Internship tips for a better future.

Our son JP is a junior in college, and hopes to land a computer science internship next summer.

In this kind of situation, having a mother as a career counselor can be a blessing and a curse. “I can just sign up with the college’s internship system and see how it goes,” he informed me. Yet I know from experience that your first professional gig can have a huge impact on the rest of your career: what you start out doing can lead you down a long road of doing the same thing, whether you like it or not.

Since computer programmers exist in nearly every sector, JP could be writing code for one industry as easily as another, so why not choose one that appeals to him? His interests: video games and geology.  I figured I’d let him investigate the gaming options while I dug in a bit on the geology side.

My first move was to contact a friend who’s worked for the United States Geological Survey in a computer science capacity. He sent me a list of possible niche ideas that JP might want to investigate, which then led us to LinkedIn to locate professionals employed in those specialties. A few messages later, and JP was lined up to interview two experts who use computer science and geology in their work.

JP then emailed them this message: “I’m conducting some career research. Currently I’m a student in Computer Science, and I also love geology. Your career seems to combine the two, and I’d like to learn more about it. How did you get into this career? What do you like about it, and what are the downsides? What does a typical day or week look like for you? What skills help you succeed? What sort of training is helpful? What are typical pay ranges for entry-level, mid-level, and senior-level experience? Who else do you respect in this line of work that I should also interview?”

He’s still waiting for replies, but what he learns will likely steer how he lines up his internship…or at least that’s what his mother hopes.

Photo Credit:  © Nikola Hristovski | Dreamstime Stock Photos