Newswise — As high school students and their parents begin the annual fall ritual of campus visits, experts are recommending that families make the career office one of the first stops on any college tour. “In this competitive job market, the tools and resources that a career office provide have become nearly as important as academics when choosing a college or university,” said Patrick Sullivan, Associate Director of Experiential Education at Wake Forest University.
In fact, college internships can be one of the quickest routes to full-time employment after graduation. In a recent study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, 83 percent of companies surveyed said the primary focus of their internship program is to feed their full-time hiring program. The same survey showed that 92 percent of those companies plan to hire interns in the coming year.
“At Wake Forest, we’re working on getting students involved in the internship process very early in their college years,” Sullivan said. “This is part of a larger effort to encourage students to think about their careers as freshmen and be intentional about what they’re choosing to be involved in during their four years on campus.”
Even if full-time employment does not follow an internship, students gain valuable work experience that prepares them for their first full-time job while simultaneously making them more attractive to hire. “I’ve learned that, while my education is incredible, there are some things that I will not learn without working,” said Maximilian Jacobs, a Wake Forest junior who worked at Santa Monica, California-based NXTM. “The internship provided hands-on experience while helping me build my personal motivation.”
Given the importance of gaining job experience while still in college, Wake Forest makes sure that everyone touring the campus is told about the services of the career office. “When tour guides are taking students and their parents around, the hallway outside the Career Services office is one of their stops,” Sullivan said. “The message is that this is one of the things they should be thinking about as they choose a college.”
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