Internships Professionals Jobs Students Gaps School College Company

Many students just graduating high school or college "face" (have; encounter) the same problem. Often job openings require experience. How can you gain experience without first getting a job?

One way to handle this "paradox" (situation that is contradictory or without a solution) is for students to work in internships. "Internships" are jobs that don't pay any money, but that people can do to get experience. It is quite common, for example, for a college student to work in an internship while going to school or in the summertime between school years.

Internships provide benefits for both students and employers. Students get experience, "make contacts" (become known to people who may help them in future), and "get their foot in the door" (gain an entry; get an advantage) if the company or organization is looking for future employees. "By the same token" (in the same way; similarly), a company or organization gets unpaid "labor" (work) and can see how well a person works before hiring that person for a full-time job.

Until recently, most interns have been students. With the "weak" (poor) economy, however, more and more "mid-career" (people who have worked in their jobs for 10, 15, 20 years) professionals who have been "laid-off" (fired from their jobs because there isn't enough business) are taking internships for some good reasons.

First, internships allow professionals to gain experience in "adjacent" (nearby; close) fields, giving them a wider range of "expertise" (knowledge and skills). Second, internships allow professionals to avoid "gaps" (empty spaces) in their resumes. Traditionally, employers don't like gaps in resumes because the gaps may mean that a person has had difficulty finding a job, had personal problems, or, with a lot of gaps, had difficulty keeping a job. Employers may also see long gaps between jobs as an "indication" (sign) of "deteriorating" (becoming worse over time) skills. Employers may be more "forgiving" (willing to overlook or pardon) of gaps during poor economic times, but as is true for college students, working in an internship also allows these professionals to show a company their skills, which may put them at the front of the line when any new jobs become available.