As summer rears it’s lovely and beautiful head around, college students and recent graduates are flocking to the internships that are available to them. At least that’s what they should be doing. As they start to rack up their internship experience over the next couple of months, the question arises: Are internships still worthwhile? Our friends over at Online Colleges assessed the question and decided to answer it in an infographic. Let’s take a look.
The overall answer seems to be: Yes! Internships are certainly worthwhile today. Especially when approximately 52 percent of internships in 2011 were paid. On top of that, last year 61 percent of employers that had internships offered their interns a full-time position when their internship was up. Of those that were asked to stay on board, 85 percent of them accepted the offer. Internships are a great way to step into a company and potentially make a long-time stay there for yourself. If you already know the ins and outs of their office and you have been doing the job for a while, and were doing it well, then why wouldn’t they ask you to stay on?
It’s much easier for them to bring on someone who is already acquainted with the company than a new person they have to train all over again. Also, internships are a great way for current college students to test the waters of the industry they are thinking of getting into. If it turns out they hate it, they can switch their major before it’s too late.
As if these things weren’t enough to convince you that internships are still valuable today, you should consider how much they broaden your network. Even if you don’t stay on as a full-time worker, the people you worked with and for are valuable connections that can potentially lead to your next job. This is really important when statistics show that online networking is the least effective method of recruiting. Check out the graphic for yourself and see how much weight internships still hold.
SOURCE: Online Colleges
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