Greetings from the Career Center and GAMP Office
Greetings from the Gonzaga University Career Center and GAMP Office
Here are a few key upcoming dates …
- Speed Mock Interviews on October 3rd
Speed Mock Interviews are based on the “speed dating” concept. Past events have been a fun and informative way for students and employers to interact. Students have practice time with a variety of employers and employers connect with multiple GU students. Register on ZagTrax.net.
- All Majors Career Fair on October 4th
- Spokane Trek Excursions on October 5th
- Engineering & Computer Science Career Fair on October 10th
Registration is available on ZagTrax.net.
Read on for information on internships …
Is your Zag looking for an internship? No Sweat.
Annie Szotkowski, Career Center & GAMP Marketing Intern
It’s Senior year for me at Gonzaga (How did that happen!?). Over the past three years, I owe a huge thank you to Gonzaga’s Career Center & Gamp and people in Spokane for my valuable bank of intern experience.
I can relate to author Slone Crosley’s reflection on internships: “I’ve had more internships then I have belts to wear to them.”
If your son or daughter is seeking an internship, or is just starting to think about one, the first step is creating a solid resume, which the Career Center offers knowledge, help, and expert advice on. The second step is to realize the magnitude of internships available while facing the reality that few are paid and many are competitive.
My current marketing intern position at the Career Center is my sixth internship. I am happy to share how I pursued these internships, when I did, and what I gained from them.
By sharing these resources, I hope your son or daughter benefits from his or her internships as I have.
My first internship was with Spokane Symphony as a marketing intern. While studying abroad with Gonzaga’s Literary London program the summer before my sophomore year, I checked my school e-mail, opened Morning Mail, and read about an internship posting from Symphony. I e-mailed the Public Relations and Marketing Director about interning that fall. After my resume was sent, I contacted her when I was back in the States, and my internship experience started!
Lesson learned: Check Morning Mail, even when abroad.
Lessons gained: Social media, donor relations (sealing donation envelopes), organizing news clippings, learning the culture of non-profit musically oriented organization.
My second and third internship occurred the summer before my junior year. I began working with a local magazine in Spokane after being referred to the position as part of a pool of applicants for Spokane’s MarCom internship. I was not invited to work with MarCom, but the organizers of the internship program informed non-recipients about local internship postings.
Lesson learned: If you don’t receive a competitive intern position, no fear. Another offer might be on the way.
Lessons gained: Fact-checking, timely edits, accountability with deadlines, networking, and engagement with Spokane’s culture.
My third internship was for academic credit that applied to my Public Relations degree. Knowing I would be in Spokane for the summer, I asked the owners of one of my favorite local businesses if I could intern for them. I designed my internship based on my interests/expectations to learn and gain skills and the store’s needs in terms of marketing and promotion.
Lesson learned: Don’t be afraid to approach an employer and propose an internship designed and tailored BY YOU. It exhibits great leadership, initiative, and you’re bound to receive a stellar recommendation.
Lessons gained: Photography skills, timetable goals to achieve new projects/types of communication to different publics, working with a small family-owned business on the marketing side.
My fourth internship was with Spokane Get Lit!’s Literary Festival. I had e-mailed Get Lit! a year earlier as a sophomore asking if Get Lit! could be applied to an academic credit at GU. At the time, Get Lit! preferred juniors or seniors for an intern position. The fall of my junior year, I received a surprise e-mail from the coordinator of Get Lit! who had kept my e-mail on file and asked if I was still interested in interning. After meeting with her for an interview and discussing my resume, I was on the team for Get Lit!
Lesson learned: Some employers keep your resume or inquiry on file. Internship opportunities can come out of the blue.
Lessons gained: Sociable professionalism with authors and literary figureheads, flexibility to work near and away from GU’s campus, biographical editing, language catering to ask for donations in press releases or announce a festival event.
Over this past summer I interned as an editorial intern at The Pacific Northwest Inlander, Spokane’s news and art newspaper. I learned the art of journalism and a finite way to write. It was my first in-office setting, 20 hours a week, with flexibility and several task shifts as an intern.
Lesson learned: The Inlander was an opportunity for me to question if I saw myself as a journalist for my career of if public relations fit me better. Some internships won’t be a perfect fit, but it’s surprising how much you will take away and applies those skills elsewhere, especially with writing.
Lessons gained: Confidence when cold-calling, meticulous fact-checking, conducting phone interviews, engaging with public relations professionals from the journalism side, concise writing,
Now I am at the Career Center, invited in a position by one of the employees.
Overall Lessons learned: Internships connect you with numerous wonderful relationships. My Jesuit, liberal art education prepared me to share my skills in different roles with different people, but form valuable relationships while applying problem-solving, creativity, and enthusiasm to each job.
In my experience, one season is not hot with internships more than another. Try things out. See what comes naturally, and enjoy the journey.
Best of luck to your Zag’s future.
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Hello from the Career Center & GAMP Office!
Annie Szotkowski has figured some things out…. it is easy to see by what she reports in the accompanying article reviewing her internship experiences. “Lessons learned,” and “Lessons gained,” demonstrates just how insightfully Annie has discovered the tremendous value in Experiential Education, or as we love to call it around here, “Internships!”
The fact is internships are an integral part of co-curricular life on most university and college campuses. The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) reports that over 55% of 2012 graduates experienced at least one internship while in school. Gonzaga’s One- Year-Out Survey of alums reflects that same percentage. Additionally employers reported to NACE that 40% of their new hires will come directly from internship or co-op programs, and they even expect to increase internship hiring this year by 9%!
Internships are happening across the country, internationally, and in nearly every kind of workplace. They are sometimes paid, often for academic credit, and almost always a means for relevant discovery and practice in a profession. These are important statistics, and here at Gonzaga we are paying attention. Across our university internship opportunities are being supported and implemented in measurable ways.
- Academic departments are taking a refreshed interest in helping students realize, “What will I be able to do with this major?”
- More professors are building internships into their syllabus as part of the course requirement.
- Established internships occur each year through the School of Business Administration, and the Hogan Entrepreneur Leadership Program.
- Representative faculty from each of the 22 departments in the College of Arts and Sciences has volunteered to become Career Center Liaisons, partnering in the effort to guide students as they formulate career plans.
- New opportunities in many career fields are being posted weekly on ZagTrax, Gonzaga’s job and internship resource site.
Gonzaga is invested in the development of the whole person, young men and women challenged in academic rigor, rich in spirit, and equipped to be contributors, just like Annie! Because of this, Gonzaga’s internship program is growing. We are intentionally working to create more opportunities for meaningful experiential education.
How can you, as parents be involved?
- Be in conversation with your own ZAG. Inquire about their learning. Encourage self-reflection and “possibility-thinking” on the way to practical decisions.
- Be a connector. Help your ZAG to make networking connections that lead to opportunities.
- Be an advocate. Even in your home town, your business or community you may know of an existing internship or one that might be developed. Contact Gonzaga Career Center & GAMP, www.gonzaga.edu/careercenter
Chris Ryman, Internship Manager
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