Making yourself more marketable for internships, jobs and grad school
One of my favorite TED Talks was given over fifteen years ago by an English educator named Ken Robinson. Titled “Do schools kill creativity?” this TED Talk has been viewed over seventy-five million times and, by TED’s metrics, is the most viewed TED Talk of all time.
I love it for two reasons. First, it’s a brilliant apologetic on the importance of the Humanities. Second, it’s an important rebuttal to the overemphasis of standardized testing in academic assessment. Both of those topics are quite weighty and not the focus of this article, but I do want to touch on comments Robinson makes about the value of college degrees. He states:
“In the next 30 years, according to UNESCO, more people worldwide will be graduating through education, than since the beginning of history. More people. And it’s the combination of all the things we’ve talked about: technology and its transformational effect on work, and demography and the huge explosion of population. Suddenly, degrees aren’t worth anything. Isn’t that true? When I was a student, if you had a degree, you had a job. If you didn’t have a job, it’s because you didn’t want one. But now, kids with degrees are often heading home to carry on playing video games because you need an MA where the previous job required a BA and now you need a PhD for the other. It’s a process of academic inflation and it indicates the whole structure of education is shifting beneath our feet.”
To push back on Ken Robinson’s claim that a college degree no longer has value, a recent report by the Institution for Higher Education Policy does show that, on average, it’s still more financially advantageous to have a college degree than to not have one. But I think he does have a point about the academic inflation that is a result of more and more students graduating with a bachelor’s degree.
Here was my takeaway as an academic advisor: If there are increasingly more and more students out there with college degrees, it has become more important than ever that students have more than just a B.A. or B.S. or B.B.A, etc. on their resumes when they graduate. So I’ve become more mindful of encouraging students to think about not only earning their degree, but also pursuing something else that will make their resumé stand out when competing for internships, jobs or grad schools. As shorthand, I call this “Degree + ?”
There are a number of things you can add to your degree and it’s really tailored to your interests and what you want to pursue. Here are a few of the things I suggest for consideration:
- Minor or certificate
- Concurrent degree
- Internship
- Study abroad
- Volunteer work or community involvement
- Campus clubs and organizations
One of the easiest options is adding a minor or certificate. Typically, an ASU student will have approximately thirty to forty credit hours of elective credit beyond what’s required in general studies and courses for the major. A minor or certificate will average around eighteen to twenty-four hours. If you want to use your elective hours towards something else you can put on your resumé, a minor or certificate is pretty easy to earn along the way. The completion of a minor and/or certificate will appear in your final transcripts once you graduate.
I always enjoy seeing some of the major/minor combinations students have in their degree programs. I had one student pursuing Film and Media Studies who was also pursuing a French minor because he wanted to work in the film industry in Paris. There was another student studying Fashion who added an Italian minor because she wanted to work in the Italian fashion industry. Many biomedical science or pre-Health students pursue Spanish minors because there is a need for professionals who can speak Spanish in the healthcare field.
Again, once a student graduates from ASU, any minor or certificate programs that are completed will appear on the final transcripts and that’s something you can place alongside your bachelor’s degree in the education portion of a resume.
Another great option is to add a concurrent major. While a minor or certificate can demonstrate to an employer that you have an additional 18 to 24 hours of study in a secondary field, an additional major demonstrates that more study has been accomplished in that area. The School of International Letters and Cultures has made changes to a majority of its language majors to make them easier to add as concurrent degrees. Sometimes it’s a matter of taking around six more classes to turn a language minor into a concurrent language degree and it’s still possible to complete concurrent degrees within the 120 credit hours required for graduation.
In an increasingly global economy, and in a world where remote work opportunities are becoming more common, having a language degree can allow a student to choose not only what they want to do when they graduate, but also where they want to do that work.
Some of the other opportunities I mentioned, like internships and study abroad, I’ll save for another time. But I do want to mention that one of the great things about ASU is the time and money the university has spent on developing great resources in the Global Education Office and Career and Professional Development Services. The Global Education Office is a great place to start if you’re interested in studying abroad. Having study abroad experience can demonstrate to an employer or school that you possess a greater world perspective and real-world experience outside of the U.S. Career Services can help you find an internship or a job that will give you the valuable work experience that employers are looking for on your resume.
There’s no one right way to do it, and, though it can maybe feel overwhelming, there’s a lot of freedom to be creative with whatever you choose to add to your degree. Be curious. Explore your options. And don’t hesitate to reach out to a member of the Advising team at the School of International Letters and Cultures to help you along the way.