Last week, the Career Center took its final applicants for its externship program, which pairs students with professionals to shadow for a day. In the coming weeks, the Center will be working to place these students in workplace settings where they will get the opportunity to make contacts and take back with them knowledge from the "real world."
The goal of the externship is to simply get students exposed to their area of interest, said Peter Hunt, assistant director of the Career Center and externship program coordinator. "Students may do a variety of things," he said. "They may sit in on staff meetings, conduct informational interviews with the alumni and other workers in the office, and observe the day to day operations."
"It gives students exposure to an industry they may not have investigated before or further gain an understanding of an industry they are interested in," Hunt said.
The Career Center has marketed externships as beneficial due to the connections formed between the student and the alumni sponsor. "It's not a life-long strong bond," Hunt said. "On the other hand, they spent a day with someone and saw the workplace, and they can go back to that person for the job application process."
Hunt said that the connections fostered through the program have given it an appeal. "Students interested in breaking into a career field, having done an externship, have someone on the inside to ask for suggestions about interviewing for a company, looking for ways to break into the field, marketing themselves, and what skills they need to have," Hunt said.
Michelle Stern, CSOM '10, knows first hand the benefits of the program. Last year, Stern participated in the externship program and spent a day at Fidelity Investments. "It was good to see their office and meet the people who work there," she said. "It was nice because we did a practice interview, which was a low-key thing." Stern said she would recommend the program to underclassmen.
In order to be considered for an externship, students had to fill out an application before Oct. 23. The Career Center then selects and matches students with a professional in that field. Hunt said that most of the externships are sponsored by alumni.
"Mostly alumni [sponsor the externships], but we also approach recruiters who have represented their companies here on campus for the career fair or on campus recruiting," he said.
Because it may be difficult to find or secure alumni in a specific field a student requests, Hunt said students need to be flexible. "We might not have an alumnus who works in a specific field, but more of a general one," he said. "Students who are participating should keep an open mind."
This year, the students that signed up for externships were from an array of different majors. Most applicants requested the chance to explore careers in accounting, health care, law, consulting, financial services, and investment banking. However, Hunt said that students also expressed interest in media and entertainment, science, politics and government, publishing, education, and nonprofit fields.
Since the program started three years ago, the number of students interested in externships has grown. Last year 30 alumni sponsored 60 students in a variety of fields.
This year, 155 students have signed up to participate. "We are still working on getting alumni in the fields the students expressed interest in," Hunt said. "It's a lot of work to find alumni to do this. It's not a big time commitment, but we're taking busy professionals and asking them to show [a student] the ropes."
Externships are offered during winter break. "Usually students will do externships during the last week before classes," Hunt said.
"We thought about extending it for spring break but so many are on vacation or service trips." Hunt said students living out of state can apply for early use of their dorm room if needed.
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