Summer Internship Program

Talent Community Site Launches!

GrouperEye- Start the Revolution! Join a talent community. Get a job or internship. Gain a reputation.

The future of college recruiting is here.  September 15th marks the day that everything changes.  GrouperEye.com, a new website dedicated to changing college recruiting forever, has launched with a sexy new makeover.

What is GrouperEye?  It is a solution to the status quo.  It is a new way for students and companies to connect.  Most importantly, it is a better way to find the perfect job- or the perfect student to fill that job. GrouperEye allows companies to build talent communities.

How does it work?  Companies create profiles, run challenges, and post updates that students can follow.  Students are able to follow the companies they are interested in, impress them with their smarts in case challenges, and get their foot in the door with the companies they really care about.  Sure beats going to a career fair and throwing your resume into the pile, huh?

Students- get an internship or entry level job because of what you can do.  Not what you look like on your resume, not where you went to school, and not how much you can charm someone in an interview.  Companies- find better talent.  Identify those diamonds in the rough that you would have missed using your conventional tools. And do it in a new, exciting, and scalable way.

The future is here. Join a talent community!

Internship Pay

This is a old, but cool article from The USA Today:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2004-04-19-vanderkam-edit_x.htm
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With interns, you get what you pay for

By Laura Vanderkam

My e-mail in-box is overflowing. I haven't seen the top of my desk since March. So, between interviews and deadlines, I had a daydream: I should hire a summer intern.

I pictured the job description: Ten 35-hour weeks. She'd answer my phone and do my research — such as "Find statistics on internships." Of course, I couldn't pay the intern. But I could offer experience — see how writers live! — and brushes with celebrity (I once interviewed Will Ferrell).

Then I woke up and thought, "This can't be legal" — until I perused the internship ads on Vault.com. Plenty of employers pay interns, but plenty don't. Congressional and White House interns have long worked, unpaid, but with the economy as it is, companies ranging from Empower Records to toy company Sport-Fun Inc. to Derek Jackson, a Brooklyn artist who pledges to pay his intern's subway fare, are advertising for unpaid short-term workers, too.

Lawyers disagree on internship law. In general, though, companies can argue they aren't violating the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which sets the minimum wage, if they call unpaid temp workers interns.

Then I started wondering whether someone naïve enough to assist me, unpaid, would be more likely to hang up on Will Ferrell than cure my headaches.

As we enter intern-hiring season, employers should remember that internships — paid or unpaid — sap enough of an employer's resources to make sense only if you hire many of your interns after they graduate. Better pay lures better interns. Better interns mean more employees you'd want to hire. While unpaid internships save a company money for a summer, in the long run, they're just bad business.

Internships have nearly replaced traditional summer jobs among today's career-crazed students. Princeton's Office of Career Services, for instance, estimates that 60% of Princeton students do internships — paid or unpaid — at some point. Surveys by the National Association of Colleges and Employers find that companies believe internships are their best recruiting technique. During the 2002-03 school year, more than 38% of respondents' interns became full-time hires.

For-profit businesses can't pay less than minimum wage, but labor laws allow exceptions — if the job is for the educational benefit of the student, and — the kicker, according to Birmingham, Ala.-based labor lawyer John Richard Carrigan — if the employer derives no immediate benefit from the intern's work.

Legally, "you can't bring an (unpaid) intern in and have him do photocopying and an endless number of menial tasks that an enthusiastic gopher would perform," Carrigan says. But that's what many interns do. A huge number of internships, he says, are illegal.

So is speeding, though, and Carrigan's son has interned, unpaid, for a magazine and a publishing house. No one sues because, "Who would it be helping, other than the lawyers who get the fees?" Carrigan asks. Kids want experience. Employers feel warm and fuzzy as they greet fresh-faced interns each June.

Consequently, internships are largely unregulated. Supply and demand rule. Fields deemed "boring" — think retail — have to pay interns. "Hip" fields such as radio attract dozens of hopefuls for every unpaid job. During the late 1990s, notes Steven Rothberg of CollegeRecruiter.com, employers showered interns with money out of desperation. "What we're seeing right now, with probably most internships either being unpaid or so lowly paid that they might as well be unpaid, is actually normal."

For any penny pincher, the prospect of free labor is almost irresistible. But you get what you pay for, and unpaid internships are rarely in employers' best interests.

