InternshipRatings.com

Paige Novack
Specialist, Business Public Relations
Major League Baseball

Being a female in the world of sports is not as cliché or “fish out of water” as many tend to think. These days you find females at every turn in the sports industry from on-field reporters, to public relations directors, and astoundingly even two Major League Baseball Clubs have female groundskeepers. A love and knowledge of the game, along with confidence, the ability to think outside-the-box, and strong organizational skills all lend a successful career in or out of sports.

Internships, while sometimes daunting, and often not as exciting as you thought they might be, are the jumping-off point for everyone…even that VP in the corner office. At Major League Baseball, a strong interest in the field you are applying in, solid organizational skills, and the ability to juggle multiple projects at once are all qualities we value in an intern. As an intern, you are there not only to assist with projects as needed, but you are there to gain a basic understanding of the business and learn where your strengths and passions lie. During your months as an intern, you should also take time to carefully observe the atmosphere and working culture within your company, and throughout the industry. When choosing your career path it is important not only to consider if you will feel passionate and invigorated by your job, but it is also equally as important to consider if you will be content and fulfilled by the lifestyle that career will bring.

As long as you stay true to who you are, feel continually challenged intellectually and creatively by your job at hand and strive to always be you’re best only greatness is headed your way.

By Ian Stewart, MBA’09,
Georgetown University
http://wormsign.blogspot.com

Having just completed my own internship as an MBA Marketing Intern at Sun Microsystems, I have a few suggestions to those starting the process. Advice on internships abounds, so I’ve tried to keep these suggestions discrete, brief and actionable.

Before you choose…

1.) Take this opportunity to select an industry and position that will help you strengthen any soft spots in your career story. Next year when you apply to your dream job, you can talk about what you’ve learned and how it makes you a stronger candidate.

2.) Use your curriculum electives to help you prepare for the position. I used my internship to increase my real world marketing experience, and found that the two extra marketing electives I took prior to starting really made a difference.

3.) Meet and talk to as many people at the company as you can. Ask specific and relevant questions about their current position, the internship, and the company’s strategy. (Generalized questions are unimpressive and show disinterest; do your research and use it!)

During the internship…

1.) Don’t shy away from tasks you feel are below your station. They’re chances to prove you can (and should) be invited to work on the more difficult challenges.

2.) Recognize that being an intern gives you a free pass to ask for meetings with people who already have your dream job. Use it! Set up meetings and talk to them!

3.) Take the longest internship you can while still giving yourself adequate time after exams and before classes resume. I’m glad I had twelve weeks, because it wasn’t until about the eighth week that things really took off.

While you’re in the area…

1.) Find local professional organizations that are relevant to your career interests and attend a few meetings. They’re a great way to learn more about your options and meet people in your field.

2.) If you like the company, industry, or even just the area, this is a great time to do a little apartment/house hunting. Understand what the cost of living is so you’re better able to evaluate an offer next year.

Finally:

Internships can be fantastic educational experiences. Choose the position that best reinforces your career story, and then take advantage of as many of the opportunities during the internship as you can. You may not always end up where you plan, but you need a plan to get going!

By Candace McGee
Internship and Student Employment Programs
California State University, Sacramento

According to the January 11, 2008, California Regional Bulletin (California Regional Bulletin, 2008), as employers become more cautious in a slower hiring environment, job seekers will have an advantage, but only if they have the “right stuff.” Employers are looking for “prospective employees to show a direct skills-to-job relationship, and to validate their worth with concrete facts on their resume.” In today’s economy, career-related internship experiences are important and intern performance often provides employers with the basis for future hires.

Opportunities to gain on-the-job experience through an internship, co-op experience, community service, or academically related part-time work can provide you and an employer with a chance to “try each other out.” These types of experiential learning opportunities are keys to acquiring job experience, networking, academic insight, and professional understanding.

As an intern, you can learn about one field or gain exposure to several different areas.

“My internship experiences have taught me just as much about what I don’t want to do, as what I do want to do. Sometimes it’s important to be placed in an environment just to know if it’s something you can see yourself taking on as a career. I found that one internship opportunity led to another, and often those opportunities led to even better things: fellowships, scholarships, graduate school.” Sac State Student, Government major, Hispanic National Internship Program and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Washington, D.C.

Employers agree that students who complete career-related internships are better prepared to master new responsibilities, demonstrate professionalism, and reflect more focus and enthusiasm.

