Summer Internship Advice for Students

City Internships -- Lewis Talbot, Founder and CEO

There is of course much uncertainty concerning the broad economic effects of COVID-19, let alone the direct effects on student and graduate work experience and job opportunities.
 
Amid the seemingly bleak early data - the Institute of Student Employers (ISE), for instance, reports that 68% of employers have "cancelled work experience and insight opportunities altogether" - we would like to provide students with some cause for hope and straightforward actionable advice.

Over the past few weeks we've been working to form a more complete understanding of how our various partner employers across the world are positioning themselves with respect to their student and graduate intakes this summer. Our findings do not jibe with the most pessimistic statistics your students may be seeing,

Only a small fraction of our partner employers have cancelled their summer opportunities altogether. Critically, all those who have are firms with headcounts above 5,000 (the kind of firms most likely to feature in surveys conducted by organizations like the ISE).

Similarly, the overwhelming majority of our partner employers have committed to hosting interns virtually, either as a default or fall-back approach, this summer. Again, we have observed an inverse relationship between a company's size and their ability to be flexible.

We are consequently recommending students seeking work experience to (i) ensure they apply to a diverse array of employers (with respect to company size) and (ii) consider including a "will consider virtual/remote arrangements" (or similar) statement in their resume.

Given the tight jobs market to come, soon-to-be graduates should be advised that while virtual/remote placements may provide less complete experiences as compared with in-person placements, they will typically carry the same weight on your resume among future prospective employers (in part, because it is not common to describe a placement as remote, in-person or otherwise on a resume). 

Similarly, should they be of interest, our summer programs remain open to new applicants. Interested students should be direct to https://www.city-internships.com/apply/.

We have increased intake for both our virtual and in-person summer programs (info. on open programs here), with increased flexibility and increased aid for class of 2020 and 2021 participants (more info. on those elements here)