Value of Internships in the Economy

By MEHNAZ LADHA

With bags of camera equipment in her hands, Joana Gerbi slid into the back seat of a London cab and prepared for her final video shoot.

She glanced out the streaked window, recollecting how familiar her surroundings had become in the past two months. Her American lifestyle had been replaced with narrow roads, an edgy cultural vibe, and upscale British cuisine.

In the 25-minutes it took to reach the London branch of BNY Mellon, an American worldwide banking and financial services corporation with headquarters scattered around the globe, Gerbi brushed up on the company’s history and familiarized herself with the agenda of the video shoot.

The rhythmic, calming sound of the cab’s ticking indicator meant that Gerbi had reached her destination. She crawled out of the small cab and stared at the towering building in front of her.

With little time, she followed her supervisor through the glass doors and to the elevators. As the elevator lurched upward, the piercing pings filled the elevator silence.

When the elevator doors opened, Gerbi was taken aback by the sweeping views of the nearby lush park. She quickly began unpacking the equipment and setting up the tripod. She then planted herself on the chair, waiting for the crew to adjust the lighting and camera angles.

Once the set was ready for the shoot, Gerbi moved to the back of the room where she stood patiently listening to the representatives of BNY Mellon introduce their new strategy. An hour later, the last video shoot of the summer was complete and the end of her summer internship with Berlinguer, a financial publishing house, was near.

“I felt accomplished and a little changed after my internship. I came in sort of quiet and ready to work, but at the end, I was ready to have an interpersonal connection with everyone in that office,” said Gerbi. “I was more eager to ask for the next assignment rather than wait around. I actually got something out of it and I didn’t want to leave.”

With hundreds of thousands of seniors graduating college each year, students like Gerbi complete internships and participate in on-the-job experiences that will set them apart from their competition.

Gerbi participated in an internship program at Berlinguer, Ltd. based in London, U.K. during summer 2014. Berlinguer is one of the world’s leading independent financial publishing houses recognized for launching the FTSE Global Markets magazine. Born in Greece, Gerbi immigrated to the United States with her family at the age of four. She is a first generation student and senior at Ramapo College of New Jersey, majoring in international business and minoring in information technology.

Like most college seniors, Gerbi is preparing to enter the competitive workforce armed with a packed resume and powerful recommendation letters. However, these tools are no longer enough for a college graduate seeking employment.

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers Job Outlook 2015 report, 60 percent of employers prefer that candidates have previous relevant work experience through internships and co-ops.

“It’s incredibly valuable for students to have internships. Employers look for those experiences and when they are glancing at resumes, for many organizations, that really is the first thing they are going to look for,” said Pam Cohen, director and career advisor of Anisfield School of Business at Ramapo College. “With internships, in particular, it’s that they have practical knowledge of the field they are going into. It’s hands on experience in their field. 

AUDIO: Ed Petkus, professor of marketing, explains the value of unique experiences through an analogy of an automobile and its features.

Rewards of Internship Programs

While most students are eager to earn college credit or a small stipend through internship programs, they fail to recognize the long-lasting benefits of their experiences. At its core, an internship within a certain field allows students to spend three to four months exploring a specific career path.

“Internships are really great tools for going into the workforce without being in it permanently,” said Gerbi. “It provides anyone who does an internship with the aspect of seeing what that job or field without actually having to be permanently in it.”

AUDIO: Pam Cohen explains how important internships are in relation to networking for the future.

Students recognize that the quality standard of work produced in the field is much higher than that of what is produced in the classroom. The assignments and tasks they complete for internship programs provide clarity and focus, allowing them to apply classroom knowledge in real world scenarios. Also, the set of skills acquired and honed through an internship, such as communication and time management, prepare students for their future career.

“For example, every company has some sort of technology that they are using. I found that, not just in the business school, but also with students in contemporary arts, music production, media, there are tools and techniques and software that they are not necessarily learning in the classroom. Classrooms in every field do not adapt as rapidly as the industry does,” noted Cohen.

Most often, students are the ones encouraged to participate in internships to boost their resume and gain some experience. However, employers implementing programs also benefit from hiring interns, who not only help with the work that needs to be done without impacting their head count, but also provide a youthful perspective and insightful ideas.

“For some firms, internships create a direct pipeline to hiring full time. There are a number of firms, especially larger organizations and multinational organizations, that really target students who will be graduating within the coming year and use those summer internships as three month job interviews,” said Cohen.

Co-founder of SunCity Paradise, an online travel blog, Sean Ritchie implemented an internship program since the creation of his company. Hiring college students as interns, a handful of whom have continued writing for the publication, has helped him create content for the website.

