As the fall semester of my sophomore year comes to an end, I can’t help but stress about my plans for the summer. As a pre-health student amidst a pandemic, it has been understandably difficult to gain any experiences within the clinical setting. I attended the panel in hopes to get inspiration (and confidence) to look for internships that might introduce me to other aspects of health beyond clinical work. I hope to try to be productive this summer and to explore policy, media production, and more from a health perspective if I can get the chance. As a pre-health student I would argue that undergraduates are advised to focus more on GPA, test scores, and research and not so much getting professional experience from an internship. My initial fear of applying to internships was the fact that I did not have a solid idea of what experience I was actually looking for. The advice from the members on the panel was very assuring because they each encouraged students to try to apply broadly to internships. Alot of them shared the sentiment that they too were lost about where to start. Their experiences in their respective internships actually helped them realize either that they wanted to continue working in the field or that they indeed did not want to work there. I can agree that it’s equally as important to understand the things you are not interested in as it is to understand the things that you are interested in. In all, the panel really reassured me because I realized everyone starts from ground zero and it’s up to you and explore with trial and error to see what experiences you want to keep having.

This panel was really informative, and it did wonders for my confidence in applying to internships. As a Junior in college, something I hear a lot is that the internships I secure this year will matter for the rest of my life, so choose wisely.  When family or friends ask about my skillset, it suddenly blurs together, and I don’t have much to say about the years I’ve spent in school; internships are helpful because you can provide examples of things you’ve done, rather than describing what you’re most passionate about to someone else in an abstract sense. Without much context, that can be a frightening thing to try and explain when you’re directing it at professionals you look up to.

For this reason, I appreciate hearing first-hand experience from the panel, who are experts on the topic. They’ve all held multiple positions at various companies and organizations, which isn’t something that comes easily. They described their experiences applying: sometimes you can apply to multiple places and get zero offers, which is unlucky, but unfortunately common. That’s the extent of it, though — bad luck. So if this happens, you can’t let it demoralize you. Rather, you should take a look at your materials, adjust them as necessary, and keep trying for the right position.

It’s also helpful to hear about what, exactly, others are doing at their internships. Some of the work is more hands-on, like analyzing data with a fresh perspective,  but a lot of it involves logistical management. Both of these are options I should be prepared for, going into internships this summer, so I appreciate the advice looking forward.

The Get That Internship Panel had some good tips on how to work your way up though internships by starting small and locally, and using those connections to help you move onto bigger, more competitive internships, and using past relationships to provide recommendations and prepare for interviews. I did notice though, that this panel focused heavily on internships in government fields. I wish that there could have been more STEM panelists to give advice to those of us going on a different path. Either way, there was some good advice provided, and coming from a person that has never had an internship before, I will definitely apply the tips and skills from these panelists in my future endeavors. It is definitely a scary thing to put yourself out there for scrutiny and rejection and feeling like a failure after getting denied by a bunch of people…. Anyways, you have to stay hopeful and I wish the best luck to everyone else applying for internships!

It’s that time of year to be looking for internships and jobs, and I found attending the Get-That-Internship Panel to be really insightful. I really liked getting to learn about the job search process from the perspective of many different students in different industries. I had never considered some of the types of roles that the panelists mentioned, like interning in a Congresswoman’s office or starting a startup in Ithaca. It was also really helpful to hear their tips for interviewing. For example, one panelist mentioned staying in touch with her former manager, who helped her prepare for the types of questions she got while interviewing for her next position. I thought it was a great idea to get tips from someone in the industry, and began thinking about who I knew that I could learn from in a similar way.

Ahh, isn’t internship searching so fun and not stressful at all? Couldn’t agree more. Sarcasm aside, I found it fascinating to hear about the internship experiences of fellow students who have gone through the recruiting, applying, and interning processes from start to finish. Though the panelists were all of different majors than I am and consequently had internships that I would fail miserably at, their advice was perfectly applicable and their experiences were encouraging to hear. Internships can be a chance to realign interests, gain helpful mentors, and (of course) learn a lot about how the world functions. Internships can be a chance to build up further career goals and break down weaknesses. Internships can be a chance to work for pay and work to serve. Ultimately, internships are versatile, and they will be what we make of them. All we have to do is apply!

I joined this panel because the thought of applying to internships scares and overwhelms me. However, hearing from people who were in the same position as me was very comforting. It gave me hope that I would be able to achieve similar things to them. The tips they gave made the process seem less frightening. I was pleased to find out that there are many things I can to do get started, it is just necessary to reach out to people. This could be done in several ways such as using handshake or linkedin. It also made me feel less stressed knowing that it is not necessary to start off at a high prestigious position, a lot of of these people eventually got better positions after starting off small. This inspired me and made the internship application process seem like a smaller obstacle to get through.