For starters, unpaid jobs eliminate many students from the hiring pool. Some unpaid interns wait tables on weekends to earn the rent, or swill coffee at 8 a.m. jobs after bartending the night before. But most can't afford it. Financial aid packages expect students to work. The average student-loan taker has $18,900 in debt. Most unpaid interns have parents who can underwrite the summer. A survey at a summer intern lunch I attended in Washington in 1998 found that more than 60% of these mostly unpaid interns had parents earning more than $100,000 a year. Only about 20% of all families of college students earn that much. It's unlikely the best interns inhabit only this bracket.

Then, on the employer side, there's another overlooked truth. Free interns, notes Rothberg of CollegeRecruiter.com, aren't really free. As I calculate it, even a living wage — say, $4,000 for 10 weeks — is a small part of an intern's true cost. They take up space. They need computer support. Senior, highly paid staff must spend hours choosing interns and training them for just 10 weeks of work. Some do this "to give back," but more, a Rowan University survey found, view internships as investments — a way of screening potential hires. Few employers recoup that training investment unless their interns come back after graduation.

Pay does matter, though, to students. The best candidates will usually follow the higher wages. If the interns who would make my life easier are working construction jobs because their parents can't bankroll their unpaid summers doing my research, then I have a problem.

Some smart companies recognize this. The Washington Post draws top journalism students with intern salaries of more than $800 a week. The Post recoups that money by hiring many interns as cub reporters after they graduate from school. Many other media outlets do not routinely pay their interns.

USA TODAY, for example, does not pay interns other than a small transportation stipend. Interns receive education credits and training in a program specifically for them.

Less-enlightened employers don't get it. A young Polish immigrant named Peter Strzelecki tells me he took an unpaid internship with his senator, minimum-wage champion and liberal Teddy Kennedy, in 2000, to give something back to Massachusetts. Aside from strong views on limiting overseas military intervention, Strzelecki was into civics, not partisanship.

To make ends meet, he looked for a part-time job with a politician — left or right — who paid. He wound up with conservative Pat Buchanan, much to the Kennedy staff's horror.

Better to pay at least minimum wage in the first place.

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Read more on internship pay, get internship advice, or find an awesome internship!

Bill Clinton Foundation Intern Program

I just stumbled across the internship program for the Clinton foundation. Looks cool. Read more here:
http://www.clintonfoundation.org/how-you-can-help/internships
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Intern Program

Upon leaving office, President Clinton established the William J. Clinton Foundation with the dual missions of constructing and endowing the Clinton Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock, Arkansas and continuing the work of his presidency to strengthen the capacity of people in the United States and throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence.

If you are an undergraduate, graduate or professional student or a recent graduate with your own strong interest in crucial issues of our day, the Clinton Foundation Intern Program offers a unique opportunity for growth, learning and meaningful service. We are looking for people who are dependable, enthusiastic, and professional. The Foundation has three locations: New York City, Little Rock, Arkansas and Boston, Massachusetts Massachusetts (The Boston office has a separate Volunteer Program, and manages the placement of volunteers in Boston and internationally). The Foundation has Intern Programs in two cities: Little Rock and New York. Little Rock focuses on Foundation business, the Presidential Library and the Clinton School of Public Service. In New York City we have two offices that both use interns: The Harlem Office is the official office of the former President and the place where his activities for non-profit and for-profit work are determined and organized, and the mid-town office houses the Clinton Global Initiative operation. Use the tabs to the right to learn more about the specific positions at our four locations.

The intern semesters mirror that of the school year, with the spring term extending from late January through May, the summer term from June through August, and the fall from September through December. During the fall and spring sessions we require a minimum of 20 hours per week and in the summer 30. Each location offers intern positions described in more detail below. No matter which branch of the Clinton Foundation you work in, you will experience some similarities between each of the programs:

• Hands-on experience: Interns have the responsibility of interacting directly with staff, volunteers, and Foundation stakeholders, in such activities as communications, development, and scheduling. Through firsthand experience you learn how the Clinton Foundation functions on a daily basis, and assist with this process directly.
• Helping to accomplish the Clinton Foundation’s goal: In each intern class, we look for candidates who are diligent, resourceful, professional, and intellectually curious, as we believe these qualities in our interns reinforce and bring us closer to the Clinton Foundation’s mission of meeting the challenges of global interdependence.
• Brown Bag Lecture Series: Each semester, the Clinton Foundation hosts a number of Brown Bag Lunches, where guests, including senior administration officials, and leaders in politics, business, entertainment, and journalism discuss issues of the day over an informal lunch.

