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Services for Graduate Students

Graduate Students and Internships
A tool to define the road ahead . . .

They provide you with work experience outside of a traditional academic setting-such that if you decide to pursue a non-academic career, you will have a significantly higher degree of credibility among potential employers.
Second, they offer you an opportunity to discover first hand whether the allure of non-academic work is actual or illusory.

Credibility Factor and a Foot in the Door

• Graduate students can use internships as entrée into the professional world, and where offered, are regarded as especially valuable to both employers and students.
• Employers know that they are getting someone who is familiar with demanding work schedules and who knows how to work independently as necessary. In this regard your skills and potential are more important than your prior work history.
  Employers who need to hire for defined short term assignments are less likely to get stuck on why you are exploring work outside your major or research interest, thus eliminating a potential barrier to your employment and gaining experience .

Earn Credentials

• Internships allow graduate students to earn credentials outside the academy.
• A 2 month, 4-5 week internship or a 10-hours/week, semester-long internship will serve you well in rounding out your resume with demonstrated experience in an applied setting.
• If you decide to seek full-time employment in your internship area, employers know you are making an informed, deliberate choice, rather than a last ditch “anything other than academia” leap.
• You will also start your job search with a strong network of contacts and job leads. While never guaranteed, you will be well positioned to be among the inside candidates for any future openings in the specific organization where you interned.

A DecisionTool: Is A Non Academic Career Right For Me?

• Internships can give you a sense of what life is like in the non-profit, private or public sector worlds. By design, most internships contain at least a nominal mentoring component. You can use that framework as a productive context for researching the range of career opportunities within a particular sector or organization.
• Perhaps you will learn that the academic route has more luster than you had come to think.
• Or perhaps your internship will confirm that you will put your degree and yourself to better use outside the academy.

  Either way, it is better to come to these conclusions as soon as you can.

Career Center Internship Resources

On-line Internship Database: http://www.careercenter.ucsc.edu/internships/

Career Center lists internships for undergraduate and graduate qualifications. All opportunities unless explicitly stating otherwise are open to all registered students. The Data Base can be searched for a specific company or sector.

Take Away FAQ Information Sheet: A FAQs sheet that defines parameters for typical Graduate Internships.

Websites by UCSC Disciplines and useful Links to ‘all things’ intern related: A resource list of websites by Discipline and specialty subject matter, to assist you in making a targeted search – and Links to sites to help you evaluate and apply for specific opportunities.

Reference Binder: The Career Center has started a reference binder on topics relating to graduate internships as a tool to assist you in your research for the perfect intern opportunity.

Print Resources: The Career Center has started an Internship section of the reference Library. See the Resource Librarian for specific help with books for graduates.