In an economic climate that has become a storm of mass layoffs and soaring unemployment rates, Northwestern’s career development programs have shifted their focus from larger corporations to smaller organizations.
Although several NU schools still have résumé-bolstering internship programs, fewer large corporations – particularly in finance – are able to take on student interns.
Lonnie Dunlap, director of University Career Services, said the lack of available jobs in larger corporations has led to a period of “uncertainty.” She added that the biggest reduction in available jobs and internships is at large investment banking firms, many of which have slashed their staffs since the collapse of the housing market.
“Students are still finding jobs at smaller, boutique investment firms,” she said.
Dunlap said many companies are not hiring at the rate they had been before the market went south. Instead, they are relying on “just-in-time hires,” which pinpoint people with specific skills the companies need at the time.
Many of NU’s undergraduate colleges have programs through which students intern for class credit. The heads of several of these programs have reported that some regular recruiters have had to hold off on accepting interns from NU for now.
The McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science offers a program through which students can find either summer internships or co-operative programs, which span several summers and one school quarter.
Helen Oloroso, director of the school’s co-op program, said more students are interested in the program than ever before, but fewer employers have come to interviewing sessions. In the fall, 27 companies came to interview students. This past January, only 14 companies made the trip, but had packed schedules of interviews with eager engineering students.
Larger engineering corporations are also cutting back on interns, Oloroso said. She said General Electric Aviation went from having 150 positions for summer interns to 50.
“We’re talking about a huge volume of workers that are being let go,” Oloroso said. “Companies are having to decide, ‘Do I hire students and fire their parents?'”
The Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences’ Chicago Field Studies program, which allows students to earn credit by interning in Chicago for a quarter, has also experienced a loss of placements at bigger financial corporations, said Karen Allen, assistant director of CFS. Morgan Stanley, which used to have internship placements for NU students, cannot accept interns right now, Allen said.
“Econ students want to do finance, which is fine, but I encourage them to be open,” she said.
Allen also said larger corporations in general tend to be the ones not accepting interns.
“We’ve definitely lost some, but we’ve gained smaller, less-known names,” Allen said.
Several students said the opportunities at McCormick and CFS are enticing but not worth committing a quarter’s worth of time and money.
“My parents wouldn’t be okay paying full tuition just to have the right to work for somebody,” said Weinberg junior Samir Pendse. “I just couldn’t justify it.”
Pendse, who said he is still looking for a summer internship, said such programs probably provide competitive advantages for fall hiring.
In both the Medill School of Journalism and the School of Education and Social Policy, students are required to spend a quarter of their junior year or senior year at internships.
SESP requires students to spend a quarter doing a practicum. While Medill places students into their internships for Journalism Residency, SESP students find their own – though they often rely on a list of organizations that have previously worked with the school, said Bruce Nelson, director of undergraduate practicum.
Nelson said he has not heard from students reporting difficulty finding internships. He said many SESP students intern for government organizations or nonprofit groups, which can benefit from NU’s supply of students.
“We’re offering them interns with great capabilities,” Nelson said.
Medill Prof. Michele Bitoun, who directs the school’s residency program, said some organizations the school has worked with in the past have temporarily stopped offering internships. However, Bitoun said the program is “still thriving.”
“We’re always looking for new sites, particularly as the industry changes,” she said.
The increase in “just-in-time” hiring has benefited the program as emerging media, such as online news outlets, are continually demanding tech-savvy journalists, Bitoun said. Medill students are at an advantage because they often have better knowledge of multimedia reporting than do the staffs at their internships, Bitoun said.
Bitoun said that while some organizations are unable to take interns, students can gain equally valuable experience from a growing supply of smaller media outlets. Concerning one such multimedia Web site, Bitoun said: “It’s not a CNN, but it has really good content.”