Internship opportunities await you at the William J. Clinton Foundation. Apply today!
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Click here for more internship information, internship advice, or hunt for an internship!

SnapTalent Exits Market

Letter from SnapTalent.com:
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Dear Investors, Users, and Snaptalent Fans,

From founding the company in 2007, we've had a crash course about the nuances of the online recruitment space. We'd like to announce that we've made a decision to move on from Snaptalent and return the majority of capital raised back to investors now than continue.

Its been a tough call, as we had enough capital in the bank to last for two years. The decision has primarily dictated by market conditions and opportunity cost which in aggregate would mean we probably wouldn't have been able to show the kind of results we wanted to make this a big company in this market. There are a number of reasons behind that decision and a number of lessons, which I intend to articulate here in this note.

We've been through a number of iterations since we launched. Initially we started as an ad network for recruitment advertising, which despite winning The Top 10 online recruitment products of 2008 (and earning critical acclaim in the industry) ended up being economically unviable as a business. Primarily because the number of candidate leads generated per impression wasn't able to satisfy employers to keep buying and therefore for publishers to keep getting paid.

In November 2008, we transitioned from this product to identify an opportunity to try and focus on how recruitment products could be adapted for the Facebook generation. We hoped that our experience of consumer products and frustrations of this generation would allow us to deliver an amazing product. With a few months of development and market research behind us in March 2009 launched a platform to enable college recruitment to happen more efficiently. Market timing couldn't have been worse. One, as overall recruiting dived, college recruitment became marginalized as a business (roughly 20% of college seniors had jobs on graduation, compared to 80% the year before, most calls to potential customers indicated that they wouldn't be willing to spend or focus on this area for at least another year). Secondly, the decision to focus on an audience (go niche) radically reduced our market size in a shrinking market. The outcome could have been different however. In November 2008 we had a number of decisions to make about our strategy. Instead of focusing on short term trends and going after the opportunity of owning how companies recruit on social networks we went for an audience focused approach with a longer term horizon. In hindsight this was a mistake. Going after short term trends would have given us the momentum we needed. For any startup, losing that trajectory is only recipe for loss of morale and momentum for the team. Three new product launches in 9 months didn't give us much to build on.

The online recruitment space has its own unique market dynamics that restrict innovation on the company side. From the outset, online recruitment spend is huge. Its a market with the right fundamentals from the outside looking in. Its a large market ($10B/year spend), with rich customers, and poor innovation. It sounds like an entrepreneur's dream. The truth is that there are barriers to adoption of newer technologies which come down to the position of HR in an organization. Since HR isn't directly revenue generative, HR decision makers aren't as empowered to drive change required by revenue generative functions like marketing or sales. This creates a unique enterprise sales environment where companies that innovate too radically are too early to market/phased out despite those innovations being commonplace in other enterprise markets. You can't change behavior too radically for HR, which as entrepreneurs super excited by changes in the consumer web we felt incredibly frustrated by. Recruitment spend is bloated, so as the cost of transmitting information to connect companies and candidates comes down, the trend is for companies to use free tools which help amplify that spread. The companies that will win in the recruitment space therefore are all working on solutions which take away from job advertising spending; search engine optimization, social networking, referral hiring, improving social media presence.

While this was never the result we were expecting, our entrepreneurial hunger remains strong. We've learned a lot in the last 2 years. There is no doubt we will be using these lessons to go after new opportunities very soon. Thanks everyone for your patronage and support.

