 Hey there, iSchoolers. So welcome to week four of our iSchool Career Services podcast. This is our fourth podcast that we are broadcasting to you and we're so thrilled with the great reception we've had and hopefully- I can't believe we've made it four already. I know, four. Quick. We've got to start getting paid for these. We have to. Start charging a weekly fee. I'll have to contact my agent about that. Well, you know how much we should charge. Oh, I know. Three dollars. Three bucks. We'll be rolling in the dough. That's it. Three dollars. So, thank you, Jeff. Jeff Boutts and I, Christopher Perl are here today and we've got a really ambitious session for you guys today. Today we're gonna be talking about what to do if you do not get a summer internship for the summer that will be forever known as COVID-19 summer. And that seems to be on everybody's minds. Yeah. So especially if you're in a program and you are trying to get an internship or maybe you had one that you were looking forward to and that got rescinded or they dropped the ball on it and said, sorry, we're not taking you right now. There are ways that you can spend your summer to make sure that you're looking good for employers come next year when you're on the market for a full-time job. And so what I wanted to start off by saying is that now's the time to start thinking about a plan B, right? It's okay if you, I still want you applying for summer internships. There's still plenty of summer internships out there but as each day goes by, I don't wanna lie to you and I'm gonna tell you that your chances for getting a summer internship dwindle as the days go by. And so what I'd like to tell students to do is to start thinking about projects that you can work on for the summer, maybe reach out to some faculty members and start thinking about special projects that they may have. A lot of faculty members have research funds or have opportunities to take on some students during the summer, especially remotely where you can help them and that could be a resume builder for the summer. Another good idea is working on some certifications for the summer, using whether it's an official certification or using LinkedIn Learning that each Syracuse University gets for free to take on a certification or even Coursera if you're willing to take on Coursera. And some of the popular certifications that some employers are looking for, you can't go wrong with Python, Microsoft Azure was another one of them, I wrote a bunch of them down. AWS certification, Tableau for data visualization for my data analytics friends out there, Google Analytics, Splunk and any other AI certifications that can help you in the market. And the last one. Chris, I'm sorry, I was just gonna mention that there's a lot of sites now, like Coursera that you can go on, who offer certification prep for free. Yeah. So at least you can get the training for free. And then you'll have to pay for the certification, but a lot of companies are offering even the certifications for a discounted price, the actual exam itself. So it's very definitely worth looking into. That's great advice. Yeah, especially if it's remote. Like you don't have to go and actually sit in a physical classroom, you can't really do, oh, Coco's getting mad. Oh, Coco, someone's outside. And so look into that, definitely thanks for the suggestion, Jeff. And then the final thing that I would suggest, if finances are not as much of an issue for you or if you have some financial aid to take advantage of and roll in a summer class, an online class obviously, but try to select a summer class that will either help you get ahead in your program of study or one that is project-based that will allow you some great projects to work on. So that way you have something to show to the employer and to articulate during the interview, this is how I spent my summer. Yeah, I wasn't able to get an internship, just like 75% of my peers, but this is how I spent my summer. Yeah, those are fantastic ideas. Hopefully, the students will listen to those ideas that you gave and will seriously consider doing summer all of those. I mean, let's face it, we have nothing with time. So there's no reason why you shouldn't take on some of those ideas, some of those projects. I actually have three more that I wanted to add, believe it or not, to that master list that you just threw out. One of them is practicing interviewing. This is a great time to just go on, especially video interviewing. And this seems to be the type of interviewing that students struggle with the most just because they have the least experience with it. If you're a Syracuse University student, we have a tool called Interview Stream that allows you to go on and record yourself as you're answering questions, and then you can watch the recording afterwards and really get to see how you did, both facial expressions and answering the questions, how you answered them. So practicing interviewing, so that when it does come time for you to interview, you're ready to go. Something else is, and we've talked about this in the past, constantly networking, constantly seeking out information. That's all you're doing, doing informational interviews, reaching out to alumni and asking them questions about the industry that they're in and learning as much as you can about that industry. So once again, when the market opens up and jobs open up again, you're prepared and you're ready to go and you take some of that information that you just learned and apply it to your materials, whether it be your resume, your cover letter, or your LinkedIn account. And the last one I'm gonna mention is volunteer work. Looking for some volunteer opportunities out there, there's tons of companies, especially remote that would love to have help. It usually is for free, but you get the work on your skills and you're still helping out in the community, whether it be for an organization or even for those that just wanna help out other people that may be in times of need. So those are some other things to think about as well, that you can talk about to an employer as to what you did during this time of, we'll just call it downtime for right now, because we know eventually it's going to get better. Yeah, yeah, no, I really, those are awesome three practical ways, strategies, especially the interviewing piece for international students who typically struggle with sort of the unusual interview occasion and then you have to do it on video is also very stressful. If you've got the time, now's the time to devote to that. Absolutely, absolutely agree. I think that getting a new certification, throwing on practice interviewing and maybe using that new skill that you got in that certification and a volunteering type activity to really hone that skill that you just got. Man, how can you go wrong with that? You can't go wrong with that formula. Yeah, nice. That works. Yeah, and look, we're not saying don't enjoy yourself this summer, right? Like it's still, watch Netflix, watch Hulu, watch all those great TV shows, do a craft or come up and do something fun to blow off some steam. But for a nice chunk of your week, try to do something productive so that way you're not wasting away your summer when you alternatively could have had a summer internship. Well, and not only that, it helps so that you're not feeling sorry for yourself and you're not just sitting there and you're thinking about what could have been. You're actually doing something that is gonna help you in your future. That's the idea. Amen. Yeah. Yeah. Wow, people must think I'm very religious because on this podcast, I'm always saying amen. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. You say amen a lot. Amen. I'm just glad to see that you changed your shirt. I did blue today. Yeah, I like it. Normally I do, I have my olive green, I have my hoodie, my gray hoodie and I got today my blue one. Yeah, there's no cat hair, no stains. Not yet. Yeah, it's good. Next week, hopefully I will have that in a different one. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, jokester Jeff. Yes. So anything else, Jeff, that you'd like to tell our students this week before we sign off with week four podcast? Well, the only other thing I would say is like you had mentioned at the beginning of this podcast, please don't use this as an excuse for stopping to look for internships. That is not the point of this podcast. The point is in the meantime, while you're searching for that opportunity for you to get an internship, these are things that you can do to help you fill that void. Yeah. Good work. Yeah. Nice, Jeff. Good topic. Yeah, good, very good topic. So students send us your questions so we can help answer for week five for next week. Yeah. You got it. Have a good week, everyone. Be safe, be healthy. Hey, you too. Thanks for your help today, Jeff.