The summer internship is a big part in switching.  Not only will you be able to decide if this is in fact an industry you would like to be in, it is a long-term job interview.  If you like the job and you do well it in, your second year of business school could be a breeze if they make you an offer.  If you find out that you love it but they don’t love you, then at least you are part of the way home and now have good experience.  If you find out not only do they not want you, but you don’t want them, then you have a lot of work in front of you.

Lets deal with the latter two, as the former is pretty easy.  If you love the field, but they do not offer you a job, you will find yourself in a large camp of fellow business school students.  A lot of firms simply do not have the budget to make an offer at that time, so the key is to keep in touch with the firm and specifically a person who liked you there.  Try to meet up with them throughout the second year to see if things have changed on the hiring front.  Make sure you are LinkedIn with them and have them write a recommendation for you when you are still fresh in their memory.

The next step is to get back to the informational interview grind.  Get back in touch with your solid contacts, let them know about your internship and get back into their minds.  Secondly, don’t fret too much as there will be a lot of companies coming on campus and not getting an offer is not a scarlet letter that should cause problems for you.

If you realized during your internship that you do not really want to go into that field, you are both lucky and disadvantaged.  On one hand you got paid for three months of work to save you from getting into a lifetime of something that does not interest you, but on the other hand you now are back at close to square one with less time on your hands.  You need to really focus on developing a new list of alumni contacts to speak to and possibly push for an academic internship.

Either way stay involved in the community, because you never know what type of opportunities will arise by just speaking to classmates, professors or people in the field.

Finding your job will be a job and you need to treat it as such.  Do not get bogged down looking to get all A’s and graduate owing Sallie Mae and without a job.  Make sure you continue to prioritize your time in a way that allows you to take advantage of all of the help you will have during this time, because it will recede after you graduate.

To sum it all up, business school is basically about getting you a job and the resources and time are set up that way.  Do yourself a favor and use these resources fully and find that job that just cost you a pretty penny.