The Snaptalent Team

Interesting Take On HR From MSNBC

This is Not Your Father's HR Frustration over ineffective recruitment practices and high turnover are spurring a more integrated view of hiring and managing employees BusinessWeek.com Analyst Picks and Pans: Citigroup, Amgen, Blockbuster Why Be an Ethical Company? They're Stronger and Last Longer The Postal Service's Bid for Deliverance Broadband Stimulus and the Underserved How to Discount (If You Insist) Most popular • Most viewed • Top rated • Most e-mailed Ambush! Her new look makes son’s jaw drop Man charged in largest-ever ID theft scheme Some Obama promises must wait Fans a-Twitter over Eric Dane sex tape China one-dog law has owners hot under collar Most viewed on msnbc.com Drug compound kills breast cancer stem cells Guitar legend Les Paul has died at 94 Godric makes joyful exit on ‘True Blood’ Study: Fire used to make tools 75,000 years ago Cave complex may lie beneath Giza Pyramids Most viewed on msnbc.com Man charged in largest-ever ID theft scheme 'School of Rock' set to open in Oklahoma U.S. troops might go to hot spots in north Iraq Q&A on health care co-ops Couple: ‘Squirrel crasher’ pic ‘100 percent’ real Most viewed on msnbc.com By David Bogoslaw updated 8:00 p.m. ET, Mon., July 27, 2009 Human Resources is no longer about hiring, firing, and managing benefits. Top companies are realizing that a holistic approach to what has come to be called "talent management" -- one that aligns a company's goals with succession planning and employee career objectives -- can produce big cost savings. Smart companies have long recognized the shortcomings of hiring based on automated keyword searches of electronically filed resumes, and have begun to have candidates fill out customized applications online. Forcing applicants to provide specific data to help guide a selection process gives employers more control than relying on information the applicant wants to share, says Fritz Drasgow, who teaches a graduate Planning and Staffing course in the School of Labor & Employment Relations at the University of Illinois. With unemployment poised to top 10% by summer's end and pessimists projecting a rate even higher before the recession ends, this would seem to be a strange time for companies to bemoan ineffective recruitment and hiring practices. But a lot of companies have become more serious about finding the right people for open positions -- or retaining their best performers -- precisely because they don't want to lose them in the tighter labor market they foresee once the economy rebounds. Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here A Turnaround on Long Island Consider North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, which employs nearly 40,000 at 14 hospitals, a major medical research institute, and several long-term care facilities and trauma centers. The company has cut spending on recruitment advertising by $7.7 million a year with help from an aggressive focus on leadership development for existing employees, says Joseph Cabral, director of human resources for the Great Neck [N.Y.] system, the country's third-largest independent, not-for-profit healthcare organization. As part of its effort to align workers with company goals, North Shore-LIJ has built what Cabral says is the largest corporate university in health care. Its Center for Learning & Innovation is modeled after General Electric's (GE) John F. Welch Leadership Center for employees. That, plus the Critical Care Fellowship Program, which extends employees' education, has resulted in a low turnover rate, he says. While most hospitals struggle to stay fully staffed with nurses, "my CEO [Michael Dowling] loves to say, 'I don't have a nursing shortage,'" boasts Cabral. "A lot of that has to do with how you treat your workforce." Golden Corral, a family-style restaurant chain based in Raleigh, N.C., with 480 franchises, reduced its manager turnover rate from 50% to 20% within three years by adopting a new screening system. At $25,000 to hire and train each manager, that translates to significant savings. The chain also trimmed its worker turnover rate from 148% to 90% after 18 months. Additionally, private equity firms are increasingly hiring HR professionals to assess the competency of the executives in the companies in which they are considering an investment. They understand that the closer the alignment between a new acquisition's leadership and the company's agenda, the better the chances of profit, according to a February 2009 article in Human Resource Executive magazine. HR departments have generally been slow to invest in technology that can boost efficiency compared with the billions of dollars they spend on payroll, general ledger, and customer relationship management [CRM] systems, says Michael Gregoire, chief executive of Taleo (TLEO), a Dublin [Calif.] firm that supplies HR software to North Shore and other companies such as Honeywell International (HON), Hyatt Hotels, and Barclays (BCS). In the past, HR managers did not have tools "to understand where does talent come from and how to get talent into the organization, and once they're in, how to pay them and keep them motivated and [manage] succession planning," he says. Taleo's technology lets clients build a database of applicants that can be tapped when they need to fill a position. "Every time you're looking for a new candidate, you're not starting from scratch," Gregoire says. Identifying Internal Talent North Shore-LIJ is still building its talent database. When Cabral became head of HR in 2006, he began to wonder why the company -- which employs nearly 9,000 nurses -- had to advertise whenever it needed a nursing manager instead of hiring from within. The main reason? "We didn't have a system in place to identify the talent we did have and therefore couldn't prepare them for their next role in the organization," he says. Fitting the right people to the right jobs has become more precise as companies increasingly turn to software programs that assess temperament and character instead of just skill sets. The best candidate for a position may already be a company employee, but the company has no way to measure his performance or gauge his leadership potential. "As an HR professional, you should have your finger on the pulse of the organization, you should be the head cheerleader, you should be there to add value and input to setting objectives," Cabral says. "It's a very different environment than even five, seven, or ten years ago." Many companies are now venturing far beyond rudimentary personality assessments with newer "psychometric" testing, which measures knowledge, abilities, attitudes, and personality traits as a way to determine a candidate's compatibility with a position. Studies by Gallup and other polling outfits consistently show less than 30% of employees are truly engaged in making a business successful, says Lloyd Gottman, chief executive of Denver-based Synergetic Systems, which helps companies improve employee engagement. "That means managers and business owners are making bad decisions [in hiring or promoting people] 70%-plus of the time," he says. Psychometric assessments aim to reveal information that leads to decisions that make the difference between a 30% and 75% success rate of employee engagement with company goals. Typical areas of inquiry include such topics as knowing whether an applicant prefers cognitive to physical work, working alone or with others, a harmonious or contentious environment, and being a follower or a leader. Services Predict Performance Psychometric assessments are becoming increasingly popular among recruiters in spite of the added expense. Industrywide, they run from $35 per head for entry level positions to $500 per head for senior executive jobs. On average, the return on investment is $20 for every dollar spent on these tests, as measured by the resulting drop in worker turnover and how much less companies are losing, Gottman says. "It costs so much to recruit, interview, hire, onboard, train, and develop an employee who leaves 90 days later," he says. "When you think of training them, if it's a 30-day training time, you've wasted one month's salary to get them up to speed." Kenexa (KNXA), a Wayne [Pa.]-based software and services company, is also expanding to this field. The company employs nearly 100 psychologists, researchers, and statisticians to design, validate, and link HR practices to business outcomes. Its services and materials are meant to predict performance rather than just outline prior experience, says Troy Kanter, Kenexa's president and chief operating officer. The increasing focus among compensation committees on the idea of tying salaries and bonuses to performance is highlighting the need for performance data, says Gregoire at Taleo. "This is bopping HR back up to the true executive realm rather than an administrative realm buried under the CFO's organization," he says. "If 70% of your assets are based on people and you're treating that asset administratively as opposed to strategically, how do you expect to grow and prosper?" Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.

