As I’m sure most of you reading this, the US is in the worst economy that it has had in several decades. This recession is spreading to almost every industry, and has even begun to effect our global trading partners around the world. This recession has caused mass layoffs resulting in drastically higher levels of unemployment. As you could imagine, this isn’t a picture-perfect world right now to get an internship in.
As a 20-Month MBA student, we are required to have an internship between the first and second years of our program. This internship, along with being required to graduate, is important for us to be able to gain experience in the industry that we desire to be employed in. For many of us, this internship will be the first “MBA Level” work that we have had a chance to do.
So the problem we have here is that it is ridiculously difficult to get an internship in this economy. One of the issues is that many of the layoffs in America have been highly skilled and experienced employees in the financial services industry. Many of these now unemployed and qualified workers, are competing with us for internships due to a lack of other options for employment. In addition, many firms are “trimming the fat” on their balance sheets and the title “intern” doesn’t provide a solid level of job security. When a company is looking to cut back non-core aspects of its business, interns are usually on the chopping block.
This economy has now personally effected my internship search, as I will explain. At this point in my job search, I have identified Gallup Consulting as my number one target company. They are the industry leader in organizational behavior and human resources consulting. Their headquarters are located in Omaha, Nebraska (pictured below). After working extensively with Pepperdine’s career services department, I learned that Gallup Consulting was actually visiting Pepperdine’s campus for recruiting! I was very excited to say the least. For weeks prior to their arrival, I read and studied everything produced by the Gallup Organization I could get my hands on. Once I met their great recruiter, Susan Shald, I was invited back to visit their offices that same day in Irvine, Ca. Their office was just as amazing as I had read in my research. I was sold on Gallup from day one. Gallup has everything I want in a future employer.
So I started their lengthy application process, which began with a talent assessment online. After passing the online talent assessment, I proceed to go through two more phone interviews. After being told that I passed all of the rounds of interviewing, I found out that they decided not to officially post the internship position and that Gallup didn’t think they were going to have interns this upcoming summer. On a positive note however, they did let me know that they were interested in me for a full-time position once I graduate. As happy as I am about the potential future opportunity, I still have to find an internship for this upcoming summer.
So if any of you reading this blog have any possible internship connections that might be able to help me out, I’d love an email about it! Haha... well I guess I’m back to the hunt once again. Wish me luck!!
