The Darden Career Development Center provides a variety of career resources to help you in your search for a summer internship. The curriculum is also structured to allow you to take electives related to your summer internship in the final term of the First Year.
Internships are a critical part of the Darden experience because they help you:
- gain experience in the job function and/or industry you plan to pursue after graduation
- apply new knowledge and approaches learned during the First Year
- further develop skills that will help you in your full-time job search
If you are a career switcher, a summer internship is an important opportunity to try out and gain experience in a new job function and/or industry.
Every year, over 95% of Darden students do a summer internship. A large number of these students come back to Darden in the fall with full-time job offers.
Internship Companies & Opportunities
The top 10 hiring companies at Darden for summer interns over the past three years were:
- Bain & Company
- Bank of America
- Booz & Co.
- Danaher Corporation
- Deloitte
- IBM Global Business Services
- JP Morgan
- Johnson & Johnson
- McKinsey & Co.
- Microsoft Corp.
Darden students have a wide range of interests and career aspirations. Below is a sampling of other opportunities that our students have pursued for summer internships:
- Marketing campaign for the America Council on Renewable Energy
- Micro-finance in Bali, Indonesia
- Financial analysis in Beijing
- Co-founded a production company
- Internship with Florida Panthers
- Education Pioneer Fellow
Alternatives to the Traditional Summer Internship
- Darden Business Incubator (DBI): The DBI provides a community of student and faculty support, as well as $13,000 in funding for a select group of students to start business ventures during the summer.
- Batten Venture Internship Program: This program provides Darden students the opportunity to pursue summer internships with venture capital firms or start-ups around the country. To promote and support student involvement with these firms, the Batten Endowment provides a matching stipend to supplement a student’s summer salary.
- Darden Nonprofit Internship Fund (DNIF): Students interested in doing an internship for a nonprofit organization can apply for a stipend through the DNIF to help defray summer living expenses.