Just finished freshman year of college…preparing for the business world?

There are actually some things that you can do this summer to make yourself more appealing for internships. You’re not working anyway, so I’d strongly suggest that you volunteer.

If your hopes are to end up working in an office, then try to find a volunteer position that involves office work. So rather than volunteering to serve people at a soup kitchen, instead volunteer with a local charity to do office-type work, such as stuffing envelopes, making copies, doing filing and etc., for the rest of the summer.

You can use volunteer work as work experience. It *is* work; it’s just that it’s unpaid. If you can get a steady volunteer gig – say, once, twice, or three times per week, every week from now until the fall, that’d count for a lot re: internships later on.

Do similar once you get back to college. Do career-related work, on and off campus, for groups that need it. For example, if you think you might want to go into marketing in the future, then get involved with a club and do their publicity. Those sorts of experiences count. You put them on your resume, and use them to get an internship when the time comes. Then, later on, when you graduate, they help you get your first job.