College Candy

Just when you thought the school year was winding down, high-achieving Ivy League students are ready to leap into action again. Life at Princeton can be competitive and downright cutthroat, depending on your major, and nowhere is this more clear than when it comes to summer internships. Whether you’re doing community service in a developing country or learning what it’s really like to be a money-grubbing I-banker, it’s all about building the resume.

The institutions that hire college interns don’t help relieve the competitive atmosphere; in fact, they aggravate the problem by beginning their recruiting as early as October and November of the previous year. If you want to work at Goldman Sachs or Merril Lynch, you’d better be ready to be interviewed before you’ve even had your fall midterm exams.

The interviews themselves are grueling. My economics-major friends report on five-hour interviews in which they’re drilled on mental math, business sense, and whether the choices made by some corporations were wise or foolish and why. My female econ friends had to have a ready supply of pantsuits or skirts-and-blazers for the rounds of interviews, and my male friends kept pre-knotted ties hung on their bedposts to be deployed at a moment’s notice.

Even I, an English major, had to hustle to New York in my best clothes for an interview with the magazine that eventually hired me for an internship. Things are somewhat more relaxed in the literary world, however, which is populated by arty types, and I didn’t have to start worrying about it until March. Once internships with prestigious firms or magazines have been secured, of course, college students can gloat for months until the real work begins in June. It’s interesting to see the varying reactions.

There’s the cocksure young businessman-in-the-making, eagerly awaiting his first ulcer and announcing his internship to anyone who’ll listen, airily declaring they’ll offer him a real job by summer’s end. It’s best to let these types blow their own horns and not pay too much mind or feel too competitive with them.

Then there are the quiet success stories, the ones not doing much talking but answering that yes, they did get that coveted position with the world-renowned employer. Be happy for them, and be glad they’re not shouting their achievement from the rooftops.

Of course, you can’t help but feel a little pity for the ones with the feverish glint of panic in their eyes, still trying to secure some sort of position late in the game after being rejected earlier on. If you find yourself in this position, don’t panic. Employers do understand taking the summer off, and contrary to the opinion of driven Ivy League students, it’s ok not to be handing out vaccines in Colombia or tearing up Wall Street.

Assign yourself your own goals over the summer, such as reading a few classic books or going to some museum exhibit, and you’ll return to school with both some de-stressing and some cultural improvement under your belt. The climate at college can be suffocating sometimes, but if you keep out of the competition and do what you really feel passionate about in your free time, you’ll find yourself breathing free.

[picture courtesy of www.psfk.com]