Students navigate summer jobs world
They want to demonstrate for potential employers what potential they have
After nearly four years of working at a pizzeria, Reagan Huber of Ellicott Ciity said it was time to put her education to use.
Huber, a 20-year-old rising senior at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County studying math and computer science, is set to embark on her first office job this summer, interning at T. Rowe Price, the Baltimore investment house, on its asset allocation team.
She’s not sure what she wants to do after graduation, but she believes the internship will help her figure that out.
“I’m graduating in a year,” she said. “I just really felt like I needed more experience.”
The 10-week internship pays just over $8,500 for the summer, she said.
Students are seeing the value of summer jobs and starting to pursue them earlier in the academic year, said Christine Routzahn, director of UMBC’s career center for 17 years. They and their families understand the importance of making sure summers are being used wisely, in terms of career preparation, by engaging in meaningful work, she said.
“A summer job is not just about making money for the summer,” she said. “It’s about getting variable experience and transferable skills they can use for their future career.”
In the past year, more than 630 employers came to UMBC to recruit and more than 9,000 job listings were posted on the career center’s online jobs platform, she said.
While there are opportunities in all fields present, those in high demand include positions in the information technology sector, she said.
The internship is valuable for students because it’s a way for them to show an employer what they’re capable of and their value to the organization.
This includes in Routzahn’s own office, where interns are hired for graphic design and marketing work.
“We hire students over the summer to do meaningful work we can’t get done,” she said. “It’s a great way to tap into the talent you don’t have the skill set for, or the time,” she said.
Many employers look first to their intern pool for candidates for full-time positions because they, essentially, had the longest interview process, she said.
Paul Lyon, a Columbia resident and a rising junior at UMBC, is starting an summer internship at Leverege, a company that creates graphical interfaces for data and sensory analysis at the bwtech@UMBC business incubator, where he interned in the spring. He said he’ll be paid $10 per hour in the summer.
Now that he’s entering the second half of his college studies, he said, he wants to broaden his professional network. He also wants the experience of being in a startup company, as he hopes to launch his own business after graduating.
He said he will maintain websites and blogs that the company manages.
“I know in order to start a business you have to know people and have a good idea how to start up a company,” he said. “That was important to me, to be in the start-up community.”
A May 2016 report from the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based public policy nonprofit, showed youth unemployment rates rose from 2008 to 2011, before gradually declining through 2014.
“While most teens do not need to work to support themselves or their families, the decline [in employment rate] raises concern in some quarters that teens are missing out on opportunities to learn new skills and gain experience and contacts that will improve their job prospects later in life,”
Martha Ross and Nicole Prchal Svajlenka wrote in the report.
Gary Burtless, an economist at Brookings, said jobs for teens have been in a long-term decline, as employers have increasingly relied on immigrants, migrants and low-wage adults, instead of teens. It’s unresolved whether this primarily reflects changed preferences of teens or employers, he said in an email.
The unemployment rate for youths in the labor force — defined as ages 16 to 24, who have actively sought employment during the past four weeks and currently are available to work — has decreased in Baltimore County, from 16.2 percent in 2013 to 14.7 percent in 2015, according to the American Community Survey, a statistical survey by the Census Bureau. The rate in 2010 was 14 percent.
Statewide, the youth unemployment rate has gradually decreased from19.8 percent in 2010 to 12.8 percent in 2015.
It’s been harder for youths to find jobs since the recession, as adults would fall back into jobs in the summer that may have gone to youth in the past, said Will Anderson, director of Baltimore County’s Department of Economic and Workforce Development.
Additionally, the rise of online shopping has led to a decline in popularity of retail stores and, in turn, a loss of traditional summer job opportunities for young people, he said.
“It was a very different world back then,” he said. “When that industry flipped, it affects what’s out there for kids, not just shopping patterns for adults.”
Internships have increased in prominence in recent years, as part of a broader range of employment opportunities, which also includes apprenticeships and shadowing professionals, Anderson said. He said more people ages 16 to 24 are looking for work.
