Thanks to a program sponsored by Binghamton University’s Career Development Center (CDC) designed to help students get the most out of summer internship opportunities, some Bearcats might be wearing a new business suit for the first time this summer.

The event, held on Feb. 27 in New University Union room 325, allowed students to interact with a panel of peers who have recently had internships and who talked about their experiences and the steps they went through to find and apply for internships.

They shared three “must-have tips”: networking, persistence and research.

Justin Gordon, a senior financial engineering and management information systems major, interned at Goldman Sachs and explained how networking has been important for his career.

“One thing I realized was the only way to be able to work for this company and do what I want to do is to speak to some people who got in the door themselves,” Gordon said. “I was networking with people, finding how they got into the company, what they did to get there, what they like about their jobs, what they didn’t like about the jobs, things that I should focus on, and then I kind of got a picture.”

Angie Ahn, a senior political science major who interned at the United Nations in Thailand last summer, strongly agreed with Gordon.

“Because I grew up in Thailand, even after I interned, I was able to always keep in touch with the people who work in the UN,” Ahn said. “So if you have people around you that you know they’re working places that you want to intern or work in the future, keep in touch with them because that’s networking. Even saying, ‘How you are doing?’ works because in the end they say, ‘Oh yeah, I remember her.’”

Meg Mitzel, a CDC experiential education coordinator, also advised students to take the time to really think about what they want to do.

“You need to have some time and think about what you really want to do, what your values are and what your passions are and see internships that perfectly match particular things only for you,” Mitzel said. “Don’t think about what your roommate wants to be.”

Ahn and Gordon also suggested students take opportunities even if they don’t get the exact positions they want, and Mitzel said students should not be afraid to challenge themselves.

“I’m encouraging and challenging you to go out and find internships, once you figure out what you want … that maybe the organization has never had interns before, but you are going to use your persistence, your research and your desire for something along those lines to go out and seek that internship.”

She also introduced useful CDC Web sites and services, such as e-recruiting and the Alumni Career Network, showing how students can find more information about job or internship searching.

Other useful tips from the panel included: have a professional message on your phone and email, read applications and all information carefully, apply early and every time you talk to someone at a workplace, conduct yourself as you would in an interview.

Many of the students who attended were motivated by the panel students’ experiences. Juliann Taylor, a freshman mechanical engineering major, was one of these.

“I am a freshman and I feel like I want to go back in and work on my resume now,” Taylor said. “The panel definitely helped me. I can tell they put in hard work to find an internship and they got it and worked hard, so what they did is motivating me. Now, I really want to do something and focus on and try it.”

In the end, Mitzel once again stressed the importance of networking.

“The number-one way that post-graduate students in the past found their jobs was networking. You need to start to think about who is it that you know that has a contact in a particular field and then spread the word that you are looking for a particular contact in this field,” she said.