Students Just Told Us What Makes an Internship Worth It

A Strada report covered by Work Shift asked students a question we don’t ask nearly often enough. Not whether internships are worth doing, but what makes one valuable.

Students said it came down to people rather than skills.

The ones whose internship significantly grew their network rated its career value at 9.3 out of 10. Students doing the same kind of work who didn’t expand their network rated it 5.5. Same line on the resume, nearly double the value.

That gap is the whole ballgame, and hardly anybody prepares students for it. We coach kids relentlessly on how to get the internship, then go quiet the moment they’re inside the building.

Tell your student this before day one: the work is the price of admission, not the prize. The prize is twelve people who know their name and would take their call in three years.

Three things make that happen. Ask every person you work with for twenty minutes and one question about how they got where they are, because most will say yes and almost no intern asks. Send one specific thank you before you leave, referencing something that person actually taught you. And connect on LinkedIn in week one rather than on the last day, since in week one you’re a colleague and on the last day you’re a stranger asking for a favor.

Strada also found that paid internships delivered the biggest boost in social capital, while off-campus jobs and project-based coursework delivered the least. If your student is choosing between offers, that’s the tiebreaker.

And if they come home in August with a resume line and nobody’s phone number, that summer is gone. They don’t get to spend it twice.