As an underclassman eager to gain professional experience, you may be curious where to begin. There are plenty of ways to gain experiential learning opportunities as a freshman and sophomore. Although these are not “traditional” business internships, these experiences can teach professional and leadership skills, and educate you about certain industries.
In this article, I will suggest six experiential learning opportunities that can help you gain professional experience.
Developing the Right Mindset
Before entering any position, you should have a goal or intention. It is especially important in these experiences, that are not as structured as internship programs, that you be intentional about your goals and actions. Your biggest question should be, “What problem can I solve in this new space?” The work you do then should be grounded on solving problems.
This not only will add significant value for the organization, but it will also become an incredibly valuable personal and professional experience. These experiential learning opportunities are great ways to unlock new career pathways and opportunities. By articulating the problems you solved in your resume and during future interviews, recruiters will be better able to understand your professional skillset.
Here are six experiential learning opportunities for you to consider:
1. Startups and Early-Stage Projects
Your university may have an entrepreneurship or business lab that aims to help student founders build their startups. Early-stage projects are always in need of an extra pair of hands. Reach out to program staff or join the email list that shares these opportunities with students. The product may solve a problem you’ve personally faced, making the work you do even more exciting.
2. Non-Profits
During the pandemic, a few friends of mine connected with two non-profit organizations that were looking for help. For one, the team was able to develop an easy-to-use website. For the other, they helped create marketing materials to acquire more donations. The non-profit organizations were able to grow at a quicker rate and were very thankful to the supporting team. If you are excited about a certain non-profit organization, reach out to them and see how you can get involved.
3. Small Business
Say it is summer and you are back in your hometown. This is a perfect opportunity to help a local business with some of their business challenges. Reach out to a couple of local businesses that you frequent, introduce yourself as a business student wanting to help solve a problem they may have. This could be anything from creating marketing materials, setting up an online store, or doing market research. The business would be appreciative of your help.
4. Student Organizations focused on Consulting, Finance, or Technology
Your university may have consulting, finance, or technology centered student organizations that produce some type of work-product each semester. For a consulting organization, this could be working with a client over the course of a semester to solve a strategic problem. For a finance organization, this could be learning the skillset of analysis and applying it to a stock pitch. For a technology organization, this could be building a technology tool for students on-campus to benefit from.
5. Student Government
Your university’s student government organization is responsible for representing student concerns at the administration level. This body identifies issues that affect student life, academic success, and professional growth and works on tangible solutions to fix them. If you are interested in supporting your fellow peers through the lens of administration, this is a great space to get involved in.
6. Your Own Project
Maybe there is a business idea you’ve had but never got around to working on. Your friends have noticed an issue on campus and want to work with administration to solve it. Your peers share an interest but there are no supporting student clubs. If any of these situations feel familiar – go do it. Being a university student puts you in a great position to start new projects, gain support to increase your chances of success, and pursue a process of trial and error in a safe space. You never know what you might accomplish until you go about doing it.
I hope this article has helped you recognize some of the many experiential learning opportunities around you. The most important thing is to get started – best of luck!
Zuhair Imaduddin is a labor relations student at Cornell University. He was a Product Management Intern at PNC Bank and is an incoming Innovation Development Summer Analyst at JPMorgan Chase.
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