I attended a career fair at Stanford University this week. Most of the students had a fairly good idea of what they are looking for in terms of internships, but there were a handful of freshmen that haven’t even declared majors looking for "internships".
"An internship is a method of on-the-job training for white-collar and professional careers.[1][2] Internships for professional careers are similar in some ways to apprenticeships for trade and vocational jobs, but the lack of standardization and oversight leaves the term open to broad interpretation." (Wikipedia)
So here’s the thing about internships: they are usually geared as vocational training for people pursuing a specific career choice. Software Engineer, Marketing, PR, Finance/Accounting, Fashion Merchandising, etc. Internships are a very important way for collegiates to get valuable industry experience. The Federal government has redefined "unpaid" internships in such a way that most employers can no longer risk offering them, which means that the overall number of available internships has gone down dramatically.
It’s actually a waste of time to ask about internships if you don’t even know what you want to do, what you are good at, what you think you might want to do; I have several other people that want to speak to me, and I cannot help you if you don’t know what you want. I would recommend that students with no direction in school yet consider getting a summer temp job if they need money.
There are other things you can do with your time. Get a summer job (there is nothing wrong with working at the mall, at a movie theater or waiting tables); volunteer in some fashion, consider a summer quarter abroad studying, be a youth camp counselor, or even take a couple of classes for fun. The most important thing for me, as a recruiter, is to see that you are constantly challenging yourself and growing.
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