Why YOU Should Take Advantage of The American Interns

Written By: Carly Burr

Are you thinking of entering The American Interns? The American Interns is an annual contest for anyone who has the desire to meet mentors in their chosen area of interest. Contest winners have the ability to win cash prizes, be exposed to a lifetime network of successful entrepreneurs, receive paid internships, and be featured on our social media. If you win, you are essentially taken in and guided by experts and professionals that want you to succeed. The American Interns continues to change my life and has ultimately had major impacts on the person that I am today. As mentioned above, there are many benefits to entering The American Interns, but one of the most important ones has to be getting real-world work experience in a field that you are interested in. Many people don’t realize how beneficial dipping your toes into a specific industry can help you grow and develop. They think they know exactly what they want to do with their life until they experience work in the real world, to then realize that they aren’t cut out or meant to work in that certain industry. This can cause major tension and strain on the trajectory of one's life.

Melissa sent me an article from BeyondAcademy which includes a US internship report discussing the internship rates in the United States, how they vary from state to state, and how they make an impact on someone’s professional life and future. They mentioned that having internship experience “[reduces] the average time it takes to get to a director level by around 34%”, but that the national internship rate is a whopping 13%. This means that 87% of the United States population does not have any major work experience when entering into the workforce. When someone starts working with no prior experience, it leaves room for failure at their first "real" job. Not to say that failure is a bad thing, but it’s better when you get it out of the way before you get that corporate job or start selling homes with a high end brokerage. Failure is one of the stepping stones a person needs to move forward with their life, but if it’s not done until after they graduate college, it can end up pushing them in the wrong direction.

BeyondAcademy makes another significant point that considers the varying internship rates among different colleges and states. The top 50 schools in the United States have a rate of 21%, and when you expand that list to fit the top 100, it’s 21%. Unsurprisingly, the bottom 50 and 100 schools have a rate of 8%. It is well known in the United States that the reputation and respect of your school has an extremely large impact on employers when hiring. BeyondAcademy said it themselves, that “the more prestigious a university, the more likely a student is to have undertaken an internship”. This is the sole reason for The American Interns. We want anyone from anywhere to have the ability to experience work before they graduate, have access to opportunities that not many have, and the ability to create the life for themselves that they have always dreamed of.

"Study can only prepare students so far, and that's why internships should be a leveling tool, allowing students - no matter their background, university or previous experience - to gain the skills and insight they need to succeed in the workplace"