Co-founders Rachel Blankstein and Caroline Sheu addressed internship recruiting, AI in hiring, and early career planning at a Private Client event in New York.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES, October 28, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — NextGen Advising co-founders Rachel Blankstein and Caroline Sheu presented “Why College Internships Are Now the New Admissions Race” on October 6, 2026, at a bulge-bracket investment bank’s headquarters in New York City. The presentation, delivered during an event for clients of the firm’s Private Client team, addressed the increasingly competitive landscape for college internships and the importance of early career planning.
As its title indicates, the presentation compared today’s internship recruiting process to selective college admissions, a process many families already know requires early and sustained preparation. The co-founders discussed a strategic approach to career planning for college students, from exploring potential career paths to developing the professional skills needed to navigate a competitive job market, and emphasized beginning that process as early as freshman year rather than waiting until graduation approaches.
Data published separately by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) helps explain the weight internships now carry. According to NACE’s 2026 Internship and Co-op Report, employers converted 63.1% of their 2024-25 interns into full-time hires, the highest conversion rate in five years. The same report found that employers expected to hire 3.9% more interns in 2025-26 than in the prior year. For many organizations, the internship has become a primary pipeline into entry-level hiring.
Separate NACE research points to a connection between paid internships and stronger employment outcomes. According to NACE’s 2026 Student Survey, 55% of graduating seniors in the Class of 2026 who completed paid internships and applied for jobs received at least one offer, while paid interns with job offers received an average starting salary offer of $69,521, compared with $61,747 overall.
“Employers increasingly value candidates who can demonstrate how they have applied their skills in real-world settings,” said Caroline Sheu, Co-Founder of NextGen Advising. “Paid internships give students opportunities to develop practical experience, build professional confidence, and demonstrate the skills that employers look for when evaluating early-career talent.”
Technology is also changing what employers ask of candidates. According to Handshake’s Class of 2026 Graduation Report, as of March 2026, more than 10% of active internship postings on the platform mentioned AI-related keywords, while 4.2% of full-time job postings mentioned AI-related keywords. The presentation addressed the role of AI in recruiting, a shift that adds to the importance of early career preparation for students.
“Many families still assume career planning begins junior or senior year, and that assumption no longer matches how internship recruiting works,” said Rachel Blankstein, Co-Founder of NextGen Advising. “Students benefit from exploring their interests, understanding recruiting timelines, and building professional skills as early as freshman year. In fact, companies with formal internship programs expect to see relevant experiences on students’ resumes.”
The emphasis on early exploration reflects how internships function for students who are still deciding on a direction. An internship can offer exposure to an industry, practical work experience, and professional relationships, along with a clearer sense of whether a field fits a student’s interests. Freshman year internships and other early experiences can give students more time to test those interests before the most competitive recruiting cycles begin.
The New York presentation followed two other recent NextGen Advising programs focused on career readiness. On September 15, 2026, Caroline Sheu facilitated a half-day Early Career Workshop for summer interns in GROW, an internship program run by the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine. On September 27, 2026, NextGen Advising presented “Positioning Students for Career Success in the AI Economy” to members of the National Charity League’s Sand Hill chapter in Menlo Park, California.
About NextGen Advising
NextGen Advising (https://nextgenadvising.com/) is a career coaching firm for college students and early career professionals. The firm works with clients beginning as early as freshman year in college on career exploration, professional skill development, preparation for highly-competitive internships and first full-time jobs, across industries including investment banking, management consulting, high tech, biotech, media and consumer products companies. Co-founders Rachel Blankstein and Caroline Sheu bring 50 years of combined experience in coaching, hiring, management, and executive leadership. Sheu previously held general management and senior marketing roles at companies including Google, Disney, and Adobe, and Blankstein previously founded, and scaled a nationally-recognized coaching business.
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