A Harvard student shares their difficulty in securing a summer internship, submitting 15 applications and preparing nearly 20. Despite strong qualifications and prior experience, the student faced ghosting and rejections, highlighting concerns about the current challenging job market for recent graduates.
The difficulty faced by even highly qualified students from prestigious institutions like Harvard in securing internships highlights the severe challenges within the current job market, potentially impacting the career trajectories and financial stability of the next generation of professionals.
A Harvard student, Jasmine Wynn, details the significant challenges faced in securing a summer internship, despite possessing strong academic qualifications and prior experience in climate policy, sustainable energy advocacy, and electoral politics. Between January and mid-April, Wynn submitted 15 internship applications and had around 20 more prepared, often encountering radio silence or rejections, with one internship stating an acceptance rate of 0.008%. This experience is common among her peers, who also struggle to find positions in the current difficult job market, which reports indicate is the worst in decades for college graduates. Wynn, who has worked in her field since age 15 and has previous internship experience, secured an unpaid internship this summer but remains worried about long-term post-graduate unemployment and financial precarity, a concern echoed by recent Harvard alumni who faced extensive job searches. The difficulty in landing internships is causing students to neglect academic work to focus on professional prospects.
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