Summer Internship: A Comprehensive Guide

An internship is a professional learning experience that offers meaningful, practical work related to a student’s field of study or career interest. It gives a student the opportunity for career exploration and development, and to learn new skills. Internships are supervised, structured learning experiences in a professional setting that allow you to gain valuable work experience in a student’s chosen field of study. It offers the employer the opportunity to bring new ideas and energy into the workplace, develop talent, and potentially build a pipeline for future full-time employees.

The Essence of an Internship

At its core, an internship is an opportunity to gain valuable, hands-on work experience in a potential career field of interest without making a long-term commitment. "Experience" can come in many forms. It can help you figure out what you want to do with your future. The experience must be an extension of the classroom: a learning experience that provides for applying the knowledge gained in the classroom. If these criteria are followed, it is the opinion of NACE that the experience can be considered a legitimate internship.

Key aspects

Professional Learning: Internships bridge the gap between academic knowledge and real-world application.
Practical Work: Interns engage in tasks that are relevant to their field of study.
Career Exploration: Internships allow students to explore different career paths and discover their interests.
Skill Development: Interns acquire new skills and enhance existing ones through hands-on experience.
Supervision and Structure: Internships provide a supervised and structured learning environment.

Types of Experiential Learning

Beyond internships, several other types of experiential learning opportunities exist, each with its unique characteristics and benefits.

Co-ops (Cooperative Education)

Like an internship, a co-op (cooperative education) is an opportunity to gain work experience that typically lasts for more than one semester. Students may take a semester off of their courses to do a co-op, and then return for classes the following semester after the co-op experience. Co-ops generally happen at organizations in STEM-based industries. Co-ops are paid positions that require students to alternate semesters between full-time work during the academic term and full-time academic study for at least two semesters.

Field Experiences

Majors in Education, Social Work, Communication Sciences and Disorders, and related majors will often have these experiences integrated into the requirements for the major.

Read also: Your Guide to Nursing Internships

Research Experience

Research experience is an intentional learning plan that will offer exposure to potential career fields similar to that of internships and co-ops. You can conduct research individually, with peers, or with faculty. Through this type of experience you can apply what you’ve learned in classes, build skills, have the opportunity to publish or present your research, and prepare for graduate-level education. Start your search through UMD’s Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP). Research opportunities are available both on- and off-campus. These experiences offer a unique way to better understand a student’s academic interests and consider how graduate school may play a role in future paths.

Leadership Roles

Position with elevated responsibility and potentially decision-making power. Leadership roles can happen almost anywhere. These roles can help you build skills relevant to your future career path (i.e. a finance major may want to seek out a treasurer role for a student organization). Note: Some leadership opportunities don’t happen in an official capacity and they can still be great resume builders (i.e.

Part-Time, On-Campus, and Summer Jobs

Any type of work experience that is not an internship or co-op. Provide you an opportunity to make money during college, to get your foot in the door with an organization you are interested in, find leadership opportunities, and build skills.

Study Abroad

An opportunity to take courses, intern, and/or volunteer internationally. It provides a way to demonstrate your experience of working with a diverse group of people with differing viewpoints.

Collegiate Athletics and Club Sports

If you are involved in collegiate-level athletic teams or club sports, you are building transferable skills such as time management, discipline, leadership, and teamwork. These transferable skills are highly sought after by employers and will help you adapt to different work environments.

The Summer Internship Advantage

While internships can occur throughout the year, summer internships hold a unique appeal for many students. Summer is also the most convenient time to be an intern, without the responsibilities of classes and exams.

Flexibility and Focus

The summer months offer a break from academic coursework, allowing interns to fully immerse themselves in their work experience.

Competitive Edge

Internship placements and programs get more and more competitive, and the earlier you express interest and get your application in, the better off you will be. If you definitely want to apply for an internship in the summer the latest you should be sending out your resume and materials is mid-February. That means that in the fall semester you’ll need to be doing internship research, polishing your resume, writing drafts of your cover letter and getting recommendations. If you are applying to one of the major internship programs, this deadline could be as early as the first of the year. State Department, deadlines are in early November.

Strategic Timing

Winter break is a great time to look for summer internships. Since you will likely be working at your internship in your hometown during the summer, winter break offers the perfect time to go on informational (or employment) interview, and even to pound the pavement looking for a placement. This is also a great time to get all of your paperwork and documents in order. While many companies will simply ask for a cover letter and resume, programs often have a lengthy application process including essays and recommendations. Don’t leave these until the last minute!

Securing Your Summer Internship

Landing a summer internship requires careful planning and preparation.

Planning Ahead

No matter when you decide to work at your internship, remember to plan ahead, and to ask for help.

Utilizing Resources

While at your internship you might be on your own, during the application process you can feel free to take advantage of all of the internship resources out there on the web and in the library. Sometimes the most valuable resources are those you didn’t consider, like your parent’s, friends’ parents and extended family.

Exploring Alternative Options

If you can’t find the internship of your dreams for the summer, consider a fall or spring internship. These are often less competitive, and you could even wind up interning at the same place that you could get into over the summer! That said, you’ll still need to be aware of the general deadlines associated with academic year internship placements. In some cases, having an internship during the academic year means that you can lighten your course-load; it isn’t uncommon to receive the same amount of credit (the equivalent of 1-2 full-time classes) for an intensive summer internship as you will for a part time placement during the semester.

The Employer's Perspective

Internships offer significant benefits to employers as well.

Fresh Perspectives

Interns bring new ideas and energy into the workplace.

Talent Development

Internships provide an opportunity to develop future talent and build a pipeline for full-time employees.

Building a Pipeline

Internships allow employers to assess potential future employees.

Academic Credit and Internship Legitimacy

While academic credit legitimizes an unpaid experience, in order to be identified as an internship, that experience must fit the above criteria. We encourage faculty members to support students by facilitating internships for academic credit when possible, particularly in cases where an employer will not be providing compensation. The experience must be an extension of the classroom: a learning experience that provides for applying the knowledge gained in the classroom. If these criteria are followed, it is the opinion of NACE that the experience can be considered a legitimate internship.

Compensation and the FLSA

The FLSA requires “for-profit” employers to pay employees for their work. Courts have used the “primary beneficiary test” to determine whether an intern or student is, in fact, an employee under the FLSA. In short, this test allows courts to examine the “economic reality” of the intern-employer relationship to determine which party is the “primary beneficiary” of the relationship. The extent to which the intern and the employer clearly understand that there is no expectation of compensation.

The Primary Beneficiary Test

Courts have described the “primary beneficiary test” as a flexible test, and no single factor is determinative. If analysis of these circumstances reveals that an intern or student is actually an employee, then he or she is entitled to both minimum wage and overtime pay under the FLSA.

Exceptions to the FLSA

The FLSA exempts certain people who volunteer to perform services for a state or local government agency or who volunteer for humanitarian purposes for non-profit food banks. WHD also recognizes an exception for individuals who volunteer their time, freely and without anticipation of compensation, for religious, charitable, civic, or humanitarian purposes to non-profit organizations.

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