Internship Information For College Students

Our collection of websites can be a little overwhelming, so here’s a guide as to how each one can provide some value to you in your search for internships:

how-i-got-my-internship.com
This is a website where you can learn how others around you are finding ways to land internships.  You can utilize this website to get ideas on how to find internships near you, or just to post a great story about your own achievement in finding an internship.

thedailyintern.com
The Daily Intern is an up and coming site that allows interns everywhere to share humorous stories about their internships.  Everyone has funny experiences, and The Daily Intern is the place to share them.  Visit the website today to share your hilarious internship story!

marketing-internship.com
This is a great website for anyone hoping to find a marketing internship.  On this site you can find articles discussing brainstorming sessions, where to find marketing internships, marketing case competitions, and more.  Marketing internships can provide some great field experience to students, so be sure to check out the website today to gain a leg up in your search.

internship-work.com
This site is a great asset to getting the most out of your internship.  There are some great internships out there, but there are some pretty bland ones, too.  It could just be that there is work to be done, but no one at the firm with the time to give you assignments.  Articles on this website offer advice on how to get the most out of your opportunity, and also offer the greatest value to your employers.  Now that’s something you can both appreciate.

internship-interview.com
Interviewing for an internship can be extremely intimidating.  You are competing with many other applicants, and the interview is pretty much the only place where you can distinguish and sell yourself to the company.  We live in an environment of resume flooding, so learning how to nail the internship you desire is key.  This site is filled with articles offering some great tips for acing your interview.

new-york-internship.com
The Big Apple can be the greatest and worst place to begin your internship search.  While it is quite true that the most successful companies in the world can be found in New York City, you are in competition with an exorbitant amount of applicants for the very same position you are gunning for. This website offers advice on interning in New York ranging from finding value in your internship after you’ve completed it to getting the most out of the prime location your internship exists in: the city that never sleeps.

chicago-internship.com
Chicago is the locus of many emerging markets in the United States.  Finding an internship in Chicago may prove to be difficult, but well worth it in the end.  It is a great city to intern in; and the network to take advantage of is limitless.  This website offers advice on which steps you should initially take to find that perfect Chicago internship.  Good luck!

