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Internships Are First Step in Desired Careers
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- If there is a route to winning the first full-time job of your choice -- one that launches your career -- it is the internship.
Six young business executives reinforced this point during a recent seminar at the Williamson College of Business Administration.
Prove yourself to the company that awarded you the internship, they told 50-some business students at Youngstown State University, and the chances are excellent you’ll be at the top of its list when an opening occurs. Give it your all and at worst you’ll leave with glowing recommendations when you apply elsewhere.
Half of the 14 employees at via680 LLC, a small enterprise in the Youngstown Business Incubator, are interns, Jennifer Holliday-Buchanan said. “Get as much experience as you can while you’re [an intern],” she advised. “You don’t realize how much is here.”
AVI Food Systems Inc., Warren, has hired 10 YSU students as interns over the last decade, Pasquale LaRocca said, and is “opening new ones in finance and human resources.”
At Revere Data, another tenant at the Youngstown Business Incubator, Vice President John Slanina related that the data analysis company has just finished its latest round of interviewing candidates for internships and is ready to select the best candidates. “Half of our employees have come through our internship program,” Slanina said.
Besides providing students the experience hard to obtain elsewhere while in college, employers can help students study for, and earn, licenses needed to work in an industry, Jeffrey S. McCreery informed the students. McCreery, at Valley Financial Designs, cited instances where interns brought enthusiasm and perspectives to his firm that improved its performance.
Walgreens has a 10-week summer program Dan Duskey related, that attempts to provide interns with a feel “for a little bit of everything.” What’s important, he stressed are “the people skills that are a lot of what we do. You have to be able to think on your feet.”
AXA Equitable wants college students “who know the career path they want to take” before extending internships, says Chad Vavpetic. Agreeing with Walgreens’ Duskey, it’s the people skills that lead to a successful career in retailing. “What I can’t teach is a desire to work with people,” he said.
If internships are the best routes to the careers college students desire, they often can’t read a map of the business world or their deficiencies make it harder than they should to participate in an interview that leads to an internship or to navigate an internship.
AXA’s Vavpetic told of interns who were late for interviews, dressed “inappropriately” and in general lacked a professional attitude. “First impressions are everything in our industry,” he said. “You’ll never come to an interview overdressed,” he assured the students. And promptness is simply “respecting others’ time.”
AXA is part of an industry where customers entrust their money to its members and they expect those members to dress and behave professionally.
McCreery told of meeting a promising female candidate for the first time – “great resume, high GPA, active on campus” – only to see that tattoos and jeans covered much of her skin.
As Vavpetic asked in a similar context, “Would I want to take this person to meet my best clients?”
The employees of Revere Data pay attention to detail, Slanina said, “and if you look like you’re not paying attention to details,” Revere is not likely to ask you back.
All recommend researching the company that one is scheduled to interview. “Have you visited our website?” via680’s Holliday-Buchanan said she asks who seem unfamiliar with her company. Learning they haven’t -- “That’s the biggest turnoff.”
As McCreery noted, “There’s nothing worse from an employer’s point of view than [discovering] I care more about your career than you do.”
Among the steps candidates can take to improve their chances of being offered an internship once they’ve interviewed are writing a thank-you letter (not email although that’s better than nothing) to the person who conducted the interview.
Companies do look for how candidates portray themselves on social media, the panelists warned. So candidates should take care in choosing their names (sexually suggestive identities are not advised) and the movies of themselves in a condition other than sobriety are not considered instances of good judgment.
Via680 conducts “a lot of phone interviews,” Holliday-Buchanan said. “You don’t realize who might be interviewing you” and to converse as you would with one of your peers is unlikely to result in a follow-up one-on-one meeting.
All discussed how business has become more global but only Slanina expressly stated how the ability to read and speak a foreign language is a huge asset. In Revere Data’s offices in downtown Youngstown, he related, 20 languages are spoken.
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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