A Student’s Point of View: Searching for an Internship |Co-op |Job

Are you a student looking for an internship or a co/op that could be useful in expanding your experiences? Or are you an employer or alum interested in supporting a student intern?

For this post, I thought it would be interesting to interview three women with experience and advise on the topic. Nan Burgess Whitman is the College Art Design Career Services Coordinator, Ashley Crichton (BFA 2020) was a former RIT Photo Blogger, and Emily Bishop is a current photo sciences student who recently completed a co-op. Their advice, knowledge, and experience will give you useful suggestions needed to find a co-op, internship or job!

Nan Burgess Whitman
Nan is one out of nine coordinators in the Career Services office. She also is a photographer. Within Career Services, Nan is the coordinator for Photography and Game Design majors. Nan encourages students to come visit with her and happy to help guide them through the process of preparing for a co/op, or internship, or job! “There is so much that the Career Services office has to offer”. For example, one-on-one mock interviews, employer visits, alumni visits, career testing, and especially professional and career advice.” The Career services is something that your tuition helps support and there are no fees. Nan says, “take advantage of it!” Nan recommends to keep working on your portfolio and she believes it is the number one thing that possible supervisors look at. Another way is to review what is listed on Career Connect, the main job portal in Career Services which every student has access to. Careers Connect is a similar platform to LinkedIn, you can personalize it, add your resume, and put on job alerts for your major in specific areas! Nan expressed strongly to keep networking and signing up for all those platforms but when looking, always look for trusted resources and never pay to apply for a co-op or internship. Nan would love to meet with you and help you plan your future!

Emily Bishop
Is a third-year Bachelor of Science Photo Sciences student. Emily is specializing in imaging practices for the biomedical sciences and surgical photography. Specifically, as a photographer, she alternates between biomedical and fine art images. She loves going out with friends and doing fun shoots with them and photographing anything that interests her. When making a resume and portfolio, she recommends tailoring it to the job you have applied for. For example, if she applies to a patient-focused job, she will put relevant information in that resume or if it’s a job she doesn’t have experience in, she would put qualities that would benefit that position. Emily’s personal experiences when looking for a job as a Photo Science’s student was that she found things either super specific or super broad. She was always looking at what became available and asks when meeting new people what their job title is. She would then search that specific job title using Career Connect. She also used LinkedIn® and often would find better results! Emily recently completed a Co-op but she also wanted me to mention that she had an internship planned for the past summer, but it fell through because of the pandemic. That outcome did not stop her from continuing to search. That extra effort landed her Co-op with a retinal clinic in Syracuse, N.Y. with an alum, Stephanie Palmer. She worked in a clinic that would see 8o patients per day. Her experience there lasted from the middle of August until the middle of December and she was full time. That experience really helped her to see a path forward as a career. Emily’s best advice is to “Make an Impression whenever you get face time with a new person. There could be hundreds of applicants, so make sure you go the extra mile to find details that could help at the interview or by remembering people’s names. ALWAYS send an email them thanking them for their time. Its an excellent idea to reach out to alumni because they are most likely excited to hear from you and work with you.” One of the biggest things Emily learned is don’t expect a response from every resume you send out. Accept the “L” and move on. While disappointing, it might help you to find something you like even better. As a closing thought Emily said, “Any of my advice is not specific to photography students and can be used by any major. I hope it helps you!”

Ashley Crichton
Ashley graduated with a BFA in advertising photography May 2020. Ashley’s work as a student focused on portraits and GIFs and she loved making motion pieces. She moved across the country to California where she grew up and is now working for Markwins Beauty Brands in LA. When she looked back on what she included in her resume one year ago, she shared it was so different. She did not have professional “experience until she found the experience she has now.” When Ashley didn’t have a lot to fill up her resume with, she would include “catering” because it had to do with people”. She also recommended selling who you are. Mention you have interests in things outside of what you are doing with imaging. This could help at the interview and give you something else to talk about and it will share your personality. At this time, her resume is different because she has added more experiences and skills which are prominent in the resume. She lists where she is currently working, the names and bulleted points of past experiences and where she went to college. When applying Ashley believes “to look for something related to something you really want to do and push for that.” When applying for jobs during Covid, it took her four months of rejection, but she kept pushing! She advises to “not limit yourself based on fear and don’t hold back. Just go for it! If they accept you, that means the company thinks you can do it and be excited” Ashley added she believes “cover letters are just as important. She personally thinks they can be “more important”. Cover letters show your personality and give you a huge plus when combined with a good resume. Someone else can have the same exact resume as you but with a cover letter it’s more personal and it can set you apart.” Another important piece of advise, is “LISTEN to YOUR GUT and if you feel you are not going to be treated well (and just because it will look good on your resume) it’s not worth it. Just because they are “authority” doesn’t mean they are always right. If you end up with a not-so-great boss, connect and make friends with other people in the internship | co-op | job! Lastly, Ashley’s attitude includes, standing up for yourself and make the best out of every situation!

I hope you find the post useful. I learned a lot. After interviewing Nan, Emily, and Ashley,I definitely plan to make a meeting with the career services! In my next posts, I am looking forward to sharing Alumni stories from each major.

By Emily SuDock
Emily is a third-year advertising photography student who is also cross-registered in the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. She has been hard of hearing most of her life. Emily was born in China adopted by her loving family. They are a big part of her life. Emily has a Nikon 600 with a 35 mm lens which she loves taking portraits with.