washington-dc-internship.com
Washington is one of the hot spots in the country for finding internships.  While many parts of the economy have virtually frozen, Washington is filled with internships at firms that are still growing.  Although opportunities are still available, the competition is fierce.  That doesn’t mean you aren’t qualified, but you’re going to need all the help you can get.  This site is a great resource for gaining an advantage and getting the most out of your Washington, DC internship experience.

advertising-internships.com
The world of advertising has changed dramatically over the past ten years, and the rapid shift isn’t nearly over yet.  With the constantly changing means of advertising to target audiences, every company that wants to be successful needs to keep coming up with new ways to attract customers and deliver information.  In order to do this, firms are looking for the best talent out there at just about any cost.  They need innovators by the barrelful, and it can be tough to stand out amongst them.  Advertising-internships.com is a great tool to use in learning how to land the advertising positions you are aching for.

Internship-cover-letter.com
As it becomes increasingly difficult to land internships over other applicants in your field, you’re going to need to rise above the rest.  Not every internship is going to request a formal cover letter, but regardless of the position, you’ll have to address a letter to someone at one point or another.  Unprofessional cover letters can be a real turn off to employers, and might provoke them to set your application aside.  This website is a great tool for not only providing useful tips on how to write a cover letter, but also how to use them to your advantage every time.

Internship-students.com
This website provides views from the student and employer side all about internships and co-ops available.  When applying for these positions, the first question should always be “what is my ideal internship?”  If you neglect to ask yourself that question from the start, you’re going to find yourself settling for the next best thing.  The next thing you need to ask is “what kind of intern are these companies looking for?”  If you don’t ask that question, you can’t answer it.  You should be ready in every way to take on the internships you apply for, and this website can take you much closer to being there.

Resume-internship.com
For better or worse, during the application process, your resume is your face.  That’s all people are going to look at until they feel you deserve their time in an interview.  Due to this, you need to do whatever it takes to boast an all-star resume.  If you are applying for internships, it is likely that you have many questions about what to do with your resume: how to format it, what font to use, how long it should be, how to get it out there.  This website is your one stop source for the answers to all those questions.

Design-internships.com
Graphic design is one of the most important fields out there.  In a world where we are exposed to hundreds of thousands of brands and commercials on a daily basis, companies have an insatiable demand for creative minds who are skillful with graphic design.  However, being a whiz with graphics isn’t the only talent you need to land your dream internship.  You have to learn how to sell yourself.  This website can be a valuable tool in discovering an internship with graphic design.

Investment-banking-internships.com
Internships with investment banks were long regarded as the sexy positions to get.  If you land one, you can find fortune and happiness with a little hard work.  While the hiring at many of these firms have frozen, it is not impossible to land an investment banking internship.  The only problem is, you’re going to have to convince these organizations that you’re worth taking on board.  In looking for tips on how to rise above the rest, take a look at this website for advice on investment banking internships.

Pr-internships.com
Public Relations internships are appealing, which makes them hard to get.  It certainly seems that every internship is harder to land these days, but it is especially such for PR firms.  Companies treasure their reputations and relationship with customers above all else.  If you expect them to trust you with the responsibility of safeguarding their image, you better prove yourself quickly.  This site can tell you the ins and outs of applying for PR internships in order to help you get ahead of the game.

Summer-internship-program.com
Summer internships can be a great opportunity to get your right foot in the door with a major company.  Unfortunately, many problems come along with the summer internship application process: increased competition, likelihood of it being unpaid, lack of usefulness, etc.  If you want to not only find that perfect summer internship, but really nail it and impress potential employers, utilize this website as best as you can.

Do Summer Internships Have To Stink

No. Some people think summer internships have to stink - the smart ones think summer internships are the best jobs out there. I can't stand the people that think- He is just an intern, so he needs to go through this. Or, let's get our intern to get the coffee. People that force their interns to do dumb intern jobs, like get coffee, are going to get bad work from them. Managers that treat their interns well are going to get great work from them! It doesn't make sense to have interns doing dumb stuff, they can get incredible amounts of work done.

Summer internships don't have to stink, that's my point. Managers need to realize what students can do and then give them the freedom to get stuff done. Period.

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For more internship information, go to internship cover letter, internship resume, and intern jobs. For specific resources, go to investment banking internships or marketing internships.

Goals For Your Summer Internship Program

What do you want out of your summer internship program?

