On Sunday, Sept. 29, applications closed for externships, a type of internship that are exclusively offered to Carleton students during their winter break. Externships are typically offered through Carleton connections — including former students and parents of alumni — and they last between one and three weeks. The Career Center also offers its own externships each winter.
The application deadline typically falls on the Sunday or Monday of the last week of September. However, students were alerted through Handshake notifications and banners hung around campus in early October that eight externships had reopened their applications and extended their deadlines to Friday, Oct. 11.
Temi Adeyemi, the program director for experiential learning at the Career Center, thought the externship application process went well this year. “We had a record number of externship postings for this year, and are in the midst of facilitating the application process for a record number of students who applied for those opportunities,” Adeyemi said.
Extended externships encapsulated a wide range of interests, roles and locations, from a high school administration extern in Atlanta, Georgia, to a production assistant at a fine arts camp in Sitka, Alaska. Other externships were virtual,including one that explored arts and media careers and one that focused on government trends.
Andrew Jamison ’26, a Student Career Assistant (SCA), explained that “there is generally an extension every year” in hopes of filling unfilled externship spots.
By filling more externships each year, the Career Center has “a higher chance of retaining those opportunities for future students,” continued Jamison. This creates more available spots for Carleton students who are interested in pursuing an externship and allows Carleton’s externship program to continue year after year since its kick-off in 2008.
“The extension did lead to a few more applications,” said Jamison. “I didn’t see anyone that came in to apply for externships, but we did encourage some students to apply to them.”
The Career Center also sent out email reminders about extended application deadlines for externship opportunities and relied on word of mouth to spread information, said Cecily Schar ’27, who applied for three externships this year. However, “none of [the extended-application externships] were really in fields [she] was particularly interested in,” so she wasn’t significantly impacted by the extended deadlines.
For students who “might have missed the initial deadline, weren’t confident in their application materials, or simply didn’t apply to the maximum number of externships they’re allowed (up to four),” said Jiménez-Hernández, extended deadlines “provided a helpful alternative.”
Externships were released by site hosts on the Carleton Career Center website from July to August 23 and most applications were due on September 29 after which site hosts conducted a period of application reviewing, candidate interviewing, and ranking.
Schar emphasized how she appreciated “how early they released the host information because it allowed me to scope out what I was interested during the summer while I had more free time.”
Additionally, “the email that went out after the deadline with timelines for decisions, interviews, and communications with externship hosts was… very informative”; she “also found the career services programming the weekend that applications were due to be helpful and well-placed.”
Held on September 28 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Anderson Atrium, the Fall Career Jam was run by a number of SCAs who reviewed students’ résumés and application materials, such as cover letters. While this event focused on last-minute revisions to externship applications, the SCAs also provided feedback on materials for internship and job applications.
The Career Center “help[s] students find and apply to positions year round, including externships,” said Jamison. “What this usually means is we help students create and polish their resume, draft and review cover letters, or introduce them to our career exploration resources.”
During the externship application season, the Career Center gets a big increase in students coming in for reviews and advice,” echoed Jiménez-Hernández. “They either book appointments with SCAs or Career Coaches, or drop by for help. When it comes to any application process, my role can involve working closely with them to strengthen the bullet points on their resumes and tailor their cover letters to highlight both their technical and personal skills. The goal is to make their applications as strong as possible.”
For students who applied for externships, the cycle is not quite over. From September 30 to October 16, site hosts reviewed applications, conducted interviews, and created rankings which the Career Center will use to release automated cycles of externship offers to students.
Once these decisions are released, students will have an opportunity to accept or decline an externship offer within the next 24 hours before the offer expires and is given to the next student according to the site host’s ranking. Students may receive multiple offers at once but are only able to accept one, rendering them unable to accept any future externship offers. Due to the need for quick decision-making, the Career Center offers an spreadsheet entitled “Externship site ranking worksheet” that sets up a system for students to prioritize externships over one another.
The decisions are set to be released beginning October 22. Other resources related to externships, such as housing and funding options, can be found on the Career Center’s website.
