Advancing Your Career When Your Internship Gets Cancelled
Before the start of the Spring semester I got an in-person interview for the PVH Corp. Summer 2020 Program, my dream internship. This interview led to me accepting a summer internship with Tommy Hilfiger on their e-commerce team. Unfortunately, at the end of March I was notified that the program was cancelled due to the COVID-19 virus. I was obviously very upset, I had worked extremely hard for this position and it was all I thought about for months. I’ve come to accept the disappointing news and be grateful for the fact that I was offered the position in the first place. While I felt as though this cancellation was an end to my career advancement, I know many other college students are in nearly identical situations to mine. So how do we move forward?
The last day of my Fall 2019 internship!
Be gracious for the opportunity.
Be sure you respond to the cancellation notice and thank everyone for the opportunity to be a part of their team. A cancellation does not mean that they never want to work with you, it simply means now is not your time. Maintain a good and healthy relationship with the members of the company that you were able to meet and ask them to keep you in mind for future opportunities. It is more than likely that once the smoke clears, life will go back to normal and the hiring team would love to have you join their company once the timing is better.
Stay up to date on your professional image via LinkedIn.
The world has gone virtual, make sure your online professional image is up to date! Take this time to add onto your LinkedIn profile; describe previous experiences in depth, edit your ‘About’ to include more keywords, add to your skills and endorsements by taking skills quizzes, reach out to prior bosses and co-workers for reccomendations. You can also connect with alumni and expand your network, be sure to include a note introducing yourself! If you’re able to, find a day to take a new professional headshot, this can be easily accomplished with just an iPhone camera. Updating your profile picture is a great way to rejuvinate your profile!
Learn new skills and programs you can put on your resume.
We clearly all have a lot of downtime now that we are in social-distancing. Take this time to learn how to use programs such as Microsoft Excel and Photoshop, you can find in-depth tutorials on YouTube! Both Microsoft and Adobe offer free trials, just be sure to cancel them if you choose to not invest in the softwares. Learning how to use these programs will put you ahead when you’re able to start applying for new internship and job opportunties.
Make a dream internship list.
While having an internship be cancelled can be extremely upsetting and feel like a major setback, let yourself look to the future. Take a day to sit down and write down every single dream company you have, reach far and wide. Start looking into their previous internship programs and see what types of experiences will be available to you in the future, use this information to create a game plan! You can also utilize your LinkedIn to connect with people in those companies to learn more about their experiences and how they got to be where they are now, this is another great way to expand your network!
