Internships

With stories of companies taking advantage of young interns for the “free labour” ability to “do all the jobs that paid staff don’t want to do” it was interesting to see New South Wales based senior lecturer Jenna Price’s thoughts that the internship is still worth it for the student.

Now being an educator in journalism and looking back on her internship with the publication The Punch, she recalls that apart from going from the classroom to the workplace, almost all of the student interns got something out of it:

• Feedback
• A part-time or full-time job
• The realization that journalism was or wasn’t for them

The Experience or Exploitation Report for the Fair Work Ombudsman showed that:

• 66% of journalism students from a Sydney-based university had an offer of paid employment as a result of their internship
• 55% of who staff worked at a university (survey with 89 responses from 29 tertiary institutions) said that some unpaid work arrangements such as internships lead to an offer of paid employment for the student

Unfortunately there wasn’t any specific health industry data in the report, but data from other industries such as information technology and law show a correlation where internships lead to a higher employment rate.

Volunteering

Careers website myfuture previously had a page “How volunteering can help you get a job”. According to myfuture:

“Employers like to see applicants that have demonstrated motivation and initiative, are enthusiastic and have a genuine interest in helping other people.”

The benefits of volunteering are:

• Gaining new experiences and valuable challenges
• Learning new skills and sharing your skills
• Building a network
• Learning about an industry

More career & university tips:

• The degrees of unemployment
• A career in health is a marathon, not a sprint!
• Tips for getting a job at the World Health Organization
• Promoting your research through traditional media, social media and blogging

Image:    IAEA Imagebank – flickr