Why Apply for an Internship in your Freshman Year of College 

Internships are a common goal for most college students that are nearing the end of college and are trying to find a job opportunity but are often overlooked in the beginning half of college. Internships can bring essential job experience or even job offerings in some cases. The best opportunities for internships are often highly competitive and require an exceptional application to stand out enough to be selected. 

A great way to strengthen your application is by experiencing your first internship in your freshman year of college. This is often overlooked as most times students will apply for internships for their junior or senior year, this leaves little room for error in internship applications and the internships themselves. 

Obtaining an internship in your freshman year allows you to learn how to get the most out of an internship and to get a feel for what you enjoy in a work environment, this is important to understand because after your first internship, you will develop a feel for what work you are best suited for and also allow for you to select an internship later on that is then closer to what you liked most out of your first internship. Whether this newfound thing is that you really like smaller companies or that you prefer to work in a livelier environment, this is all helpful as it can guide you towards a better internship down the road, when that internship could potentially lead to a job offer. 

Another benefit of applying in your freshman year is when it comes time to apply in junior/senior year it will look exceptional that you already have had an internship or two as this shows that you are driven beyond your peers because you will already have interned in something similar. A paid internship looks much better than a random summer job. Also with your application, you can even attach recommendations from the previous internships you have had. 

With an internship under your belt within your first year at college, it allows you to begin networking outside of basic school offers, which is an important trait to learn and will follow you throughout your entire career. 

Internships are a great way to test out a career path and refine what you want as a future career. They provide crucial job experience but are often overlooked for the easy access to careers and prestigious offerings they can contain as they are a vital link from college to career.           

Interning earlier allows for better selection when it matters more, and it also strengthens your application which in turn can make for an easier route to a prestigious internship that is highly competitive because of the possible job offers that can come from these internships.