Robin Richards
CEO
Internships.comRobin Richards founded NTI Group and sold it in 2008 to Blackboard for $182 million. That followed a $373 million earlier success involving MP3.com. He and his entrepreneurial team are now taking on student internships. Such a deal!
What recent unusual unemployment statistic has escaped widespread attention?
College presidents, career center professionals and parents are to a great degree unaware of recent grads who are in temporary or transitional jobs. Yes, they're working, and they don't appear in unemployment statistics. But they have not launched their careers or begun to receive a return on their college investments.
Speculate on the reasons for the unawareness.
One reason for the lack of awareness is the way governments and colleges survey recent graduates. The question asked is most often simply 'Are you employed?'
What are the reasons they are in transitional jobs?
Baby boomers aren't retiring. Fewer new jobs are available. For the jobs that are available, experience trumps inexperience every time. According to available current statistics, some 25 percent of recent college grads - about 300,000 people - are underemployed.
So how can a recent college graduate compete?
Our May 2010 survey of 283 colleges and universities confirm that internships provide a clear and compelling advantage. Virtually all respondents agree that employers favor students with internship experience over students with no internship experience. And campus career center directors echo that by their responses that students who graduate without internship experience are at a disadvantage when being considered for employment.
What leg up can an in-college internship provide?
Internships help students bring their coursework to the real world. The student gets to test drive a possible career. The employer gets to test drive the student. Seven out of ten times a job offer follows the internship.
How else is internship valuable to an employer?
An internship employer can stretch his hiring dollar significantly. And mistakes cost nothing.
It's the world's largest internship marketplace - presently listing 19,000 internships in all 50 states. Each listing notes whether the position is paid or not paid, full-time or part-time, credit-bearing or not credit-bearing, along with everything else you'd expect to see advertised. Almost as important as the rich listing of internships are the resources and tools available to students.
How will Internships.com benefit colleges?
We provide resources that complement and boost the service and expertise of campus career centers. And the cost to a campus is less than $500 per year.