Start to Finish: Externships as a First Year

I always have to be doing something. Whether it’s school, work, hobbies, or spending time with people I care about, I always need to stay busy. 

Therefore, one can imagine that I wasn’t super thrilled about the idea of having a six-week winter break where there’s not much that I can do. So my solution? Apply for one of the many externships that Carleton offers.

Pre-Externship:

As a student, you can apply to up to four externships per year. When you get onto Handshake and see the 40-50 externships offered to Carleton students, it’s pretty hard to not want to apply for them all! How’s one to choose?

Well, for me, it was very easy. I’m a first-year student, so a good 90% were unavailable to me. In addition, I wanted to go home for winter break my first year at college so that eliminated all non-virtual options. This left me with about 4-6 to choose from. 

I ended up applying for three. All you need to have to apply is a resume and a cover letter. I worked on my resume throughout high school but had no idea how to write a cover letter. This was where the career center came in clutch for me because they gave me many helpful resources and got me started on writing one.

Once I got in, the emails started flowing in from my host and from the career center giving me all the information I needed to be prepared so that I could hit the ground running once the externship started.

During the Externship:

My externship consisted of around 2-4 speakers a day from various branches of the government talking about their careers and how they got there. This was an awesome experience because I learned about so many different careers, and from that, I learned that I don’t think I would want a government job. I have a very science-minded brain that wouldn’t do well in most government jobs that involve bureaucracy, tons of emails, and meetings all day. For some people, that works, for me, it doesn’t. However, even though this experience was not my cup of tea, this is a really great part of externships because it gives you a no-stakes, short-term taste of a career field. I appreciate knowing this about myself now rather than 10 years down the road when I’m working a job I don’t like.

We also had to do networking interviews and through them, I got connected to jobs that would be a much better fit for me and I’ll be looking at pursuing those jobs much more in the future. 

The way my externship was structured also pushed me quite a bit. We had to moderate all of our speakers and each of us had a day where we were “chief of staff” which meant that we ran things, along with our host, each day. For me, this was quite scary because it meant doing things like telling world diplomats and incredible leaders to wrap up their presentations. (They’re incredible people with incredible stories! Who am I to tell them to stop telling us about their amazing lives?) However, throwing us into the deep end made me learn how to swim real quick and I picked up a taste of a professional government work environment.

Our externship culminated with a few reflection presentations that helped us network with others and work on our professional spiel. This was very helpful because now I know how to connect with alumni and how to pitch myself to others in a professional way. 

Post Externship:

After I finished my externship, I had three weeks before school started to do all the relaxing things I wanted. The externship timing was perfect because by the time it was over, most of my friends had (finally) finished their semesters and I could hang out with them.

In addition, it was still an adequate time to relax and recuperate before the next term started. The only things still left to do were a post-externship survey and a reflection piece (which you are reading at this very moment!)

Overall, I’m glad to have had this opportunity because it showed me so many different viable careers and pushed me pretty far outside my comfort zone. I would recommend that anyone who wants something to do over winter break give one a try because they are incredibly helpful.

Grace (she/her) is always up for a good adventure and is right at home trying new things. At Carleton that’s everything from exploring new sections of the Arb to joining sports like rugby to meeting new people every day! She loves learning about the “whys” behind the world and hopes to be a physics major. You can find trying all the new clubs and opportunities she can at Carleton and hanging out with her friends.