Are All Internships Equally Beneficial? Toward a Contingency Model of Internship Efficacy

Abstract

This study was conducted to examine whether internships can boost graduates’ career development. In doing so, we develop a contingency model of internship efficacy. Employing signaling theory, we argue that internships serve as a signal of a graduate’s vocational capacity to their potential employers. We propose that major-related and nonmajor-related internships are differentially related to both starting salary and career outcomes (i.e., job compensation and job satisfaction) after 1 year and that three contextual factors (i.e., major-job fit, discipline type, and educational level) moderate the effects of internship experiences. Using two-wave data from 787 graduates in Eastern China, we found that while the influence of major-related internships was positive, nonmajor-related internship was negatively associated with starting salary. Moreover, this negative relationship was significant for graduates with a high job-major fit, graduates from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines, and postgraduates. The results suggest that internship experiences are not equally beneficial and challenge the notion that internships are always beneficial.