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How many internships did you do? My 16 year old son will be doing 10-12 mini internships this school year. They are called "Schnupperwochen" and I'm in love with the idea. The Swiss school system has its flaws. One of which is they push kids very young to decide what they want to do as careers. But if you aren't sure at 16, they have this option: Half school, half internships. It should be amazing, and American school and businesses should consider the option. Maybe not as dramatic as a whole school year worth of them, but facilitating mini internships with high school students. It would benefit everyone. https://lnkd.in/g9y2pr8y
Karen Michael
1mo
In high school at 16 I was wearing a brown and orange polyester dress scooping ice cream and working the counter at the Howard Johnson's off 95 for truckers. There is pride in every job and I learned more about work from that experience than any official "internship."
Jon Hyman
1mo
Zero. They just really weren’t a prominent thing when I went to college in the store age.
Greg Bulmash
1mo
My youngest, who will be a sophomore this year, has never done well with traditional school work. Smart kid, but he’s ADHD and has a LOW tolerance for tedium. Luckily our school district and a couple of neighboring districts partnered on a vocational training center. So he’ll be going to the open house this year (starts junior year). If he decides on a vocational program, his school will cut back his academic load and bus him part-day to the skills center for vocational training, but have him back in time for sports practices (he’s a wrestler). We’ll also go to the open house for “Running Start” which offers a selection of associate degrees high school kids can earn alongside their diploma through a partnership between high schools and local community colleges, with the community college tuition covered by the school district. Whether he chooses a vocational program or a Running Start program, he’ll be able to pivot the bulk of his school work towards learning something where he sees a light at the end of the tunnel and a point to the work besides earning him 4 more years of school. It isn’t as varied as what your son is doing, but it’s pretty good compared to some other districts or even other states.
There was no way I could afford to work for someone without pay. Actually, I would have probably laughed at the idea. I can hear my Grandfather, a hard core union guy: "Don't be a sucker." Many internships are now compensated, so perhaps it's different now.
Susan Heathfield
1mo
At TechSmith, we have up to 35 interns a semester. We pay them and ensure that their work is a true learning experience and not a paid-for fake work time. In my day, internships were not a thing. But, I had paid jobs at a dry cleaner, a 9-child babysitting summer adventure, drove a Good Humor truck, and edited a book on the Wisconsin synod by the time I entered college at age 18. Probably just as good.
I was a gazillion miles away from understanding who I was as a human being at 16. Trying to pick a career at that point would have been even more ridiculous than it was to try to pick one at 21 when I graduated. Ideally, kids would get some sort of deep internal training, like living in a monastery combined with some deep external training from something like travel. Then, grounded in their own sense of purpose, they'd be better prepared to choose work and to ward off the usurpations of soul-stealing employers.
Only if they are paid. Otherwise, it's free labor for companies to save on employee costs.
Chris Hogg
1mo
Apparently he is in the "I don't know what I want to do when I grow up" camp. Cool. And so, has he read What Color Is your Parachute?, by Bolles ... Designing Your Life, by Evans and Burnett ,,, and So Good They Can't Ignore You, by Newport? Is he networking and informational interviewing with a wide variety of folks in a wide variety of fields?
HR Operations at Scott Steel LLC
1moMy kids go to a STEM school in Ohio and they require them to do internships in high school. In 10th grade they have to do a few days, in 11th and 12th have to do 2 weeks total. That is to help them get some real world experience in the field they want to go into to see if it is really what they want to do. I love the idea, and I know it has helped my kids to determine if they really want to go into that field. One is in engineering, and the other is getting ready to start college in a few weeks for computer science. I never did an internship, but I also started college after starting a family so it wouldn't have been ideal. I kind of fell into HR, but glad I did most days, even if today is not one of those days! LOL