, recently received a promotion, and needed an internship to graduate. He talked with career services about the options of using his current employer. Be prepared to answer a few of these questions:
- What are you currently doing?
- How does your current role align with your studies?
- Will there be an opportunity to work in a different area to gain the knowledge needed for an internship?
Understanding what the school is requiring of an internship will make it easier to complete our next tip.
- Talk with your current employer. In the above example, the student was majoring in supply chain, but his current role as an assistant manager didn’t really fit into the internship requirement model – or did it. Once he spoke to his manager, he learned that he could take on a new role of managing the inventory and warehouse. This could be a natural answer to his problem. This student worked with his current supervisor while also working with his school. This allowed him to stay in his current role (and his employer kept a good employee) all while earning internship credit. Make sure you are checking other departments.
Obviously, this was a great scenario, but what if there is no other role available? Here are a few other options for working employers:
- Would it be possible to take a temporary leave to take an internship? Some companies may allow you to do a temporary leave in order to pursue your internship. Be sure to ask.
- Could you reduce your hours to take on an internship? You might be able to obtain a part-time internship while working your role part-time or only on the weekends.
- Talk to your boss about taking on a special project for the summer that would allow the internship to be recognized by the school.
Don’t forget the goal of the internship is to allow you to gain new knowledge in the field you are majoring in. Let that be your focus when looking at internships.
