Universities and career centers are constantly trying to gain insight into their students’ internship and career experiences to not only improve their own process and curriculum but also to report outcomes to publications that rank the value of their degrees. Career centers also need their students and alumni to report their internship and job offers to understand interests and hiring trends specific to their university. Often times, the most important yet most difficult data points to gather are non-credit-bearing internships since there is no incentive or easy way for a student to report that information to their college or university. But this information is critical to every school’s experiential learning program – which in turn is a critical part of career development.
As a student, maybe you’re still asking yourself, “…but what’s in it for me?” Here are a few reasons students and recent grads should inform their career center of their full-time and internship offers.
- Increases the value of your degree
When students report their internship and job offers, it allows their career center to provide public data and statistics on the success rates of graduating students. Since school rankings are often tied to employment outcomes, an increase in reported jobs and internships reflects how successful you were compared to other schools’ students, in receiving an offer during or after college.
- Builds employer- university relationships
Helping your college or university understand what companies are hiring their students helps them create similar connections with future students. Ideally, if a company hired students from your institution in the past and had a positive experience, they will hire more students from your university in the future. This helps your university build deeper relationships and expand their list of employer partners.
- Helps other students land a job
When career centers know about internship and job experiences from students in the past, current students are able to use that information to find similar opportunities and build relationships with those employers. Your career center will create a database of offers and salaries from different companies, positions, and industries to help current students compare offers and find the right one for them. By reporting your offers and experiences, you’re helping other students expand their network and potentially land a job at the same company.
- Gives back to your university
An increase in reported internship and job offers can help your school receive federal student aid. Universities are rated in terms of their accessibility, graduation rates, and outcomes. Those with higher performance measurement rates will receive funding. Plus, as your school becomes more successful so do you. And the more money you and other alumni make, the more you can give back to your university.
It’s important for students to report their career outcomes so career centers can provide more specific help to students in the future. Career centers need the data you provide in order to better help their students to find job opportunities. When students report their experiences, career centers can not only help other students land a job, but the value of your degree will increase which will also help you find a better job in the future.