For my second blog post, I chose to attend the October 5 Starr Career Workshop, which was about internships. I didn’t expect the workshop to be as crowded as it was, but I was there early and was able to get a good seat. As someone who is interested in applying, it was enlightening to learn about the requirements to be eligible for internships. I didn’t know before today that unpaid internships were illegal if you weren’t even getting academic credit (which is also very important when choosing an internship) from them. And to be considered a paid internship, you had to be paid at least 11 dollars an hour which is minimum wage. If you were given a stipend, it had to equal the same amount as 11 times the number of hours worked.
I also learned that there was such thing as zero-credit internships but to be eligible you had to have a certain amount of credits, which I don’t qualify for. We also learned how to use Starr Search to find internships that are right for us and how to upload our resumes and cover letters onto their website. The instructor also quickly went over how to create a resume, especially if you have little to no experience. He mentioned that you could include the most recent volunteer activities, or even clubs that you are participating in.
He didn’t go over everything since the focus was on internships, but did mention there was a separate workshop on how to write resumes and cover letters and there was walk in hours available for people to come in for fifteen minutes to quickly go over some questions you may have. I learned Starr Center even helped you prepare for interviews by holding mock interviews. Overall, I learned a lot from this workshop and will use this information in the future.
