Steps to Obtaining a Government Internship
A Continuing Education Experience That Improves Career Opportunities
A government internship is an essential step to pursuing a career in federal, state, or local government. Internships provide opportunities to determine which government career field best fit an adult learner’s personal goals and interest. Internships help adults become marketable, experienced job applicants when seeking employment after graduation. In fact, most government agencies consider internship experience in the hiring process.
Launching a career in government work can be a difficult thing without completing an internship. The value of a government internship, during continuing education, lies in government agencies knowing that an applicant is serious about a career in government. These internships also provide opportunities for networking, boosting a resume, and educating an adult learner about which government career field suits their abilities and interests.
Government Internships: Valuable Career and Educational Experiences
Unfortunately, many applicants for government jobs who have not completed an internship are never contacted for a follow-up interview. The value of a government internship is immeasurable, along with improving an applicant’s value. Internships also assist adult learners by:
- acquiring practical work experience relating to the adult student's major or career choice.
- learning more about a specific career field within the government.
- identifying interests, skills, and talents needed for a specific government career.
- determining whether their interests match their desires.
- developing a professional attitude and understanding expectations required to succeed in government.
- learning and improving specific employment skills such as communication, problem solving, teamwork, and leadership.
Internship Programs: Government Internships
An internship program provides an adult learner with a supervised work experience where they complete intentional learning goals and actively reflect on what they are learning throughout their internship. Learning goals typically include academic, career development, skill development, and personal development. Government internships are available in almost every federal, state, and local government agency in all states.
Career Interest: Steps to Determining Internship Awareness
Steps to identifying government internships in areas of interest include:
- making a list of agencies that are of interest.
- visiting each agency’s home web page.
- looking for a link for employment, careers, or student internships.
- reading descriptions of available internship programs.
- searching for additional information regarding internship programs of interest.
- reading program announcements with dates and instructions for how to apply.
- bookmarking these web pages and writing information down or printing it out.
- writing a federal-style resume that covers the skills identified in the internship announcement.
Federal Resume: Different from Business Resumes
Federal resumes are longer than business resumes. In fact, federal resumes are typically two to three pages long because of all the required details. Continuing education adult student federal resumes need to include relevant courses, a few sentences describing significant papers or projects, and a list of your activities. A federal resume must also:
Be in Two Formats – a paper format for submitting by fax or mail for some agencies and an electronic format for submitting to the various resume builders and databases. Each agency has its own application system and instructions, so be ready to copy and paste.
Include Competencies or Soft Skills – particularly discuss analytical ability, attention to detail-oriented, language skills, mobility, computer skills, teamwork skills, leadership abilities, enthusiasm, energy, flexibility, and resourcefulness.
Highlight Academic Achievement – for a 3.45 GPA or higher, write “Outstanding Scholar, 3.45/4.0.” If a 3.0 or higher, write “Superior Academic Achievement, 3.0/4.0.” The government also has Direct Hire opportunities for adult students with a GPA of 3.0 and higher.
Internship Application: Submitting and Polishing
Adult students need to begin the government internship application early, normally at the beginning of the last year of school. The process takes time and if a security clearance is required the application procedures are even longer. Sometimes government internships are tricky to find, because an applicant must search each agency for available internships.
Federal resumes and internship applications must be clear and concise. The resume must be clear of typos, grammatical errors, and excessive wordiness. Both must follow a logical train of thought, because government human resource personnel read many resumes and applications. Resumes and government applications that standout, quickly rise to the top of the pile.
Making Connections: Government Internships and Continuing Education
The value of completing a government internship during continuing education enrollment is immense when an adult learner’s ultimate goal is land a career working for the government. The process is long and requires attention to even the smallest detail when applying for an internship.
Not all government internships are paid; however, the value of an unpaid internship for achieving short- or long-term career goals must be weighed against a short period of living discomfort. Most government internships take place during the summer and can be found on the USAJobs website.
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