John Jay College Of Criminal Justice | The City University of New York

Internship or cooperative education experiences may be completed for academic credit (by enrolling in one of the many courses which require an internship at John Jay – see below), for pay (about 25% of the internships we post on John Jay Careers Online are paid), or more commonly as a pre-professional, unpaid work experiences.  If you think you are ready to complete an internship, make an appointment to speak with any of our career counselors who can help you think about your options and create a plan. 

WHAT ARE INTERNSHIPS?
An internship is one way for you to gain valuable work experience, which may enable you to build your resume, network with potential employers, cultivate references and letters of recommendation for law or graduate school, make educated career choices, evaluate theory and practice and most of all attain employment. An internship experience can validate your career choice and open your eyes and ears to new possibilities. It may also encourage you to rethink your choices and make new decisions. Whatever the outcome, the experience is a way for you to assess your strengths and weaknesses prior to graduation.

Cooperative education programs (or “co-ops”) formally integrate your academic and/or career interests with productive work experiences in co-operating employer organizations. Co-ops are especially beneficial if you are interested in a law enforcement career at the federal level, and you are concerned about the competition for these highly desirable Special Agent/Investigator positions. It is an "in house" career-making program, which could effectively "jump start" your federal law enforcement aspirations. Similar to the internship experience, the cooperative education experience can be a very important tool in your quest to prepare for a career within the criminal justice and public service systems.

The benefits of internships and cooperative education are similar.  Both will help you explore your career options. They both provide you with real world experience that augments your classroom knowledge and both may occasionally provide you with some financial compensation to assist with undergraduate expenses. Most important, upon graduation, internships and cooperative education experiences markedly improve your job prospects.