Undergraduate Blog / Career Development

What to look for in a first-year internship

I have completed my 6-week-long internship in a consultancy company, and I can genuinely say it was the best internship I ever had. What made it so special was the opportunity to intern in different departments and explore several career interests. My program let me intern in a different department each week in the beginning and then stay in the one that I like the best. I had the chance to intern in Management Consulting, Mergers and Acquisitions, Financial Due Diligence, Marketing, and Internal Controls. I think having an internship that lets you intern in different departments is very helpful, especially if you are a first-year student. The sooner you discover your career interests, the better. That type of internship is very useful in realizing what you really like doing. The internships you will be doing in the later years will be focused on a particular area to give you expertise and ultimately making you have a profession. A subject-specific internship is crucial to get a job, but it is only worth it if you are doing it the field where you want to have a career. Thanks to the opportunity to intern in many departments in my first year, now I know I want to do management consulting, especially for retail in the future. Finding out the specific field I am particularly interested in made me motivated to work harder to get a top management consulting internship for next summer. I advise you to plan your first-year internships to give experience in different fields. You can do an internship like mine or do a few shorter internships in various firms. Finding out the career field that you are passionate about will increase your motivation to work and make your future internships worthwhile.