Student Internships: The First Step to a Successful Career

In any economy, an internship is a great way for a student to learn about the working world, meet potential employers and, in most cases, earn a little money. But in today’s tough job market, internships can be the edge that makes the difference for graduating students starting their careers.

Over the past 30 years, Pace Career Services has helped match more than 25,000 students with internship opportunities that allow them to combine classroom learning with real-world experience. Internships are available during both the semester and the summer.

A recent success story: Pace Co-op student Nicole Montecalvo, a finance major at the Lubin School of Business, has had two internships at finance industry leaders Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley. She says of her experience at Morgan Stanley, “I am constantly drawing comparisons between what I learn in my finance classes at Pace to the financial institution credit analysis I perform at my internship.” Best of all, Nicole has been offered a full-time job as an analyst at Morgan Stanley upon her graduation in June.

Enrick Garcia, a 2009 marketing program graduate, is another internship success story. Through the on-campus job fairs sponsored by Pace Career Services, he landed a summer internship with the Dannon Company in Cincinnati—and that internship also became a full-time job. He says of his experiences with Pace, “I took advantage of various workshops to hone my professional skill set. It was a truly wonderful experience.”

Yovanka Bien-Aime, a senior at the Ivan G. Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems, adds that her ongoing internship at the Veterans Affairs New York Harbor Healthcare System has taught her at least two valuable lessons. First, “you are not limited to what your job description says.” And second, it takes a variety of communication styles to get along in the workplace. She’s certain those discoveries will help her throughout her career.

The executive director of the program, Jody Queen Hubert, notes that Pace helps place students with a variety of majors and interests. “We work in partnership with major national and global businesses — names you know, like Bloomberg, IBM, JPMorgan Chase, and McKinsey & Co. We also arrange internships with media companies including MediaVest and Simon & Schuster and consumer products leaders like Dannon and Pepsi Bottling Group. And let’s not forget the government—the City of New York and the U.S. Department of the Treasury also hire Pace students as interns.”

Still not impressed? How about this: More than 1,200 Pace students participate in internships each year, and more than 40 percent of our internships lead to job offers for graduating students.

Is Your Pace Student Eligible?

The Co-op Education Internship Program is open to full-time Pace students in any major who meet the following criteria:

• Full-time undergraduate students (second-semester freshman or above) with a grade point average (GPA) of at least 2.5
• Full-time transfer students with a GPA of at least 2.5
• Graduate students who carry at least 6 credits and maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.0

How to Learn More

For a fun introduction to the program, visit the Internship Program’s Facebook page, where you’ll find out about upcoming events and discover a variety of interesting videos. For more in-depth information, visit the Pace Career Services home page. In addition to details about the internship program, you’ll also find out about upcoming career events and can download guidebooks to help your student prepare strong resumes, improve their interviewing techniques and learn other job-hunting skills.