By NATE MATHIS
nate@newsroom.byu.edu
Summer internships and job opportunities have brought experience and stability to the lives of BYU students.
'A good internship puts you in the driver's seat,' said Whitney Bowman, 23, a senior from Dallas, majoring in business management.
Bowman, who did an internship last summer with Monitor Group, a strategy consulting firm, said he learned a lot about problem solving and thinking about business issues. His work tactics, which included 60 to 70 hours a week, earned him a job offer by the end of the summer.
'Ninety-five percent of the interns at Monitor Group received job offers by the end of the summer,' Bowman said.
Bowman said he learned that he could compete with the smartest students around the country.
'Seeing a resume with Harvard on it is kind of intimidating,' Bowman said. 'But my experience helped me realize that I could measure up with students from Ivy League schools.'
Matt Rex, 25, a senior from Murray, majoring in political science, was equally satisfied with his summer job.
'It gave me an opportunity to decide what I wanted to do for a career and to see if it would fit into my lifestyle,' Rex said. 'It also helped me to realize what I could anticipate financially.'
Rex worked for Kaufman & Kaufman Insurance Agency over the summer and will start full-time with them after graduation.
Career Placement Services, located in the Wilkinson Student Center, is a great resource for students who are looking for summer internships and future job opportunities.
'We help students who are graduating to look for full-time employment and internships,' said a Career Placement Services employee, Nicole Russell.
Through Career Placement Services, a student can set up appointments with counselors who can direct them in the right path.
Employers interested in BYU students regularly post internship and job opportunity information, as well as on-campus recruiting information on the Career Placement Services job board located in the Wilkinson Student Center.
Students can also use their individual major departments to find future leads in their area of expertise.
For students who do not have a degree in the field they would like to pursue, there is hope.
'We are mainly looking for people with a college degree who have a good personality,' said Bryce Kelly, a real estate agent for Grubb-Ellis. 'I majored in Sociology.'
'A lot of kids are smart, but not all of them have good marketing and people skills,' Kelly added.
Kelly, from Bountiful, has interviewed students for both internships and full-time employment. He said one of the interns at his company eventually became one of his partners.