Internships for Business Students

The opportunity to apply what you're learning and build your work place skills is a critical piece of your education. It gives you an opportunity to experience the business world first hand. It helps you identify your strongest skills and what skills you need to develop. Such experiential learning will help distinguish you from others when you apply for jobs upon graduation, thus increasing the probability of obtaining the job you would like.

• The internship experience will give you a deeper understanding of your career goals and re-enforce your desire to enter the field you internship in or you will learn it is not really what you want to do.
• The internship experiences will help you understand the skills needed for success in today’s business world.
• You will expand the academic knowledge within your field of study.
• You will be exposed to new cultures, environments and ideas.
• This is the first step in your professional career. It is essentially a long interview. Many of our students receive job offers at the end of their internships.

Who to contact regarding internships?

Jeffrey Donlon, Director of Interns for the School of Business. He may be contacted at jdonlon@geneseo.edu.  There are also opportunities that come through the School of Business that he can help you with.  The School provides the tools and support you need to be successful. It is up to you to do the work and follow up to secure the best internship possible.

Career Services is also available to provide opportunities and support. Internship opportunities are posted regularly on Knight Jobs.

Internship Stories: 

Internship and Job Opportunities

Geneseo students find internships in a wide variety of multi-national corporations from California to New York City. 

85% of Geneseo business students participate in internships and other career related experience. Companies and organizations where our students intern and work include:

What Do Interns Do?

Interns don’t spend their time getting coffee, spending days on end copying and filing. (Who uses paper anymore?).

An internship needs to provide a meaningful work experience. Some interns work right alongside the professionals doing the same work with more supervision. An example is preparing tax returns, being on an audit team, preparing financial statements, analyzing financial results, evaluating job applications, and other day to day processes a firm engages in. Some interns work on projects that have meaning to the sponsor – in many cases getting to work on projects that are important but not enough time or resources to do. Others may engage in sales and marketing activities and event management. Many students do research to help a company grow and remain competitive. Some students develop business plans and other social media plans. It is up to the sponsor and student to agree on the tasks upfront to avoid any misunderstanding. 

In all cases students need to maintain confidentiality of sponsor information.

Types of Internships

Internships can be for academic credit or not for academic credit.

Internships can be paid or unpaid. We prefer that internships be paid. A non-paid internship may provide valuable experiences and many cases make a difference in our community.

The above are not mutually exclusive – and they don’t depend on how you find or do your internship. The decision to take an internship for academic credit is your decision.

Searching for Internships

Here are some questions for you to ask yourself, and additional suggestions for your self-search.

• What size firm do I want to intern with, small, medium or large?
• A for-profit, government or non-profit firm?
• What field would you like to work in: Accounting, Finance, Project Management, Marketing, Sales?
• Many sources to search-not the obvious.
• Reach out to person in firm that does what you want to do.
• Ask for an interview.
• Make an appointment to see Director of Interns.
• What internship resources do you have available?