Today I attended a workshop by STARR career development center concerning internships. Actually, I was the only freshman attending it. I learned many aspects about internships I did not know before. There were discussed two types of internships: unpaid and paid ones. In fact, companies nowadays hire students who went through paid internships 3 times more frequently than ones who went unpaid. To add to that, today job vacancies are becoming more and more competitive. We were told that it is possible to arrange a job interview on campus. In most cases companies who interview students on campus have more than 300 applicants; they choose 12 to interview and one to hire. Numbers are a little bit scary. Additionally, companies have begun to look for freshmen to hire.
I also learned about websites where I can search for jobs and internships besides STARR webpage. Besides local job and internship suggestions, we were told about options to get experience abroad.
Unfortunately, it is more difficult for international students as me to get a job or internship in US than for other students. However, it is possible to succeed with OPT or CPT trainings.
All in all, I learned a lot of new information on workship and it encouraged me to attend more seminars about career building.
