What to do if your Internship is Cancelled or your Career Plans are Derailed
What do you do when you need to show professional experiences on your resume, but you just lost your internship? Or you worked your tail off, landed your first job and now there’s a hiring freeze at your dream company?
Millions of college juniors and seniors are at a loss on how to move forward right now. While we know it isn’t unique to be dealing with this situation, this can be a chance to stand out.
Here are some action steps you can take today to feel good about your future.
Be mindful of your mental health.
Students are self-reporting that their mental health is declining with being away from friends and feeling isolated and less motivated to do schoolwork.
It would make sense that losing an internship or a job on top of that would be a lot to handle.
Make sure your internal dialogue is compassionate towards yourself as you work through so much disappointment.
Build a LIFE TEAM of people around you who can support you right now.
That could very well include a therapist, a career coach, a mentor. You are going to need support to navigate this.
This doesn’t mean these people need to know everything about you or support your every endeavor, but they can be people you go to when you need advice on specific topics or perspectives.
Think of 5-10 people in your life that you can reach out to for various aspects of support.
Reach out to your career services office.
They have likely been working very hard to help students just like you.
Reach out, with a specific ask for what you need. Need to know what companies are hiring? What other students are doing on campus?
Don’t be afraid to send that email or pick up your phone. They are there to help you.
List out the skills you were hoping to gain from your internship or first job.
Think about how you could transfer the skills into other opportunities.
Let me give you an example: Say that you are a marketing major and you were looking forward to working at a marketing agency. Another way to get real world action is to reach out to small businesses who need more presence online. Tell them how you could help them. Take online courses that you can directly apply to your own little client base. I’ve hired people onto my team because they told me what they could bring to my business and showed initiative.
There are also awesome solutions like micro-internships. Where you work inside a company on a specific project for a few weeks. You can still build your experience and network. Check out parkerdewey.com.
Spend quality time on LinkedIn.
Update your ABOUT section and ask for recommendations from people that know the quality of your work.
Make it a goal to reach out to at least 1 person a day to tell them about your situation and what you are trying to learn and grow in.
Find alumni from your school or fraternity or sorority – start growing your network by finding people in your fields of interest.
Make a specific ask, people want to help but you need to steer them in the direction of where you want help. Your ask will go much further if it is something like “do you have 10 minutes to chat on the phone about X” versus “I’d love to connect.”
One way to think of a career is this: It’s a commitment yourself to keep learning and growing in a direction that interests you. Don’t let this scenario stop you from your dreams!