Students and companies are like fish in a bowl, a realization that struck me beside the dairy aisle of the local grocery store.
Let me explain:
Last week, I watched a Ted talk by Barry Schwartz, the psychologist behind the 'paradox of choice'. Schwartz highlights that more choices don't make us happier; they often lead to dissatisfaction because of the overwhelming array of options. Whether it's choosing from 500 types of peanut butter, picking the best out of 10,000 campgrounds in France, or selecting the right one among over 1,000 higher education programs — the broad selection leads to choice paralysis. And often, you end up choosing something that doesn’t feel quite right.
This is especially true for internships: whether you're a company looking for an intern or vice versa, there's always that nagging thought, "Maybe that other option was just a tiiiiiiiny bit better."
In his talk, Barry Schwartz shows a cartoon of a fish in a bowl and ponders whether the fish is incredibly dumb (it's just a bowl, what infinite possibilities?) or actually quite clever. What are unlimited possibilities, really? Smashing the fishbowl? You might end up all directions but find yourself gasping on the floor in a puddle.
Here’s where I see a parallel with internships. Actively supporting young people in making decisions is far smarter than maximizing their choice freedom; this holds true for both students and companies. If you smash the student's fishbowl to increase freedom, you actually decrease happiness by enhancing choice stress, uncertainty about making the right choice, and dissatisfaction with the decisions made.
Yet, our prevailing notion often suggests that we should offer as much space as possible without guiding choices... This was evident in the recent debate in Dutch parlement on mandatory internship matching for first-year vocational students. Critics argue this infringes on 'choice freedom'. But wouldn't clear boundaries actually be beneficial for both students and companies?
For many students, the internship market is like a smashed fishbowl; a shapeless mass of job vacancies spread across a patchwork of job boards and platforms, where it's easy to lose your way. The same holds true for many companies.
Consider the slogan of the dutch career event 'VMBO on stage': "You can be anything, except unhappy." This is a motivating, fun slogan meant to boost the spirits of uncertain secondary vocational students in a society that still highly values more and higher education.
But then, what should one choose? Which company is right for me? How can I be 'happy'? This slogan, in a way, shatters the fishbowl, leaving the student sprawling over the floor like a fish on dry land.
Not a very pleasant place to be, as a fish.
Interestingly, the 'on stage' event itself represents the fishbowl; it's a room with a limited number of companies and students interacting within clear boundaries: this is the space, these are the companies, these are the students, and this is the time — deal with it, and enjoy while dealing with it!
Thus, I think it might be beneficial to approach the internship market more like a fishbowl; more like an 'On Stage' event than a Stagemarkt.nl or Google search. Let us be the fish that says to another, "Yes, it's a bowl, but go ahead, swim around.” These boundaries are walls to lean into, not barriers to bump into.
Watch the Ted Talk here👇