If you are in college, you’re probably looking for a summer internship.  Some people want to get in a summer internship program just because that’s what you’re “supposed to do” after your junior year.  If you want to get in a summer internship program, have a goal.  Think about what you want out of a summer internship program.

Don’t rush blindly into the internship race just because you think you need to find a summer internship program.  And don’t buy into the hype about internships.  Yeah, you probably should get one for the summer.  It’s better than sitting at home or working at the old summer camp as a counselor. 

When you are looking for a summer internship program, think about what YOU want.  Do you want to slap a brand name on your resume, or do you want to gain great experience?  Do you want to scan files or do you want to have an impact on a company?

First, find an industry that you love.  Maybe you’ve just discovered, or maybe you’ve been passionate about for your entire life.  Either way, know what type of work you want to do.  You should look at this work and say to yourself, “I can get out of bed and do this every day, and I will love it.”

Then, find a company within this industry that best suits you.  Trust instinct, and think about the vibe you feel with that company and their summer internship program.  Examine their culture and find out if they’re a good fit.  Then, see if their summer internship program looks like something you might be interested in.  Go and begin your search for an awesome summer internship program! Internships are the best way to get your foot in the door.

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For more internship information, go to internship cover letter, internship resume, and intern jobs. For specific resources, go to investment banking internships or marketing internships.

What Do Students Want In A Summer Internship Program

What Students Look For In a Summer Internship Program

Well, I can’t speak for everyone, but it seems that just about every student is looking for the same basic things in a summer internship: experience, babes, and good references.  Ok, maybe not babes…but the other two are still relevant.  No one wants an internship that won’t be pertinent to the career path they choose after graduation.  While it is good to intern at many different places in various fields of work to figure out which is for you, at the end of every internship, it always feels a lot better when you feel like you’ve advanced your career.  In order to increase your odds of landing that perfect internship, be sure to maintain contact with employees in the company you’re applying to.  Just ask them simple questions about what it’s like to work for the organization in order to express your interest.  When application time rolls around, it will be nice to already have a reference from within.

You should be careful about revealing your availability when applying for a summer internship.  If you tell a firm that you’re available five days a week, you better be willing to work those 40 hour weeks.  Companies know what the demand is like for internships in the summer, and want to get as much labor out of you as they possibly can.  Try to find out as early in the application process as possible whether or not you are going for a paid position.  It can be tough to find a paid summer internship, but if it’s what you really want, stick with it.  They’re tough to find, but they are certainly out there.  It will be worth the extra effort to land a paid position if and when you’re receiving weekly paychecks.

The most important thing to keep in mind when searching for summer internship programs that suit you is to keep your eyes open and your options flexible.  Be sure to utilize career centers, job websites, newspaper ads, and above all: networking.  Tap into your network to see what the job market is like.  You may not hear back from every contact you’ve made, but you should be able to get a pretty good idea of who is hiring, and where to start your internship search.

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For more internship information, go to internship cover letter, internship resume, and intern jobs. For specific resources, go to investment banking internships or marketing internships.

Networking at Your Summer Internship

Networking is no easy task.  It can be very difficult to muster up the courage to introduce yourself to coworkers and begin a professional relationship.  The first thing you need to know about networking in the workplace is that no one will keep in touch with you unless they believe you can offer them something in return for communicating with you.  No relationship ever forged in business has been a one way street (well, maybe except Paris Hilton and her parents).  Maybe the person you’ll be in touch with is in a better position than you, and can contribute a lot more to the relationship, but is up to you to find that key element that they’re looking for.

Your uncle may be an uncle to you, but to someone else, it can be a foot in the door to the catering industry.  Another thing to remember is initiating contact.  The first email or phone call between the two of you after meeting should be friendly and the aim should be to get acquainted.  Don’t mention business, or either organization involved.  Just something you remember having in common from your first conversation.  No one enjoys feeling used.

Effective networking doesn’t require contact with other parties.  As long as you’re constantly keeping your contacts in mind over the long term, they’ll be there for you when you need them the most.  It could be something as simple as “hey, I saw a local ad for this and I thought you’d be interested.  Let me know if it works out for you, good luck!  How have you been, by the way?”  These small things are what the best networkers are made of.  It’s all about making your contacts your friends.  If you earn their trust, you may end up earning other things of great value.

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For more internship information, go to internship cover letter, internship resume, and intern jobs. For specific resources, go to investment banking internships or marketing internships.