How To Make Your 'non-relevant' Degree Relevant To Any Internship

Below is a revised and expanded version of my selected blog title as part of the 2016 EY Summer Internship Programme's Blogging initiative.  This summer I undertook a 12 week #internship in the Financial Services Tax Department at EY in their Dublin office, despite studying Pharmacology as part of my science degree at University College Dublin. A lot of small talk during my time here at EY revolved around attempting to explain the difference between pharmacology and pharmacy to the many that asked and trying to respond to the inevitable quizzical looks I got when I told my peers about my ‘non-relevant’ degree. I was often bombarded with a series of questions, ranging from the downright confused to ones expressing genuine interest. Obviously, I was outnumbered by those coming from business studies or commerce degrees and it did feel like I was trespassing upon their territory. I sometimes liked to quip jokingly with those I knew that ‘you can teach a science student business but you can’t teach a business student science’. Of course, I don’t think this to be the case, I’m a firm believer that with enough hard work and a strong desire to learn, most people can make the jump between vastly different areas of study or careers. The truth is that the degree itself is relatively unimportant. For the vast majority of internships, which do not require incredibly specialised knowledge, there is no such thing as a non-relevant degree. While academic excellence is a key component of the application; the skills that are developed, the people one meets, and the challenges that one encounters during the course of a degree all combine to create the ideal intern. Being part of a group project with the task of putting together a PowerPoint presentation and report entitled ‘The Ageing Brain – Dopamine’s role’, despite its title, is really no different from the average group project assigned to a group of business students. Both groups will gain the same experience and face the same dilemmas: How will we divide up the work? What roles such as chairperson, secretary etc. will we have, if any? How do we begin our initial research? How do we set and adhere to realistic deadlines? How do we resolve disagreements in the group? How do we condense our report down and present the PowerPoint? The discussions, disagreements and eventual attainment of the answers to these questions will develop one’s interpersonal, report-writing, presenting, research, and analytical skills to name just a few. And these skills are relevant to any internship. As EY's Mark Weinberger (Global Chairman & CEO) aptly summed up at the recent International Intern Leadership Conference in Orlando, Florida:  "Your degree does not define you, it enables you."  Personally, I found Mark Weinberger's own career path to be very refreshing and relevant to this discussion. In his post 'If I were 22: Advice from a B Student' he outlined the different paths that he has taken since studying Law & Business: "I spent a decade in government without ever studying politics.""I started my own law and lobbying firm without ever actually practicing law before.""I now run a global professional services firm even though my primary training is as a lawyer and economist." (Photo taken by John Walker, creative commons licence) So, your non-relevant degree is in fact relevant and you have the necessary skills to undertake and to be successful during the internship. However, you have to make this clear at the application and interview stage to ensure you get the internship in the first place. Embrace your unique background and differences, don’t gloss over them. Although, I’ve highlighted the similarities in the work completed during your degree to other more traditional degrees, there is no doubt that your slightly different path will be a breath of fresh air. You will have other ways of thinking and slightly different experiences. Remind the hiring manager or the interviewer of this. Let them know that you will add something different to the team in work, that as part of a diverse team, people’s unique ways of thinking or carrying out tasks will rub off on one another. A team composed of people from varied backgrounds will ensure that each person’s weaknesses will be covered by another’s strengths.  At the end of the day, you are responsible for making it clear on your application or during the interview that your degree is relevant, not the person on the other side. Emphasise your willingness to put yourself out there, to challenge yourself, and to embrace new opportunities. Make it clear that these traits and desires that encouraged you to apply for the internship will again drive your work ethic during the internship. Having that willingness to learn and to challenge oneself will ensure that you are as capable as any other intern, regardless of background.    In terms of coming from a unique background, having a tremendous work ethic and iron-strong perseverance, Arnold Schwarzenegger's career always comes to my mind as a source of inspiration. As a young man, he set himself enormous goals in a highly specific manner. Not only was he going to become the greatest bodybuilder of all time but he would successfully use that platform to launch an acting career and become a movie star and businessman. He has often talked about the understandable disbelief of his friends and family in his home town. Always confident in his abilities, a young Arnold travelled to America from rural Austria to make this dream a reality. Whilst training up to 5 hours a day in Santa Monica to continue to build his incredible physique, Arnold worked as a bricklayer. On top of all this, he took evening classes in acting lasting four hours. Fast-forward some years later, Arnold had won the Mr. Olympia bodybuilding competition multiple times, and had become a Hollywood icon – starring in films such as Conan the Barbarian, Predator, and the Terminator films. Despite being originally told that he was unable to act and was too big and muscle bound to ever become a Hollywood star, he helped forge a path for many action movie stars to follow. One of my favourite quotes from the 'Austrian Oak' is: “Don’t listen to the naysayers. How many times have you heard that you can’t do this and you can’t do that and it’s never been done before? I love it when someone says that no one has ever done this before, because then when I do it that means that I’m the first one that has done it. So pay no attention to the people that say it can’t be done.” I think Arnold’s story has so much to offer to young graduates and to anyone in the workforce who thinks that their background could hold them back. Having those kinds of values and a similar attitude are critical in applying for internships traditionally outside the scope of one's degree. One example being: look at your own daily routine, sure there’s no need for it to be as crazy as his but there’s no excuse for not finding some time where you could gain some basic knowledge for an internship in an area different to your own. Before you apply for the internship and in the build up to its start date if successful, consider: Signing up for relevant MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) – even the free versions. Watching useful YouTube videos and making use of all the knowledge that the internet has to offer. Reading introductory books and material. Sitting in on college lectures other than your own. Contacting and talking to people working in the area.  In short - Be proactive, enthusiastic and then recount in your application and interview all that you have done to gain some knowledge about the area. There’s no need to become consumed with ‘catching up’ with applicants from traditional backgrounds. Just having a basic understanding of some of the terminology/concepts and demonstrating your enthusiasm and an interest will go a long way in not only securing the internship but ensuring you hit the ground running.  Swapping a lab coat for a suit jacket - Photo taken by Logan Ingalls, creative commons licence) To finish this post, I’ll quickly mention some of the developed skills and traits that I felt my 'non-relevant' background offered during the application phase and the internship. My love of english, coupled with my technical writing skills from my course proved to be very useful in writing reports, drafting letters and emails and so on. I spent considerable time utilizing my ability  to concisely summarise complicated and specialised information. This is something I do continuously as part of my degree for different science projects. This was very helpful for reading and summarising tax legislation, and for conducting board minute reviews. My analytical skills, and exposure to mathematics and statistics made spreadsheets filled with numbers (slightly) less daunting. To conclude, the internship was one of the most productive experiences I’ve undertaken. I’ve enjoyed meeting new people, taking on new work, learning about a field so different to my own, and working in an office environment. I don’t think my ‘non-relevant’ degree held me back in any way, and instead helped me succeed during the internship.