Special to The Prsospector

Amber Morrison, senior creative writing major, devotes 10-15 hours per week researching sneakers. Huddled over a computer screen, she tries to learn everything about them. Jordan’s, Nikes, Rebok, Adidas, Asics, the list goes on. She tries to learn what they look like, how to describe them, how they’re made, etc. It’s not that Morrison is obsessed with sneakers, it’s part of her internship.

“I write articles about upcoming sneakers in the sneaker community, so it’s more of an advertising job, but I still get to write,” Morrison said. “It’s really a whole other art.”

Morrison applied for the internship with an upcoming company called ShoeGame HQ because she wanted to get real-world experience.

Before getting ShoeGame HQ, she had applied to five other internships. Her internship runs from April until early June.

Morrison is required to write 13 articles per week, or one to two per day. She is not getting paid and employment is not guaranteed, but Morrison is doing the internship because she wants the experience.

“I realized that I had a lot of writing experience from my classes, but I didn’t have any of the professional experience,” Morrison said. “It’s important to have people in the real world, who can back up your writing, expertise and the work you’ve done for them instead of simply saying ‘hey, I’ve done this.’”

As a creative writing major, Morrison didn’t envision herself writing about sneakers, she thought she would only be writing novels. However, after she went to the University Career Center she realized her degree could be applied to other fields.

“I think I felt pressured because I realized that if I wanted to do something in the writing world, I needed to actually apply for jobs in the writing world,” Morrison said.

Of those who graduated in 2013, 62 percent—nearly two-thirds—participated in at least one internship or cooperative education assignment, in which colleges and companies partner to combine classroom and practical work experience, according to data just released by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Sixty-two percent is a record high—edging out the former 57 percent high in 2008.

Of graduates in 2012, 60 percent of paid interns landed jobs and 37 percent of unpaid interns were hired. Of graduates who did not complete an internship, 36 percent were hired.

According to Nick Zweig, coordinator for the internship program at the UCC, it’s important for students to explore different variations of their majors.

“An English major went to work at NASA and this person, as an intern, was taking technical language and converting it into a more normal language for publicity purposes and for outreach purposes,” Zweig said.

The idea that students should look for job opportunities outside their major is something Selina O’Neal, senior political science major, believes in as well.

“I think it’s important to do something that’s just going to benefit you in your future, no matter what it is,” O’Neal said. “Even if it’s an internship that’s outside your field of study, you’re still developing professionally in a different way and I think that’s important.”

Like Morrison, O’Neal is a senior who applied for an internship to gain real-world experience.

O’Neal will be going to law school at the University of Texas at Austin next fall. She applied for an internship at a Fortune 500 company law firm through a program called Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, an organization that provides career programs to young people from underrepresented communities to maximize their opportunities for college and career success.

O’Neal applied in January and has had two interviews since then. She is expecting to be notified if she got accepted for the internship soon.

Unlike Morrison’s internship, O’Neal would be getting paid about $700-$1,300 per week if she gets accepted, and the firm offers employment to 75 percent of their interns after they graduate from law school.

A 2012 survey of more than 1,000 college students done by Intern Bridge, a consulting firm that specializes in college recruiting, revealed that college students were twice as likely to receive a job offer from a paid internship than an unpaid internship.

However, O’Neal doesn’t find the value of the internship in the pay and the potential employment, but mainly in the experience.

“It’s actual substantive work,” O’Neal said. “It’s not just pushing papers and serving coffee. You’re actually getting the legal research. You’re getting exactly what you would be doing if you were a mid-level attorney.”

Morrison, too, believes the value of her internship is found in the experience it will help her attain.

“I can have that (experience) on my resume and say, ‘you know what, I actually have this real-world experience. I’m not simply a writer who writes in their basement or something,’” Morrison said. “So at least I can say it’s not simply in the classroom, it’s actually in the real world that I’ve been able to do this.”

According to Zweig, employers have grown more selective when hiring new employees and one of the things they look for when
hiring is experience.

“So one of the things that has come to play more significantly than the past is they’re looking for experience, and that experience for the UTEP student often takes the form of an internship,” Zweig said.

Two surveys done by the National Association of Colleges and Employers indicate that internships not only increase the likelihood of getting a job, but keeping one.

According to the 2012 Internship and Co-Op Survey and the Student Survey Class, 63 percent of paid interns received at least one job offer upon graduating, in comparison only 38 percent of college students without internship experience received a job offer upon graduation.

Some of the ways students can look for internships is by going to Job Mine, a career and internship database offered by the UCC that is available to UTEP students. Students may also go to websites such as internships.com.

According to Zweig, networking is also a simple and helpful way to find an internship or a job.

“A lot of it involves working with the people that you know,” Zweig said. “You ask everybody that you know, your professors, your family, friends. You know of any opportunities? It’s often surprising who has connections to who.”

Zweig emphasized that it’s important to start looking for internship opportunities whether you’re a freshman or a senior.

“There is no right time, the right time is now,” Zweig said.

Maria Esquinca may be reached at [email protected]