How To Choose The Right Internship

• Dene Dryden
• September 26, 2022
• Career Guide Article

This article gives you the tools you need to find an internship that fits perfectly with you!

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Internships: For many college students, they’re an important step on the road toward their desired career path in agriculture. For some, internships are a way to discover new roles and see if a certain industry is a good fit for them. Although landing an internship is an exciting moment, getting there can be difficult for first-time applicants, especially when trying to choose the right internship for your interests and goals.

 

Robin Thomas knows quite a bit about internships; as Syngenta’s early talent and university relations manager, she works with college students and recent graduates seeking internships and early career opportunities at the company. She says internships at Syngenta — and across agriculture in general — cover several fields of interest.

 

“We have all kinds of internships,” Thomas said. “We have a production and supply development program that we hire six to eight associates for each year. They pull from a broad variety of interns, from health, safety and environment interns, financing interns, logistics, procurement.”

 

When to begin

 

Thomas says the time to start looking for internships is at the beginning of the school year.

 

“I would start as a freshman,” she said. Whether you have a clear career path in mind or you’re still figuring out what you want to do after graduation, Thomas says internships are a great way to find out what works for you.

 

“You have to approach it from the standpoint [that] you’re looking for your best fit and where you’re just going to click and be happy,” Thomas said. “And it may not be your first internship. You may say, ‘Wow, this is not for me, I don’t want to do sales.’… But you have to approach it as a three-month interview, the company interviewing you and you interviewing the company too. The more internships you have, the more you can fine-tune what your interests are and what your best fit is by the time you graduate.”

 

Do your homework

 

The two-way interview also applies to the internship discovery and application process. At career fairs or other opportunities to speak with recruiters, Thomas says it’s essential to do your homework.

 

“Even if you’re just browsing through a career fair and you see the company, and you’re like, ‘I wonder what they do,’ step around the corner and Google them and see. Know what they do when you come up,” she said.

 

Involvement in clubs and organizations like FFA can help you stand out to recruiters. However, Thomas says it is better to invest time and effort into those clubs rather than joining just because “it looks good on a resume.”

 

“If I see club member for 12 clubs, it doesn’t mean as much as club president, vice president, secretary, committee leader for two or three clubs and organizations,” she said. “It’s more depth of engagement rather than breadth.”

 

According to Thomas, what is even more important is knowing what you want to do. “Sit down and think about, ‘What do I like doing?’” she said. “’Do I want to be inside or outside? Do I want to work independently, or do I want to be part of a team?’ Those types of questions can really help you narrow down what type of position you want to go into.”

 

Seek advice

 

Asking recruiters and other professionals about their career paths can also be an excellent way to gain insight into what you are interested in and if a company would be a good fit for you as an intern.

 

“Ask people what roles they’ve had and what they liked about the role, what was the most difficult,” Thomas said. “Everybody loves to talk about their career journey and about themselves. You can interview the folks at the career fair. Or, if somebody’s visiting your club or organization on campus, make sure you come with an arsenal of questions for them.”

 

If you’re still unsure what career path is best for you, Thomas says to let internship recruiters know that you’re exploring your options. They can help point you in the right direction.

 

“Start with, ‘I’m still open; I’m trying to find that perfect fit for me. Here are some things I like to do,’” she said. “I know a lot of the career fairs, especially the bigger career fairs we go to, there are people there from our production facilities, from our research facilities, all of our sales brands. So, when you talk to that person, when you tell them what you like to do and what you enjoy doing or what you feel like your forte is, then they’ll go, ‘Oh, you need to talk to so and-so over here.’ A lot of times that fit in that internship is found that way.”

 

Keep an open mind

 

Even if you’re set on a particular career path, keeping an open mind can lead to new opportunities. That’s what happened to Jessica Woodworth, who is now a Syngenta retail representative working with clients in Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. A few years ago, she was studying animal science at Kansas State University with the intent to become a veterinarian. She was first introduced to Syngenta when watching her brother compete at the National FFA Convention & Expo.

 

“I was looking for an internship because I was up in the air about vet school,” she said. “My brother had mentioned that he had heard during his contest that Syngenta was looking for interns. I kind of looked at my mom, and I was like, ‘I have an animal science degree, I don’t know if Syngenta would be interested in that.’”

 

Woodworth’s mother encouraged her to talk to a recruiter, and that person got her in touch with Thomas.

 

“I realized that with Syngenta, as long as you had the base foundation, it didn’t matter what your degree was in as long as you were willing to put forth the work and effort,” Woodworth said. “I got connected with Robin, and she helped me land an internship in Arkansas.”

 

Woodworth’s internship coincided with the window of time where she would have applied to veterinary programs.

 

“However, I got into my internship and absolutely loved it — completely forgot about vet school, never applied,” she said. “At the end of the summer, I interviewed for the developmental sales position. Then, right out of college, came to Syngenta for that position in northern Illinois.”

 

Woodworth says that if she could give her past self one piece of advice for her career journey, she’d tell herself to be open to different opportunities.

 

“Stay open-minded because you never know what your future might hold and where you might find yourself that you never thought you would be,” she said. “I never would have dreamed that this is what I love.”

 

The process of choosing the right internship can include talking to recruiters at career fairs and events, like how Woodworth approached Syngenta. But there are other tools out there for prospective interns, like the FFA Forever Blue Network. Allie Ellis, the associate director of the FFA Alumni and Supporters, says current FFA members, alumni and supporters can all join the online network.

 

The Forever Blue Network is also a resource for finding events, mentoring opportunities and special interest groups.

 

Choosing the right internship can be a challenging but rewarding process. In the end, it’s about finding an opportunity that works well for you and your professional goals.

 

“Get outside your comfort zone,” Woodworth said, “because you never know where you’re going to land, what you’re going to do.” AG