You are choosing a course, or you are already in first year and the shape of the degree is about to set. That choice decides what you study, and what work you can try while you are still a student.
By the end of this page you should know three things: why this conversation belongs before the degree, why the end of first year is the moment to lock in your course and structure, and why it is worth chasing an internship in your very first semester.
Families often save the career conversation for the final year, when the CV suddenly looks thin. By then the course has been lived in, the first-year modules are done, and the summer that could have held a short placement has already gone.
The picture of work most teenagers carry is narrow. In the OECD's PISA 2018 survey, nearly half of 15-year-olds expected to work in just 10 different jobs (OECD, Dream Jobs?). Meanwhile, employers expect 39% of workers' core skills to change by 2030 (World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report 2025). So the point of an early conversation is not to pick a job title at 17. It is to choose a course you will still respect if the work around it shifts, and to leave room to test that choice in first year.
Picture a Grade 12 student in Dubai who picks computer science because an uncle talks about the pay and all her friends have applied. The first term is discrete maths and slow programming, and she dislikes both. What she does enjoy is showing someone a product and reworking the explanation until they can use it. A better conversation, before she accepted the offer, would have put information systems or a joint degree next to computer science and asked a simple question: which ordinary Tuesday could she actually face?
If you are the parent, skip the speech about passion. Ask what your child will do for an hour without being pushed, and what they avoid even when their marks are strong. Then set that against the course as it is really taught: how much maths, how many labs, a placement year or not, a dissertation or a project.
By the end of first year you have evidence you did not have when you applied. You know which modules you actually looked forward to, and your marks are a record of real teaching, not a prediction.
Switching is still cheap at this point, because the later years are not yet built on the choice. Those later years are exactly where electives, a minor, a placement, a year abroad or an honours track start to depend on what you have locked in. Leave the structure vague and options close quietly, without anyone telling you.
Changing direction is normal, so treat your first choice as a draft you are willing to edit. In US data on students who started college in 2011 to 2012, about 30 percent of undergraduates who had declared a major changed it at least once within 3 years of first enrolling, and about one-third of bachelor's students changed majors. Among students who first declared a STEM major, 35 percent changed field within 3 years (US National Center for Education Statistics). That is a national pattern, not a forecast for your child, but it tells you the first pick is rarely the last word.
In the United States, students often declare a major during their first two years rather than on the application. At Stanford, for example, undergraduates must declare their major by the end of their sophomore year (Stanford Bulletin), and they can declare any time during their first or second year (Stanford Undergraduate Advising). So by the end of year one, decide whether you would still choose this major on purpose.
In the UK, switching course or adding a placement year is usually easiest early. Write to your department with your marks and a precise request, and do not assume the answer before you ask.
In India, many four-year programmes move from a common first year into electives, a minor or a specialisation. The rules sit in your own university's handbook. Choose from the modules you have actually taken and the marks you actually have, not from what a cousin did at a different college.
Leave internships to the final year and you miss the schemes built for younger students. In the US, more than two-thirds of 2024 graduating seniors did an internship during college, and on average paid interns had more job offers before graduation than unpaid interns or students with no internship. Employers told the same organisation that internship experience is the top factor they consider when deciding between two otherwise equally qualified candidates (NACE, 2024 Student Survey and Job Outlook 2024).
In the year before, paid interns averaged 1.4 job offers and unpaid interns averaged 0.9 (NACE, 2023 Student Survey). So ask a plain question about any unpaid role: what will I have produced by the end? A few days of watching, with nothing to show, will not carry you far. A small role with a real piece of work at the end will.
Be honest with yourself about the odds. Many first-years will not land a big-name summer internship, and that is normal. What large employers more often offer first-years is shorter. The University of Manchester's careers service says opportunities for first-year students are often called spring weeks or insight days, and that they are often advertised from autumn onwards, some with early closing dates (University of Manchester Careers). Trinity College Dublin describes a Spring Insight as a short, early-stage internship that typically lasts a few days, with applications usually opening around late summer or September (Trinity College Dublin Careers). In other words, the window opens while you are still finding your lecture halls.
Apply anyway. Every application is practice, and every rejection points at something you can fix: a vague CV, a missed date, a skill you can start learning this term. Smaller roles count when the output is real: a lab, a startup, a professor's project, an NGO, or a family business where someone other than your parent can describe what you delivered. In Dubai and in India, local firms and startups are worth a direct email, and so is remote work with a genuine supervisor. Nobody can guarantee you an internship, but you can make sure you were in the running.
Write one short page: your course, your modules, what you can already do, and the kind of setting you want to try.
List every spring week, insight day and first-year scheme on your university careers site, each with its closing date.
Email firms in Dubai, in your home city in India, and remote teams. Name the task you could help with and attach your page.
Follow up once, then move on. Rewrite any line on your page that is clearly not working.
A lab, a professor or a family firm: agree the deliverable in writing before you start.
Note what you applied for, what each refusal taught you, and what you will change next term.
It is a conversation with a counsellor, in person at our Burjuman office in Dubai or on a video call if you are in India or anywhere else. Together we look at your interests, your subjects, the structure of the course and a first internship plan.
A transcript, or predicted grades if exams are still ahead. A plain list of what you enjoy and what you avoid. Any course offers, including the ones you are unsure about. If you are already enrolled, the handbook pages on electives, minors, placements or specialisations.
A clear talk through the directions worth testing, the structure of your year and where to look for internships. No one can guarantee a job, an internship or an admission. What you can leave with is a next step that you and your parent both understand.
No. Subjects and course choices can usually still change at this stage, so use the time to compare what the student enjoys and avoids with how a course is actually taught. You need a course you understand, not a finished job title.
No. If first year is underway or just finished, you now have real marks, and many structural choices are still open. Later moves can be harder, but a clear look at subjects and an internship plan still helps.
Ask the department in writing, with the marks attached, what a move requires and the date the request must be in. In the US the major is often declared during the first two years; in the UK and India, follow the university handbook and the department's advice.
Many will not get a big-name internship in first year, and that is a normal result. Short spring weeks, insight days, lab roles, startup projects and family-business work with a real deliverable all count, and applying is practice in itself.
It can. In NACE's 2023 survey of US graduating seniors, paid interns averaged 1.4 job offers and unpaid interns averaged 0.9. A short unpaid insight or a small project with finished work can still be worth doing in first year, as long as you know what you will produce.
Yes. A video call covers the same ground as sitting with a counsellor at our Burjuman office: interests, subjects, the course structure and a first internship plan. Bring the grades, the list of what the student enjoys and avoids, and any offers or handbook pages.
Message Anannt on WhatsApp at +971 58585 3551, or use the contact page at anannt.ae/contact-us, and say you want to talk about a course, the first year or an internship plan. Tell us where the student studies, or hopes to study.
Talk to us when you are ready. There is no script you need to have finished first.