A part-time internship during the school year or a full-time internship during the summer are both great opportunities for students and even recent graduates to get great experience. Internships are essentially temp-to-perm relationships as both employers and students are able to try each other out temporarily to see if they want to make the relationship permanent. Also, it is become more and more common for interns to be paid. In a recent survey conducted amongst members of the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), nearly 98 percent indicated that they pay their interns and that the average undergraduate intern is paid $15.44 per hour. Now I take that survey with a grain of salt or perhaps even a whole shaker because NACE's membership is heavily skewed to large employers and most interns are not employed by large employers. In addition, employers who pay their interns are probably more likely to be proud of that fact so more willing to share that information than employers who do not pay their interns.

Whether your internship is paid or unpaid, an internship by definition is a great way of getting experience that is directly related to your career aspirations. Unpaid internships often provide the experience that students need to land paid internships and those often provide the experience that students need to land great, entry level jobs upon graduation. Indeed, employers report that nearly 60 percent of the students they hired upon graduation had at least one internship under the belts.

So what are you waiting for? Start searching for a great internship today.