“It’s not simply about keeping kids busy but having them see themselves as valuable and contributing,” he said. jbleiweis@baltsun.com
Huber, a 20-year-old rising senior at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County studying math and computer science, is set to embark on her first office job this summer, interning at T. Rowe Price, the Baltimore investment house, on its asset allocation team.
She’s not sure what she wants to do after graduation, but she believes the internship will help her figure that out.
“I’m graduating in a year,” she said. “I just really felt like I needed more experience.”
The 10-week internship pays just over $8,500 for the summer, she said.
Students are seeing the value of summer jobs and starting to pursue them earlier in the academic year, said Christine Routzahn, director of UMBC’s career center for 17 years. They and their families understand the importance of making sure summers are being used wisely, in terms of career preparation, by engaging in meaningful work, she said.
“A summer job is not just about making money for the summer,” she said. “It’s about getting variable experience and transferable skills they can use for their future career.”
In the past year, more than 630 employers came to UMBC to recruit and more than 9,000 job listings were posted on the career center’s online jobs platform, she said.
While there are opportunities in all fields present, those in high demand include positions in the information technology sector, she said.
The internship is valuable for students because it’s a way for them to show an employer what they’re capable of and their value to the organization.
This includes in Routzahn’s own office, where interns are hired for graphic design and marketing work.
“We hire students over the summer to do meaningful work we can’t get done,” she said. “It’s a great way to tap into the talent you don’t have the skill set for, or the time,” she said.
Many employers look first to their intern pool for candidates for full-time positions because they, essentially, had the longest interview process, she said.
Paul Lyon, a Columbia resident and a rising junior at UMBC, is starting an summer internship at Leverege, a company that creates graphical interfaces for data and sensory analysis at the bwtech@UMBC business incubator, where he interned in the spring. He said he’ll be paid $10 per hour in the summer.
Now that he’s entering the second half of his college studies, he said, he wants to broaden his professional network. He also wants the experience of being in a startup company, as he hopes to launch his own business after graduating.
He said he will maintain websites and blogs that the company manages.
“I know in order to start a business you have to know people and have a good idea how to start up a company,” he said. “That was important to me, to be in the start-up community.”
A May 2016 report from the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based public policy nonprofit, showed youth unemployment rates rose from 2008 to 2011, before gradually declining through 2014.
“While most teens do not need to work to support themselves or their families, the decline [in employment rate] raises concern in some quarters that teens are missing out on opportunities to learn new skills and gain experience and contacts that will improve their job prospects later in life,”
Martha Ross and Nicole Prchal Svajlenka wrote in the report.
Gary Burtless, an economist at Brookings, said jobs for teens have been in a long-term decline, as employers have increasingly relied on immigrants, migrants and low-wage adults, instead of teens. It’s unresolved whether this primarily reflects changed preferences of teens or employers, he said in an email.
The unemployment rate for youths in the labor force — defined as ages 16 to 24, who have actively sought employment during the past four weeks and currently are available to work — has decreased in Baltimore County, from 16.2 percent in 2013 to 14.7 percent in 2015, according to the American Community Survey, a statistical survey by the Census Bureau. The rate in 2010 was 14 percent.
Statewide, the youth unemployment rate has gradually decreased from19.8 percent in 2010 to 12.8 percent in 2015.
It’s been harder for youths to find jobs since the recession, as adults would fall back into jobs in the summer that may have gone to youth in the past, said Will Anderson, director of Baltimore County’s Department of Economic and Workforce Development.
Additionally, the rise of online shopping has led to a decline in popularity of retail stores and, in turn, a loss of traditional summer job opportunities for young people, he said.
“It was a very different world back then,” he said. “When that industry flipped, it affects what’s out there for kids, not just shopping patterns for adults.”
Internships have increased in prominence in recent years, as part of a broader range of employment opportunities, which also includes apprenticeships and shadowing professionals, Anderson said. He said more people ages 16 to 24 are looking for work.
“It’s not simply about keeping kids busy but having them see themselves as valuable and contributing,” he said. jbleiweis@baltsun.com
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