There are three key components to landing your dream job: high GPA, club participation and internship experience.

Throughout your college career, professors will stress to you that besides decent grades, internships are also mandatory in getting any job in the field that you want.

Nothing can prepare you for the career that you want better than having experience in your desired field. Not only are you making connections with future employers, but you are also learning real-world skills that cannot be taught in the classroom.

The first step in getting an internship is finding one. You can do this by looking at the opportunities advertised by Iona. These can be found in your email inbox and through fliers around campus. Apply to as many internships as you can: the more you get your name out there, the more likely people will start to notice you.

After applying to an internship for the ABC sports department, and completing an interview, I was confident I was moving in the right direction – until I found out I didn’t get the internship. Just as quickly as I had gained that confidence in myself, I lost it.

One of the biggest lessons one can learn while attempting to obtain an internship is to not give up. I chose to be persistent and get right back on the hunt. I realized in order to become marketable during these interviews I had to build my resume.

I became involved with the Ionian, ICTV, WICR, the athletics department and more.

One concern many students face when debating taking an internship is how they will have fewer hours to work or devote to other tasks.

The answers to these concerns are simple. It is a foot in the door to your future career, and you don’t know who will observe your hard work. That pays off in the long run. As petty as the tasks may seem to you, you may be offered a job at the end of your internship.

Before I knew it, I received a call from CBS Sports with an internship offer. Four internships later, I am a senior ready for graduation.

When employers look at your resume and see that you have interned in a professional setting somewhere else, you become a ton more marketable. I have since interned at CBS Sports, SportsNet New York (SNY), FiOS1 News and CBS News (twice).

On one of my first job interviews with News 12 my employer said, “This is the type of resume I look for because I know how difficult it can be to juggle multiple internships along with school.”

Mission accomplished.