What to Do If Your Summer Internship Is Canceled
A summer internship can help a college student or entry-level worker start a career. But the coronavirus outbreak has postponed many of those summer plans. So what can you do about it?
Glassdoor found that more than half of the internship positions on its platform had been closed in the past two months, and the number of internship participants on the site dropped 39% between April 2019 and April 2020.
For people who have already completed their internships, leaving offices has resulted in massive cancellations. A poll by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that 22% of employers canceled summer internship offers they made to students before the pandemic.
If you’re the type of trainee whose offers have been canceled, you’re probably wondering what the hell you should be doing with your sudden free time.
Fortunately, whether you are looking to fill your resume or get your first full-time job, there is a lot you can do from home.
Don’t take it personally
Your internship was canceled because of the pandemic and not because of your own actions. So do not take it personally, though offended by this – it is normal.
“Remind yourself that a canceled internship is out of your control,” says Sydney Fulkerson, author of Coffee Jogging: And Other Important Internship Facts . “How you decide to act and where you plan to spend your time is in your hands.”
“This is a space for a growth mindset,” says Chelsea Noble, career coach at General Assembly . “This is where innovation comes from.” She advises thinking about how you can create your own opportunity when the door closes, instead of thinking about scary statistics like the one above.
Keep in touch
Fulkerson advises that even if your internship is canceled, don’t miss the moment entirely. She says you need to keep in touch with the leaders you would work with during your internship. It doesn’t hurt to ask if a job can be done remotely or if it’s possible to participate in online job tracking to better understand the company.
As jobs quickly adapt to the fallout from the pandemic, it really doesn’t hurt to ask if there is still a way to gain experience or insight.
Conduct curious interviews
Networking is an important feature of many internships, and according to Noble, it didn’t disappear during the pandemic, but just went online. If anything, it has leveled the playing field when it comes to asking someone for career advice or industry insight.
She recommends signing in to LinkedIn and explaining to the people you want to talk to that your internship isn’t making headway, but you still want to learn from them. You’d be surprised who wants to spend half an hour chatting on Skype or Zoom.
If you get turned down, again, don’t take it personally – everyone’s schedules are a little wacky right now. But you can still learn from industry leaders you admire or professionals you hoped to work with during your internship: follow them on social media, subscribe to their emails, read their blog posts. you get the idea. Fulkerson says awareness can be a major source of inspiration, keeping ideas flowing even if you’re not in that kind of internship environment.
Take on a fun project or learn a new skill
You have some free time. You might as well get the most out of this.
Fulkerson advises asking yourself a few questions to determine how best to spend your summer time as you choose your own adventure:
- What would an ideal internship look like?
- Who would I work for?
- What would I learn?
- How can I create this myself while stuck at home?
This does not mean that you have to turn your dining room into a boardroom and play out a lot of meetings. You can take an online course (Noble notes that many organizations are offering free and low-cost coding right now) or research a topic that interests you.
“What next project are you taking on?” Noble asks. “Maybe it’s volunteer work or volunteering.” “Don’t discredit your efforts just because you don’t get paid,” she adds. “Consider this experience as real work and include it on your resume.”
While you work through a summer of your own design, be sure to think about your personal brand. “There is no better time than now to think about personal brand and how to answer the question ‘tell me about yourself’,” says Noble.
Thinking about how you can share how you’ve spent your time and adapted to a rapidly changing situation during a pandemic can be a huge benefit when it’s time to apply for the next round of internship or new job.