‘One internship, two internships, three internships … more!’: exploring the culture of the multiple internship economy

ABSTRACT

Internships are increasingly promoted as a high impact practice to improve students’ post-graduation employment outcomes, and educators often encourage students to participate in multiple internships. Yet, there is a lack of research on the sociocultural contexts associated with multiple internship participation. We present findings about the culture of multiple internship participation – drawing on focus groups and one-year follow-up interviews with students at five colleges in the United States, along with interviews with their educators and an analysis of online documents about multiple internship participation. The evidence documents a particular culture of the multiple internship economy, representing multiple internships as a linear, progressive, goal-oriented cultural project to accumulate a marketable self; also described by anthropologists as a neoliberal conception of the self. This cultural conception of a marketable neoliberal self is comprised of signs – such as narratives of multiple internships – that provide evidence of skills and experiences, of persevering through obstacles, and of ‘hustle’ and a ‘do what it takes’ attitude, which can be deployed to navigate competitive gatekeeping encounters such as employment interviews. Based on these findings, we develop a sociocultural theory of multiple internship participation as a project of neoliberal gatekeeping navigation.

KEYWORDS:

• College internships
• neoliberal self
• gatekeeping navigation
• employability
• multiple internship economy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the funding from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Wisconsin System, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Matthew Wolfgram

Matthew Wolfgram, Ph.D., is an anthropologist of education at the Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions, at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. Dr. Wolfgram has studied Ayurvedic medical education in South India and social interaction in U.S. STEM classrooms; currently, he uses ethnography, participatory action research, and qualitative research methods to study how students experience college and careers, with a particular focus on the factors that impact the experiences of low-income, first-generation, refugee, and/or minoritized college students.

Vivien Ahrens

Vivien Ahrens is a Project Assistant at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, and a doctoral student in Civil Society and Community Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She holds a master’s degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany. Vivien is interested in educational program evaluation. She aims to contribute to participatory evaluation methods that support participants’ and facilitators’ reflections on program goals, outcomes, and indicators of success. Before joining WCER, Vivien coordinated Centro Hispano’s Escalera Program at Madison East High School – an after-school program that supports Latinx youth in taking the next steps towards their goals, accessing higher education and advanced careers.