Welcome back to Moving from College to Career! In this space, we share practical insights to help you explore career paths and prepare for recruiting.
As always, our goal is usefulness over noise. If there's a topic you're curious about, just reply — we'd love to hear from you.
Today's Tactics: 4 Ways College Students Are Using AI Right Now
Last month we shared an AI game plan for non-technical college students, and it was our most popular newsletter ever. We wanted to keep the momentum going with four hyper-specific examples of what this actually looks like in practice.
1. Getting Smart on an Industry in 10 Minutes
Before hopping on a call with someone who works in consulting, a student opens ChatGPT and asks: "How is AI currently changing the consulting industry, and what are the biggest open questions firms are wrestling with?" Ten minutes later she has a working understanding of the landscape she didn't have before, and two or three smart questions she can bring into the conversation.
She's not using AI to replace her prep. She's using it to accelerate it. The difference shows up in the quality of the conversation.
2. Studying Smarter with a Built-in Tutor
A student is struggling with a dense economics reading. Instead of re-reading the same paragraph four times, he pastes the key section into Claude and asks it to explain the concept in plain language. Then (and this is the part most students skip), he asks it to quiz him on it.
Two prompts. Fifteen minutes. He walks into class actually prepared to contribute.
3. Using AI at Work Without Outsourcing Your Thinking
A student interning at a marketing agency needs to put together a competitive landscape. She uses Claude to draft a first pass, then spends her time pressure-testing and refining it rather than staring at a blank page. The final product is hers. AI just helped her get there faster.
This is a legitimate and increasingly expected professional skill. But it comes with a useful rule of thumb: for anything that develops your voice or reflects your thinking, write your own first. Cover letters, personal statements, opinion pieces. AI flattens your voice in ways that are hard to recover from, and those pieces matter precisely because they sound like you. For research-heavy or structure-heavy work products, starting with AI and editing is fair game. But before you dive in, it's worth clarifying what's expected. Some professors and managers are fine with AI-assisted work, and others aren't. Ask upfront rather than assume.
4. Turning Fridge Scraps into a Meal (not everything has to be career advice!)
A student gets home late, doesn't want to spend money on delivery, and has no idea what to make with half a block of tofu, some wilting spinach, a few eggs, and whatever condiments have accumulated in the door of her fridge. She takes a photo, uploads it to ChatGPT, and asks what she can actually make with what's there.
She gets three options with rough instructions. She picks one, makes it in 20 minutes, and it's genuinely good.
This one has nothing to do with your career, but it matters anyway. The more you reach for these tools in everyday life, the more naturally you'll reach for them when it counts.
If you've found a way to use AI that's been genuinely useful, reply and tell us. We read every response and would love to hear what's resonating!
Speaker Spotlight: Three Career Lessons We're Still Thinking About
Wes French from Teamworks left students with three career lessons worth sitting with. Check out our LinkedIn post for the full breakdown, including a surfing analogy you won't forget.
Alumni Spotlight: The Value of Learning from People Who Have Been in Your Shoes
Natiya Turner (University of Virginia '28) came away from the Introships program with the reassurance that comes from learning directly from people who have already walked your path.
In her words: "You're in a program where you are meeting people who were once in your shoes... whether it was at the same college, the same major, or with the same career path that you're interested in... They're coming back to be able to teach you the lessons that they learned, but also teach you about the industry that they were able to explore. From that, you're able to get a sense of information and guidance from them where you realize that you don't have to have it all figured out."
We hope you found this helpful. Feel free to reply with questions or feedback, and stay tuned for more from Introships on LinkedIn and Instagram!
Joe Fiveash & Sean Wetmore
