July 29, 2010
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Wasting summers
In the past year, I have spoken to many college students who are spending their summers either idle or working minimum wage at retail stores. Some do construction while others work inventory work in warehouses. Although it’s great that they are making their own money, I feel like they are wasting their summer.
It reminds me about this article I recently read in TIME magazine where they think the summer break is detrimental to the growth of children because in between these 10 or so weeks, kids usually lose about a third of what they have learned in the previous academic year. For college students, my fear isn’t that they will lose what they’ve learned, but instead, opportunities to beef up their resume so that they would have chances to compete against other candidates for jobs when they graduate.
Every summer should be used to find internships or any kind of white collar office work. I feel that if they tried to better their previous job experiences, it shows a lot of growth, ambition and potential. These are the qualities that many employers are looking for.
While not every college student can get such jobs, many should be able to. If you scour bulletin boards and even Craigslist, there are still such jobs available! Understandably, some of these internships are unpaid, but I look at it as an investment to their future.
I have seen many recent graduate resumes and sometimes, I feel like there’s nothing I can do except make them look aesthetically better. There’s just no content their to build on. How is any employer supposed to hire you if there doesn’t seem to be any development of soft skills? If you don’t have any relevant experience with WORD or EXCEL?
So my advice to all current college students–do not waste your summers. Use this time to land jobs or internships that help you when you graduate.
Another thing is, get a GMAIL account. There is a certain bias that employers sort of shun on if you’re still using Hotmail or Yahoo. It’s as if you’re not savvy enough to know what GMAIL is. There was an article about this a few months back. I don’t know how true it is, but don’t be marginally worse than someone else because of an email address.
How do you spend or spent your summers during college?
Comments (26)
lol interesting factoid about the gmail account. and ur absolutely right, since high school, the only summer I spent idle was the summer after senior year of high school, which I spent working at Subway. just so I can know wut blue collared work feels like lol jk ><
i wish i heard the same advice growing up. unfortunately,i had to go through some meaningless part time jobs before i got the idea that an internship or other job where useful skills or knowledge can be learned. we’d make good big brothers to clueless high school grads.
i’m spending my summer .. in school. and working extra jobs. i already work full time as it is.. and yes, i agree with you on the gmail thing. we’re currently looking for a few people to hire on, and we see their emails: somethingstupid/clever@hotmail/yahoo.com there was even an @aol.com too.. and idk how this one is alive, but @juno.com! what the heck!
also, note to others to be sure to have a specific email for work/professionalism.. “sexysurferstud@gmail.com” isn’t quite what we employers are looking for, unless you’re applying to be a chippendales dancer.
I actually would believe that employers would be biased against non-gmail accounts. whenever my friend tells me their address is hotmail or yahoo…I tell them to, “GET WITH IT ALREADY!”.
One thing I really wished I did while in college was intern more.SO important.
The thing about the email address is stupid. As long as it’s not “yowhatsup” @ whatever.com, then why should it matter?! That shows how shallow society and businesses are getting. What, first&lastname@yahoo.com just doesn’t cut it anymore? Just because it’s yahoo? It’s like my not hiring a girl just because she doesn’t carry a Gucci bag.
This is great advice and everything, but as a college student, I want to go out and explore too. I want to see things that I can see now, but not after I land a job. Yeah, it’ll be a little hard for me to find a job after I graduate, but at least I can look back on my college life and think “Damn, good thing I had fun!”
In the end, it’s all about the mindset. Optimism is your friend. A good resume is a helpful acquaintance.
I definitely agree with you. I wish I’d known these things earlier in my college career but instead I did the typical minimum-wage summer jobs making sandwiches and stocking shelves.
However, this summer I’m completing the revisions on some literary pieces I’ve written and preparing to publish them. I hope to get a job in the communications field after grad school and it looks good if you have some publications under your belt when you apply. There were no opportunities for me to take an internship this year so I’m taking the alternate route of “self-employment” and hoping the results will build up my resume even though a company name isn’t attached. Heck, maybe it’ll show that I’m independent and motivated! So right now I’m editing, looking up publishing houses, making phone calls, and filling out applications. I treat it like a real job and designate “office hours” for myself to stay on track. Unfortunately I can’t network though, which is another plus to office work for people nearing graduation.
i hate being idle but as someone whos been forced to choose btwn making rent and bolstering the resume, sometimes you cant take the white collar job simply because it doesnt pay enough. long term investments arent any good if you’re short term bankrupt.
