Internships are essential to students.

Most students, like myself, have little idea what they want to do after college. Fortunately, internships can give students find a clearer vision for their future.

While classrooms can educate students about their field of study, sitting in a lecture is not the same as experiencing the field. Internships are an excellent way for students to gain on-the-job experience in their respective fields.

Internships give students a better understanding of their career path after college. This can be from finding what you want in a career, and what you don’t want. It can also help you make valuable networking connections with people in your field.

Additionally, internships can also land you your first job upon graduation. In 2020, just 50 percent of college graduates found traditional full-time jobs within 6-months of graduation.

But for students with internships experience, they are more likely to find full-time jobs with companies they interned for.

More than 55 percent of all interns accepted job offers from the company they interned for. Additionally, 14 percent of all interns in the U.S. are given a part-time job upon completing their internship.

While not all internships are paid, most companies do pay interns. In addition, the average pay for interns in Iowa is $15.86 per hour, which is more than double the minimum wage in Iowa, $7.25.

While internships may not always pay as much as other jobs, the experience is more enriching to your career than most other opportunities. The experiences internships offer is priceless.

Now is the ideal time to find a spring internship and get a head start to your career.

Columns reflect the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Editorial Board, The Daily Iowan, or other organizations in which the author may be involved.