Why College Students Need Apprenticeships | Jordan Klein | TEDxVanderbiltUniversity

There’s a myth on Vanderbilt’s campus: that to get a great job, you need an amazing internship. And to get one of those, you need a number of things.

Extensive experience.

Connections at the company you wish to work for.

An airtight resume.

An amazing interview.

If you have all these things, then you can get a great internship, giving you the connections and skills you need to land the job of your dreams. But if you don’t fulfill these “holy requirements”, then you can’t get that experience, and you can’t get that dream job.

This is a myth.

There is another approach, another way to gain valuable experience before your first job. It’s an older approach, and it’s a less sexy approach.

It’s called an apprenticeship.

The right apprenticeship can equip you with invaluable experience. It can introduce you to an accomplished mentor in your field. And given today’s entrepreneurial climate, there is no better time to seek it out.

Here’s the icing on the cake: to land an apprenticeship, you need none of the “holy requirements” you need for a coveted internship.

You can have no experience in their industry.

You can have no connections within their company.

You don’t have to send a resume.

And you might never have an interview.

On paper, this sounds impossible. But it isn’t.

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did this but skipped the college part. software.

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What about if you want to get into a type of engineer apprenticeship program but have no experience in that field?