Business department seeks to increase internship opportunities

Professor Donald Lavin teaches a class. Photo by Brandon Vance.

Many students realize the importance of having an internship on their resume before they graduate. But how many of them know about the student internship program at McDaniel?

With that in mind, the business department hosts Interview Day every year, giving students the experience of having several interviews with a variety of companies. If a student does well in the interview process, one of those companies may even contact them and set up a second interview, potentially leading to an internship, and possibly a career.

“I participated in Interview Day last year, which led to my internship and now future career at RSM,” said Doug Mills, senior at McDaniel with a triple major in business, economics, and accounting. RSM is a leading provider of audit, tax and consulting services, which will be a great place for Mills to start his career.

Internships are very important for students to gain hands-on experience in fields they are interested in, but finding the right student for the job can also be difficult.

“The connections we have with the companies willing to hire McDaniel students are very strong,” said Don Lavin, facilitator of the student internship program. “However, we simply can’t place students in internships if they aren’t willing to dedicate 100 percent of their time to the companies that we have built connections with over the years.”

Internship information sessions are in the works at McDaniel in order to give students a better idea of what to expect during the interviews as well as preparing them as much as possible for anything that comes their way.

“There have been a lot of changes made in the business department recently that will allow the students to present themselves with more qualifications on their resumes,” Lavin said. “This can potentially lead to a larger number of internships coming out of the business department for years to come.”

Acquiring valuable work experiences in relation to the major at hand can be crucial for a student’s future success.

“The professors will do anything they can to help students get internships as long as the students are hard working individuals willing to do as much as possible for the companies,” said Tom Davis, senior at McDaniel with a double major in Accounting and Business. Two years ago Tom came out of Interview Day with an internship at Gross Mendelsohn, which is a one of the leading CPA firms located in Baltimore.

There are many great companies that come out to Interview Day, which will be in the beginning of October this year. This event will be available to all Business majors looking to get off to a great start in furthering their future careers.

Last year, 48 internships came out of the business department’s Interview Day—a total that the department hopes to expand with the new changes at the school.