The Longitudinal Effects of College Internships on Postgraduate Career Outcomes

• In Event: Socially Just Education for College to Workforce Transitions: Challenges and Possibilities

Abstract

College internships are commonly perceived as a ‘high-impact’ practice for college students career development (Nunley et al., 2016). However, the empirical examination of its effectiveness has been sparse, with even fewer studies providing longitudinal evidence. This study explores the relationships between college internship experience and postgraduate career outcomes, using data gathered through a longitudinal study. Drawing from Social Cognitive Career Theory (Lent & Brown, 2002), this paper identifies and selects theoretically relevant personal and contextual inputs and examines the role of internship in students’ career development process.
We used data from a three-wave panel of students (n=554) attending eight postsecondary institutions. We examined four models using linear and logistic regression. Postgraduate outcome measures were examined as dependent variables, including postgraduate trajectory (i.e., choice between participating in the labor market vs. pursuing graduate or professional education), job search duration, the relevance between graduates’ college majors and current job, and postgraduate income. Independent variable is internship experience during college. For a thorough investigation of equity in the internship effects, we also explored several personal (e.g., gender, racial identity) and contextual factors (e.g., major, type of institution attended).
The findings revealed that college internship experiences are more closely associated with pursuing graduate degrees than with securing immediate employment post-graduation. Results further indicated that graduates with internship experiences tend to secure employment with higher relevance to their college majors. However, disparities in career development opportunities and outcomes were noted among different demographic groups, particularly among graduates from marginalized communities. For example, our analysis showed that first generation college graduates found jobs less related to their majors as compared to continuing generation college student graduates, even after controlling for the effects of internships. We also found that Black or African American college graduates were almost three times more likely take longer to find employment when compared to their White counterparts.
These disparities underline the need for equitable access to quality internship experiences for all students for their career development. Based on our findings, we plan to engage the audience to discuss the implications of these disparities in internship outcomes in developing equitable career education strategies.

Authors

• Kyoungjin Jang-Tucci, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Mindi N Thompson, University of Wisconsin-Madison