The process of getting an internship is daunting.  Whenever I think about applying for an internship for the summer, I immediately find something else I need to do.  I get scared out of applying early because I fear the interview process.  I am not great at talking to people normally.  Add the stress of being evaluated, needing to come off as competent, and potentially deciding your summer plans and maybe future?  No thanks!  Thankfully, the internship panel was here to help.  They provided great tips and insight into being successful in getting an internship.  It was great hearing from other students who very recently went through the whole process.  Counselors and career advisors are great resources and have fantastic tips, but they have so much more experience getting a job that they may not remember how it feels to go on your first or second job interview.  It was great hearing from other college students with similar concerns and limited experience but still managed to land very impressive internships.  When I finally build up the courage to fill out those internship applications, I will be more ready for the interview process because of the great peer advice from this panel.

I attended the internship panel and thought it was very helpful in giving me more information about the process of getting one. One of the main points I think all four panelists touched upon was that sometimes you just have to put yourself out there and see what happens. I had always been putting off looking for internships and research opportunities because it felt kind of weird to like, go up to someone and ask without having a bunch of experience or without knowing them personally… It turns out sometimes you can cold-email and get results. Rather than looking for specific advice, I think I attended the panel to kind of reassure myself that others go through the same thing and that it’s not as scary as it seems.

It doesn’t seem like I’ll be applying to anything in the near future, but now I feel like I’m more prepared to do so and will be more active/confident in my passive searching.

After applying to internships last year at a time that was apparently too late, I found this panel very appealing to me. The students really emphasized how important an internship was and that makes me have an even greater motive to apply for as many internships as I can this year. Although, I really need to take advantage of networking as some students did, even if it is with small companies, because as I have learned, it is quite difficult to start off at a big company. Getting out into the world is very important as the earlier you communicate with others, the greater your chances are of starting an internship, and that internship eventually grows into a greater internship then eventually you land yourself at a big place. Grad school is just around the corner so it is imperative that I begin my career path as soon as possible, or else I wouldn’t know where to go after undergraduates. Overall, this panel allowed me to learn more about internships and the limitations/requirements for getting into a successful internship that boosts your career path dramatically.

Yesterday I attended a panel about how to get internships. I actually had two internships when I was in high school, but I always felt there was more I could learn from others since I didn’t go through a formal interview process, and I’m considering going into grad school but also feel like I am missing out on working in the industry right after college. Something I’m most nervous and unprepared about when it comes to internships is interviews and networking, and I’m a very introverted person, so I tend to avoid them, but I learned that internships, especially the ones in the government that the panelists had, were all through previous connections with previous internships or professors, and I know I need to practice putting myself out there, reflecting on myself to present myself well and actually understand myself well, and I need to reach out and make deeper connections with my professors. It was also very interesting hearing the panelists use their experience at an internship to decide whether or not to go to grad school, as I feel like I’m currently making that decision. I also felt more hopeful about going to anyone for help, and I don’t feel like I have to know everything or prepare for interviews myself and I can easily cold contact someone I don’t know about advice and to understand their experiences in a specific internship or a career field to better understand what I truly want to do in life.

Today I attended a panel event of various students who talked about their internship experiences and gave advice.  The students all had many impressive internships and got great experiences out of them, which was really inspiring to see.  As someone who is beginning to stress about the internship search, this was a motivating event that gave me tips on where to start.  The panelists talked about the importance of networking and encouraged students to not feel pressured to get an internship at a large company right away but to start small and build meaningful connections and experiences.  A lot of them got positions by emailing people in various organizations, which is interesting.  This definitely sounds like an effective strategy but is one that seems very daunting to me.  However, seeing that it can work gives me more confidence to do that in the future.  While none of the students were in job fields that I am considering, it was still really inspiring and helpful to hear from them and learn more about their experiences.

Listening to the Get-that-internship panel today was a super rewarding experience. It was super great to listen to genuine advice from upperclassmen students who have been in our position before. All the panelists were super creative in how they found their internship opportunities, whether it was finding one though an unconventional route or just doing their own thing. It helped relieve some stress since I know that a competitive conventional internship is not the only path to pursue. There is a lot of terminology associated with getting an internship that they helped me understand. Networking in general is very daunting but the panelists helped share some tips on easy ways to approach it and utilize the resources I have being at Cornell.

I was discussing my plans for the Summer with my friend the other day, and he reminded me that it was just about time to start looking into internship opportunities. With the current limitations due to covid, finding an internship has proven to be even more difficult than I had originally thought. I have to find letters of recommendation, take the appropriate courses, and maybe even move across the country to get the hands on experience that I need. I am planning on compiling a list over the next few weeks, but I will definitely keep the information provided by the panelists in mind. I will check out handshake and the other networking websites to find people that might be able to provide me with a little bit of advice.

Additionally, I originally thought there would be only one type of internship I could apply for. However, it seems that it could actually be beneficial to use the first few internships to gain skills, rather than stress about applying for the job I ultimately want at the end. This could also help me find internships by broadening my search of key words when I’m finding opportunities to find something that will be good for me in the long term. Also, it is important to experience different types of internships to make sure that I’m interested in the actual applied science, rather than the idea of the science I want to pursue. At this point, I think I know what I want to pursue but having a wide range of possibilities and allowing for the possibility that my interests will change is important. I’m still stressed about letters of recommendations and matching all the requirements, but at least now I have a plan of how to approach determining my break plans.