@thesee - If being bankrupt is only short term, then I’m not sure if that’s the decision to make.
-ray leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
I totally agree – my unpaid work in bio labs in high school and a couple of my internships in college were a result of knocking on strangers doors / calling up companies to ask for HR / getting introduced via a family friend who worked for the company I was interested in (no one senior, literally all you need is the name of someone who will talk to you and get to know you).
A few years out of school now and learning how to hustle has become even more important as I switch jobs / try to get into grad school / look for summer internships…for this shy engineering girl, learning to go after opportunities has been a hard (and continuing process)…
Yep, I completely agree. I experience bouts of post college depression (PCD) from time to time and I’m actually in the same situation as most college graduates. It’s difficult to find a job that pays you that “college graduate salary” and I don’t want to work full-time at my Walgreens; it’s a nice job to have as a college student, but not afterward. I don’t really want an unpaid internship since I like having pocket money (just so I don’t mooch too much off my parents). In the meantime, I’m taking courses to improve my application for pharm school.
I also agree about the Gmail part. I made sure to hop on the bandwagon when it was still exclusive through invitation. My email doesn’t contain numbers; just my full name!
I dont know if it was very helpful for my future, but I worked for 5 years at a decent sized restaurant starting as a server and making it up all the way to night manager/asst GM. The job itself was pretty chill and it basically paid for my college.
I guess I should ask my current employer if that experience helped in anyway… I have no idea whether it helped or hurt.
i am definitely going to switch to gmail right away!
i actually didn’t take my first two college summers too seriously (although i did volunteer as a research assistant last summer just to have an excuse to stay in austin…haha…so glad i did though now that i’m more serious). this summer i’ve been studying for the GRE, working in 2 labs, and working on some research projects for conferences and publication. definitely my busiest yet- but i definitely agree with you and wish i took advantage of those other summers. what do you do exactly that lets you look at other graduates’ resumes?
Internships are definitely important not only for bolstering the resume, but the connections you make. Establish good relations with the HR and office staff and you’ve exponentially increased your chances for a job upon graduation or at least a meaningful recommendation.
Another thing is that internships help you sort out your career. Since you’re only a college student for the summer, most colleagues wouldn’t mind letting you in on an office gossip or two, and as silly as that might sound, it’s actually a good way to research on what type of companies you might consider working for after graduation. Some say internships are stressful because it’s like a summer-long interview, but actually you’re interviewing the company too.
That being said, I once filled up my whole summer with internships, and by the time school started I was burned out. Not good. So a little bit of free no-work-allowed time wouldn’t hurt in my opinion.
You review graduate resumes for friends or for work? Would you mind giving a few comments on mine? =P
@kckckcking - @Nikkiesque - I have many fraternity brothers who ask me for help. I also help some siblings of friends.
Anyway, kckckcking—if you want me to take a look, just shoot it over. jigg.xanga@gmail.com. I can’t guarantee you anything, but if there is anything I can help you with, I’ll let you know.
-ray leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
I don’t understand why people think gmail is so superior. I’ve been using gmail for years but recently switched back to yahoo earlier this year. My gmail account has my husband’s last name which I never legally changed to so I use yahoo for all professional correspondence (during the interview process) for consistency. Yahoo has really changed their interface and there are many features on yahoo that I enjoy that gmail does not have. You might be interested in reading this post and especially the comments in response to it: http://www.geekinheels.com/blog/2010/5/31/what-your-email-address-says-about-you.html There are a lot of tech-savvy people who aren’t fans of gmail!
i’m only a junior in highschool, but i worked at an internship in JPL last summer.
this is true. if you can get internship during your summer holidays, it definitely looks good on your resume…
i totally agree with you! Only on hindsight did i realise that working part-time in a boutique was a total waste of time during my school holidays. My sis however did office work which she could put on her resume.
