The Internship Hunt

Internships shape many Barnard students’ college experiences. We carve out times during our busy semester schedules or devote our summers to gaining real world experience in the work force. It’s so easy for us to talk about these experiences with an internship, but a big part of the internship experience is how we actually went about finding, applying, interviewing, and getting these positions. I spoke with two Barnard seniors about their own internship searches, and they shed some light on the process.

So, where do students even start? Molly Schneider (‘17), a psychology major on the pre-med track, said she hears about most internships through her classmates and friends: Molly is currently working at a clinical psychology lab at Mount Sinai Hospital, which she found through a Barnard friend who worked there for a year. A great part about going to a small college is that we are able to network with our peers. Molly also said she can rely on the psychology department to find internships because they send out emails with tons of internship and job postings. I know this is the same for the environmental science department, and likely for many other departments at Barnard!

Nectar Knuckles (‘17), an art history major and English and French minor uses outside resources to find internship opportunities. Nectar told me that since she wants to work in the arts, she uses the New York Foundation for Arts (NYFA) to find job postings. She also relies on NaceLink, an internet database just for Barnard students where employers from thousands of companies post jobs.

There are clearly countless places to look for internships: through your friends, faculty/advisors, outside sources, or through Barnard’s own resources. But, what about when it comes time to actually apply for a position? Both Nectar and Molly found Career Development to be most helpful for that. Nectar said she used Career Development to help strengthen her resume, while Molly found them helpful with interview preparation. Molly also added that Career Development helped to fund her internship during the summer before junior year through a special grant program, so there are definitely resources on campus to help pay for those unpaid internships!

Both Molly and Nectar have internships during the semester, and I asked them how they are handling having a job and being a student. For Molly, she told me that she planned ahead and took a lighter course load this semester. In addition, she takes advantage of her commute to do reading and get work done. Nectar told me that while having an internship and being a student is definitely tough to balance, she takes it day by day and works to have a clear vision for what her upcoming week will look like.

Barnard has so many wonderful resources to take advantage of for finding and securing internships, including Career Development, each individual academic department, and even our fellow peers! While internships are definitely a crucial part of your time in college, Barnard will be with you each step of the way to make sure you succeed.

-Hannah