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Campus Advisor
By Linda Bates Parker
Dear Campus Advisor: I am a junior at San Jose State.
I graduate next year. My overall GPA is
2.74, but I have a 3.00 in my major. I was
offered an internship next semester and I
will receive 6 academic credits based on
my employer evaluation. If I manage to
earn the 6 credits, I can get an A, which
would really help my GPA. My internship is
with a retail organization. I worked
part-time in retail in high school and I
didn’t enjoy it just folding clothes and
dealing with picky customers. But I needed
to do the internship next semester and
this one was the only one I could take.
The other was an unpaid internship out of
town. I can’t afford an unpaid internship,
even though it was in communication, which
is what I really want to do. My question is how do I make
the best of this situation and hopefully
get a good employer evaluation to increase
my GPA? I read your column and like how
you keep it real when you answer. So I
know
you’ll be honest and I need good advice
right now. Marian – Out West
Dear Marian: Although it is not a positive that you
have accepted an internship in a field in
which you feel you lack interest, I
understand the pragmatic decision you have
made. Hopefully, you will learn that retailing
can be far more meaningful and exciting than
the limited role you had in high school. I
too worked in retailing in high school.
However, I needed the income from that
part-time job so I folded those clothes very
well, cleaned out the fitting rooms, learned
to be patient with difficult customers and
discovered that I liked the challenge of
seeing if I could turn initial customer
disinterest
into a sale. I got pretty good at it. I later
was able to use that experience to land a paid
position on the College Board, for a Federated
Department Store in my hometown, which
introduced me to the field of Merchandising
and Store Management – professional career
fields in retailing, of which I had very
little knowledge. I later was able to use
these early experiences to become a training
coordinator at a Federated Store after
college, which I really enjoyed. I hope you will approach your
internship in retailing next quarter with a
very open mind and a “can do,” attitude.
The career opportunities in this field
are exciting and warrant taking a second, more
informed look and putting your high school
experience behind you. I am in no way
suggesting that you ignore your ultimate goal
of going into a communication field. But to be
honest with you, the skills learned in
retailing – providing outstanding customer
service, learning to present merchandise in
the
most attractive manner, being able to
understand customer needs, relating merchandise
value to customer interest and being
humble enough to do “grunt work” – are
wonderful skills that will easily
transfer to other communication fields. A student whom I have mentored
was recently recruited to an internship at
Target Stores, which has recruited a
number of students at my university. Like you,
the student had worked parttime in retail in
high school and had no idea how limited her
view of retailing was. And like you, she was
not as enthusiastic as she might have been
about this opportunity because of her past
experience. Recently, she represented her
company at our Career Fair. When I asked
her how the experience was going, she
admitted that she was shocked at how totally
impressed she was with this opportunity and
that she would not have been able to conceive
of herself as a store manager, based on her
past experience,
but now was definitely ready to pursue this
career path and they are definitely interested
in her! Be prepared for what you might discover
as you embark on this experiential
opportunity. This is what an internship is
for, to help you uncover career possibilities
that you have not previously considered. I
hope my advice will help you to strategically
plan how you will work hard at this
internship, learn more about this field and
your potential to be successful in it. Plan to
impress your supervisor with your
intelligence, reliability, work ethic,
enthusiasm, creativity and communication
skills. In so doing, I am certain you will
receive a positive evaluation which will be
important in earning an A Grade. Additionally, you will need to
meet with your academic or internship advisor
or the professor who will award the
grade for this internship to identify what
other requirements you must meet to
successfully complete this internship, from an
academic standpoint. Write down everything.
Make an Internship
Assignment Checklist. Complete requirements,
such as a Personal Internship Assessment, well
in advance and review with the advisor so you
will know if you are producing A-level work.
By submitting work
in advance, you have time to get input, modify
and improve assignments before the deadline.
When you return to college following your
internship, be as strategic in charting your
academic course for your senior year as you
have been in your junior year. If you plan
well, you could “better your best” and
conceivably graduate with a 3.5 in your major
and an even higher overall GPA. And that
would be very impressive to potential
employers, regardless of the career direction
you pursue. Sincerely,
Your Campus Advisor
Linda Bates Parker is the
director of the Career
Development Center at the
University of Cincinnati. |