PS. you are right again on the GMAIL. feel marginally better when i know my Gmail looks somehow more ‘serious’ and less fluff.
thanks for sharing!
i recognized that as well regarding the e-mail: so mine’s @live.com
- possibly hotmail realized this as well and thus created this option.
as for how i spend my summers, i’m still in class.i’ll take courses in the summer, volunteer, and i work on campus while holding 2 other jobs.
better yet, use your school account. it seems more legitimate. I can’t believe some college kids would still think it suitable to use aznbaby69@hotmail.com on their resume lol.
great post- I can really relate to what you’re saying about using summers to beef up resumes as I’m entering my final year of college. i had no connections but went to the extent of going to a temporary employment agency my first college summer because I didn’t want to settle for retail (yet it was difficult for me to get an office job at that point). i ended up with a placement at TD Waterhouse and TD Securities where I got to apply/learn a lot of excel… leading me to my next two jobs at Sears and then Eli Lilly this summer – all without connections! I just want to let first year college kids that it’s definitely possible; you just need to have the drive to want to build something up. If you are relentless, the opportunities – no matter how seemingly trivial or small they seem at first – will fall into place!
another great thing for people to try is to start realizing the importance of building networks and relationships wherever and whenever. when you start early, it only becomes easier with time.
lol i can’t believe people still use hotmail. yahoo is somewhat more acceptable . . . but hotmail?
haha i’m probably just hating.
This makes me even more depressed.
I didn’t want to do exactly that, waste my summer working at the GAP. I quit that thinking with lots of preparation and a good resume / cover letter (s) I’ll find a white collar office job …. I mean I have to… my summer is 4 months long. Yes, I am an overachiever and always have been. You know the typical straight A Asian student that always gets her shit done and is ahead of the game.
fuckin false. lol.
I’ve been so persistent and hard working I have been applying since June. Craigslist, school job postings, more school resources, job recruitment sites, newspaper, literally etc etc. I’ve had interviews one after another, also in which they all went WELL. Which pisses me off more when I find out I didn’t get the job bc they went well. I’ve applied to over 30 jobs. So now I’m just depressed. And even amidst my frustration I still wake up, do my round of searching, applying, emailing before I start my day.
Hard work does not pay off sometimes.
Or I just have bad, bad luck.
So yes, that is what I did all summer. Look for jobs, apply for jobs, stress about jobs, get rejected by jobs, blahblah
this turned out to be a life’s not fair vent. Oops. I’m sorry.
I got a viris through gmail, so i’m scared to use it. LOL!
Nice article though. You are right. (recommended)
Your advice works great for rich people! I was poor as shiz in college, so had to work every summer and also every spring/winter/fall break alas…
If I were young again, I would just start a business while I was still in school. Actually if I were growing up now, I would probably not have finished college!
@john - I was fortunate enough to get a temp job in an office. First it was data entry and as I was able to learn at a fast pace, they gave me more work and eventually hiring me. I think there are a ton of office jobs available in the city doing just temp work. You get paid to learn stuff like Excel, Word and Access.
There was one summer that I decided to pain houses instead of sitting in an office, simply because I wanted to experience blue collar work. I made enough to eat, but the experience was valuable. I think there are many opportunities. If you seek out only retail and restaurant jobs, that’s what you’ll get. Who doesn’t want to hire someone to do regular office work at minimum wage?
-ray leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
You college kids make me sick… Like a bunch of lemmings, there were half a dozen people in the comments section of this who have probably now switched to gmail.
To the girl that was bragging about switching to gmail when it was still “exclusive” – Get a fucking life. Better yet, go jump off of a bridge.
Most employers don’t care about who your email provider is, and if they do maybe that is a warning sign. I’ve worked contracts for companies in the past year who have still used hotmail accounts themselves, and these people aren’t backwoods rednecks, they are in the medical field – supplying Paramedics to remote industrial sites.
What a sad state your lives are in when you think that doing data entry is such a better use of your time than working retail! I hope that you can get more out of life than that.