Summer is coming and internships are starting to open for juniors and seniors. Internships are opportunities for students to go and work for a company over the summer or during the school year if they so choose to.

“If students do an internship over the summer, then they are competing with all of Linn county,” Jay Goodlove said, who is Kirkwood’s Kennedy High School connection.

While students can do the internship over summer which would give them more flexibility in their schedule, it would make it harder for a student to get accepted. While being able to just get the interview with the company is a good start. Students need to practice their interview skills.

“I practiced a lot of the interview questions with my mom,” Jax Niemuth, sr., said, who did an internship as a veterinarian assistant over their summer.

The company sent Niemuth the questions for the internship interview and was able to go over the questions with her mom. Niemuth dressed nice in order to look more professional and made sure they had their paperwork in order. Their interview was technically with two different people. One was with the people who set up the internship and the second was with someone from the clinic.

“Companies are trying to train people and then hire them into that position after their internship,” Goodlove said.

Niemuth found this out when they did their internship at a veterinarian clinic. The first few weeks Niemuth spent that time observing and following the people around and learned about how the clinic ran. In the last few weeks Niemuth was given actual work to do around the clinic. Over all, Niemuth found that they enjoyed their time at the clinic.

“Some advice I have is, that students who want to do an internship need to be prepared and just do the best they can,” Goodlove said.

Students who prepare for their internship have a better chance of not only getting the internship but, a potential job.

Summer internships are something that students can do but, they will get difficult to get and even more difficult to get up and do them during summer vacation. The opportunity is there for students should they choose to do them.