Internship Hunt Starts Earlier as Students, Parents Stress Over Jobs
As a new cohort of college freshmen settles onto campuses, many students aren’t just thinking about classes and dorm life. Aiming for an edge in a tough job market, and anxious about how artificial intelligence will reshape entry-level work, they’re racing to land internships — armed in some cases with early-career coaches provided by their parents.
What was once a rite of passage after junior year has shifted earlier. According to new data from Handshake, a career site for students, almost 15% of the class of 2028 had applied to at least one internship by the midpoint of their freshman year. That compares with less than 3% of the class of 2024 at the same stage, and it builds on a multi-year trend.
“Lately I’ve had an elevated number of requests for multi-year coaching packages starting as early as freshman year,” said Lesley Mitler, a career coach who works with students and their families on early career planning.
Early-career advisor Jill Tipograph has seen the same. “I just had a conversation with another family who contacted us literally when their child got into college. We went through a discussion and now we’re starting all the work,” she said. “This is a growing norm.”
Searching Strategically
Some students say they’ve jumped in sooner in part because they’ve seen how challenging the job market has been for upperclassmen.
“It was kind of intimidating seeing all these older kids who have such good experiences and such good skill sets are still not landing a job post-grad,” said Naila Ahsan, a Santa Clara University sophomore who interned at a small venture capital firm this past summer. “It definitely does factor into thinking, ‘Ok, I need to be as proactive as early as possible so I can mitigate the risk later.’”
