A co-op experience helps to give a working knowledge of a particular professional area related to your own academic and career interests before you graduate. It helps to bridge the gap between academic learning and permanent professional employment. The opportunity may help you reaffirm your choice of major or career, it may motivate you to change career or academic direction, or it may convince you that further education (such as graduate school) will help you to achieve your goals.
Summer Jobs and Internships
Like the other activities mentioned in this section, a summer job can be a valuable link in your career development. Besides giving you some income for the summer, it has many of the same benefits as internships and cooperative education experiences.
You should start your summer job search early, even as early as the preceding fall. Many large-scale well-publicized programs such as the U.S. State Department summer opportunities have deadlines in November.
Consider spending some time during breaks making contacts for your summer job, especially if you wish to work in the area where you lived before coming to school. See Appendix A for information on finding a summer job in several different career fields.
Part-Time Employment
You can gain valuable experience while in school by working at a part-time job. It is relatively easy to get a part-time position or internship compared to a full-time position, since fewer hours means lower cost. These positions are also somewhat easier for an employer to create. Focus on your area of interest and try to identify a project or routine task needed by an employer. Some students even prefer having several part-time rather than one full-time job because of the increased flexibility.
Do not overlook part-time jobs available on your own campus. Most positions of this type are restricted to fewer than twenty hours per week. Some positions may require campus work-study eligibility but many do not. Check with the student employment office on your campus for eligibility requirements.
Part-time positions are sometimes more abundant than summer positions. Employer needs (except in summer resort areas) usually do not begin and end during the summer when most students are looking for work. If you are considering residing at your school location during the summer, consider taking a part-time position beginning during the academic year which would possibly continue during the summer period and on into other academic years. During the summer you might be able to add a part-time, temporary job to your steady part-time job, or add a part-time, non-paid internship opportunity. Creative packaging may enhance your opportunities!
Volunteer Experience
If you are willing to be a volunteer, there are many work experiences available for which organizations are unable or unwilling to pay. The value to you of such experience is little affected by the kick of pay. Here are just a few examples of the kinds of opportunities available in most com munities:
- Phone Counselor-discuss problems and refer callers as needed to other resources.
- Researcher-collect information and interview individuals for a public interest group.
- Campaign Worker-work for a political candidate in a local or state election.
- Community Organizer-help plan lobbying activities and organize community groups to improve their neighborhoods.
- Youth Worker-assist the Salvation Army or a related group in planning youth activities.
Evaluating Student Work Experiences
At the conclusion of your work experience, that experience should be evaluated against the objectives you set prior to beginning an internship or related work assignment. Evaluation should be conducted after the experience to systematically evaluate what was learned. By doing so, you are more likely to avoid mistakes in the next work setting as well as more easily transfer related skills. Your career planning and placement center most likely has evaluation forms that can be of assistance in evaluating your experience.
Any of the work experiences discussed in this unit can also be evaluated on three levels: cognitive, career, and ethical development. Cognitive Evaluation examines what knowledge you gained and how you learned it, whether that learning was planned or not, and how it relates to your academic experience.
Career Evaluation is consideration of the skills, abilities, inter personal competencies and personal qualities that you developed or demonstrated and how this experience has helped to clarify your career goals.
Ethical Evaluation examines the life or work values that may have changed as a result of the experience and also reviews how you handled any ethical conflicts that may have arisen in the course of your work experience.
In short, what you learn about yourself and about the world of work is important information that contributes to your career decision making process.
Once you have researched written and computerized resources, had the opportunity to talk with people working in your field of interest, and evaluated your student work experiences, you should have a clearer idea of your career objective. Your career objective should be redefined to reflect the additional information you have learned. For example, if you found that entry-level positions for public relations were very limited, you might broaden your objective to include other liaison positions such as customer and community relations or a more general administrative position. Not only should you have clarified any vague areas of career interest, but you probably will discard (or add) some potential career interests based upon your research.
You also do not have to feel limited to only a single career objective as you start searching for a specific job. Still, it is important to have an objective that is right for you, that is attainable, and that you believe in.
Here are some reasons why:
- Sense of Direction-You will always have a goal that you are working toward and a focus for your job search efforts.
- Elimination of Alternatives-clearly defined objective can be as valuable in helping you rule out potential career paths and opportunities, as it is in helping you to select them.
- Preparation for Interviews-A standard interview question employers will ask is: "What are your career plans?" Having an answer that is clearly and convincingly based on strong knowledge of both yourself and the world of work will obvious be to your advantage.