“Making the decision to bring on interns has two-parts. The first was to give back and hopefully inspire a group of college students similar to myself at that age. It took me a long time to understand what my calling was, and it was after college. To be able to potentially inspire people at a younger age before they leave school and enhance their resume and writing portfolio to land a better job out of college was the ultimate goal,” said Ritchie.

“The second, was more logistical. With a start up to hire a team of writers needed to have a professional output would cost a lot of capital  that we don’t have. We run SunCity Paradise currently on no budget,” Richie added. “We do it out of love and thats the type of business I wanted to build a foundation of. The money will come in time, but the interns will be integral throughout the history of the company.”

State of the United States Economy and Job Prospects for College Graduates

Since the recession of 2008, the United State economy has shown significant progress. During his final State of the Union address in Jan. 2016, President Barack Obama referred to the U.S. economy as the “strongest, most durable economy in the world.”

TIMELINE: The highlights of the Great Recession in America from 2007 to 2012.

White House officials substantiated the president’s comment by referencing the countries gross domestic product (GDP), which represents the sum of all economic activity. Between 2009 and 20015, the American GDP averaged about four percent annual growth and was estimated to be $17.9 billion in 2015, according to Statista.

In recent months, the United States has witnessed substantial employment growth. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the creation of 242,000 jobs in Feb. 2016 and 215,000 in March 2016.

The national economy is slowly improving, yet it has not reached its highest potential, according to business professors at Ramapo College.

“It’s not horrible, there’s plenty of room for improvement. I have seen better and I have seen worse,” said Ed Petkus, professor of marketing and convener of international business.

Job prospects for college graduates are directly influenced by the state of the economy. Timothy Hecht, professor of finance, explained the national economic conditions in terms of labor force participation rates, the ratio between the labor force and the size of the national population of the same age range.

“After the financial crisis, the U.S. economy witnessed a significant withdrawal from the workforce of old labor. Since then, we have had falling labor participation rates,” said Hecht. “But it has recently begun to rise as old workers are coming back into the labor force as they perceive that job prospects have been improving.”

This scenario can be potentially advantageous for college graduates if the rate if falling due to the retirements of old workers. However, if these positions of the older workers are being eliminated, college graduates might encounter difficulty when entering the job market. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics’ labor force report, the labor force participation rate before the recession was 66 percent. As of March 2016, the labor force participation rate is 63 percent.

“The economy has been generating about 200,000 jobs per month for many months. That should be enough to absorb new entrants into the labor force, including college graduates,” said Hecht.

Graduates are also entering a workforce where people are working longer for multiple reasons, including former President Ronald Reagan’s legislation of the 80s that lifted the mandatory retirement age. People are working past the age of 65 because they need the money or don’t have enough to retire, they enjoy their work, access to health care and other benefits, as well as additional years to their “defined benefit” retirement accounts, according to Hecht.

This economic and statistical perspective suggests that since the old labor is not shifting out, there are no jobs at the bottom for college graduates. Cohen, however, assesses the state of the job market from a different point of view.

“In the real standpoint, when I look at the 66 companies that were at the business career fair and the 15 companies that were on the waitlist to get into the fair and couldn’t because we didn’t physically have the venue, I don’t think there is quite as much of a struggle at the bottom as economic numbers would necessarily project,” said Cohen.

Life After Ramapo College

Since returning from London, Gerbi has shifted her focus to her academics. She is active in several academic fraternities on campus and is vice president of Chi Alpha Epsilon, an honor society that recognizes the scholastic achievements of students admitted to college through non-traditional criteria affiliated with the Office of Specialized Services, McNair Scholars, and the Educational Opportunity Fund Program.

With graduation around the corner, Gerbi has devoted her free time to attending career fairs and round tables hosted by Cahill Career Development Center as well as searching online for job openings that suit her interests.

“The most challenging part is finding a job position that bridges my major and minor. Additionally, it’s difficult to determine if the skill set that I have is enough to fulfill the job positions that I want to pursue,” said Gerbi. “As an entry position, I’m not looking for something too specific, but I want a job that is loosely related to international business or IT in some capacity.”

Seeking employment in other countries is a possibility for Gerbi, given her diverse Mediterranean background. Returning to Greece, however, is questionable.

“The language barrier is a bit of a problem. I used to know how to speak it, but when I learned English I mainly forgot most of it,” said Gerbi. “If there was a position for me, that would be good. But their economic stance isn’t great and I know family struggling to get jobs, so it probably wouldn’t be the most ideal.”

Her international experience at Berlinguer, Ltd. fulfilled her fieldwork component of her major and also left her with something to share with prospective employers.

“It was a really good thing to put on my resume. Any person that I talk to, when they ask me about internships or what I did abroad, they always seem interested in what I did, especially because I did it on my own,” said Gerbi.

VIDEO: Joana Gerbi shares why she decided to pursue a college degree in international business and how her internship experience has prepared her for future careers.