How Do I Choose An Internship?

Choose Your Path Wisely

Sure, location is important; but an internship would be ineffective if it didn’t allow you to

apply your knowledge in a practical work setting, develop your communication skills, help you find the right career path, or open doors for future contacts. Keep your major pathway in mind. Dr. Jackson has a binder of local employers sorted by pathway that you can look at!

• Interpersonal Communication

  Learn about how perception, meaning, conflict, and agreement function in human

  communication. Understand theories and gain skills for managing personal and

  professional relationships. Applies to careers in health, education, social

  services, management, marketing, and sales.

• Political Communication

  Analyze political power, campaigns, and social movements, nationally and

  internationally, from a communication perspective. Ideal for future political

  consultants, speechwriters, and journalists.

• Organizational Communication

  Learn about leadership, decision-making, interviewing, supervision, and

  teamwork in business and other organizations. A must fur future managers,

  administrators, entrepreneurs, or professionals in training and development.

• Rhetoric

  Critique or engage in public communication through effective message design

  and analysis, persuasion, and argumentation. This pathway leads to professions

  that involve oral or written persuasion (e.g., sales, marketing, media,

  management, politics, or law).

•  Presentation Skills

  Discover how to attract, inform, and persuade audiences from the classroom to

  the conference room. This pathway is for all professionals who will be making

  presentations in person and communicating on-line. Ideal for marketing and

  public relations.

•  Communication and Technology

  Acquire and adapt skills to present ideas and information using new

  media/technology. For those who will be working in e-commerce, dot.coms, and

  on-line marketing.

• Legal Communication

  Understand the impact, uses, evaluation, and structure of communication as a

  critical element in our legal system and public policy. Ideal for future lawyers.

• Health Communication

  Learn about the role of communication in health and health care. Excellent for

  future health care workers, people working in the pharmaceutical industry,

  hospital administrators, and those pursuing public policy professions

• Intercultural Communication

  Understand how language and culture affect human communication on both a

  domestic and international level. Ideal for all professionals in the global

  marketplace.

   

   

   

   Taken from the pamphlet: Your Passport to a World of Communication)

   

   

• Sell Yourself

  Once you’ve found an organization that fits your academic pathway, has a suitable location,

  and sounds like an employer you’d like to work for, go for it! If you found it in one of Dr.

  Jackson’s binders, you already have a contact! If not, do some research. Find out who you

  should talk to about internship opportunities and let them know what you have to offer. Be
  confident and persistent.

   

• Work with your advisor

  Be sure that you’re clear about your wants, needs, and goals. Your adviser will do her
  best to work with you to find the right internship. Keep your adviser informed of your
  progress (both before and during your internship), so that everything will run smoothly and
  you’ll be approved for internship credits.