“Engineers play a supportive role in Biotechnology, it is vital to ensure the manufacturing and quality of a product. The co-op at Genentech was a great way to build a strong foundation for my career while helping to improve lives. The first day in my department I was given an important project. I was able to meet and collaborate with many people in different departments. The amount of responsibility given to me during my co-op has helped me grow personally and professionally.” Sac State Alumni, B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Cell Culture Production Facilities Services, Genentech, Vacaville, CA

As an intern, you can apply what you are learning in class to the job, and in turn, bring practical knowledge back to the classroom.

“My main objective for this internship was to get familiar with the broadcast journalism industry. With an official medial credential, I covered stories all over Capitol Hill. On any given day, I would be sitting in on a House or Senate hearing to get a story alongside reporters from The New York Times, The Washington Post, C-Span and CNN.” Sac State Student, Government, Media, Journalism major, The Talk Radio News Service, Washington, D.C.

Employers agree that internships allow them to evaluate soft skills including initiative, teamwork, adaptability, critical thinking, problem solving, and attitude.

“The lessons I have learned in networking, diplomacy, and the utilization of resources have strengthened me as a student and more importantly as a future policy maker.” Sac State Student, Master of Public Policy and Administration, USDA-Hispanic-Serving Institutions National Program office, Washington, D.C.

“It’s been an opportunity and really rewarding; a way to build my skills and to give something back.” Sac State Student, Gerontology major, Sutter Hospital internship

“Start out early. Internships are a great way to find out what you like or don’t like. I looked for challenges and the resources to meet them.” Sac State Student, Business Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management major, Blue Shield internship

“This has led to job offers and is making it easier to transition as an active team member. Engineering is all about problem-solving. Every day is different.” Sac State Student, Electrical and Electronic Engineering major, Stantec and CA Energy Commission internships

“The most positive aspect was meeting people from all over the country. Networking opens so many opportunities you would never have encountered otherwise.” Sac State Student, Economics and Government major, Economic Research and Constituent Affairs, CA Governor’s Office internships

By Craig H. Sher
Executive Chairman
The Sembler Company

An internship should be a mutually beneficial experience for the employer and the intern. If an intern feels their work is appreciated, important to the company mission and reflective of their own interests, then the internship experience will be a worthwhile one. But as with all professional opportunities, communication is the key. If interns feel empowered to ask lots of questions as way of demonstrating their ability to think critically in the work environment, they will enjoy a fulfilling experience. And employers must be willing to create this environment so that interns feel a sense of ownership in their role. The end result is a better, more productive intern who may potentially become a ‘new hire’ for the company.

By the same token, an intern must realize that an internship is a two-way street. While in the position to learn about their desired field, an intern is generally taken on to fill a productive role within the company. However, due to the temporary nature of internships there may be times of unevenness in the quantity and quality of the work flow. Interns must realize that while this is a learning experience that will benefit them, they are still there to work. Assignments delegated to an intern should be taken seriously. An internship should be treated like any other job, as an employer expects an intern to behave as an employee; be present every day, be on time, and be prepared to spend your time working.

While an intern may not get all of the glamorous and coveted assignments, they are assigned the basic tasks for a reason. In order to establish a true understanding and skill set in a field, a strong foundation must be built. It is the everyday tasks that lay this groundwork that will be invaluable in the future.

When considering an intern as a candidate for a full-time position, employers are looking for individuals that display competence, a genuine curiosity, strong communications skills and productivity. All of these attributes coupled with working well both as a team-player and as an individual, will help boast an intern’s chances of becoming a full-time employee.

Penny Loretto
Assistant Director, Career Services
Skidmore College

For many college students across the country, fall semester begins this week. As you are getting ready to say your good bye’s and packing up the remainder of your personal belongings, you may be feeling a little anxious about all of the last minute details you need to take care of prior to leaving home and returning to campus. On the other hand, you may be feeling more than ready to go back and are excited and anticipating the time when you will meet your new roommate and attend your first day of classes. Either way once you start classes, time will fly by so fast that before you know it, final exams will be here and the semester will be over.

Your First Week Of Classes

As you complete your first week of classes, you’re becoming concerned about the art history class you signed up for and you’re beginning to think that art history may just not be your cup of tea. You begin looking at other options and you decide to drop art history and add something that you feel is more related to your major, like economics or business law. Add/drop day is tomorrow and you need to make a decision quickly but find that there are no economics or business law classes that will fit into your schedule. In addition to your academics, you’ve also been thinking about joining that new foreign language club that started last year; since you’re planning on doing a study abroad in Spain come spring semester, and you’d like an opportunity to practice your Spanish before you go. Oh yeah, speaking of internships abroad; you also have to make sure that you attend the Study Abroad orientation in two weeks to ensure that you’ve attended to all of the last minute details and you want to get a better understanding of what paperwork you need to complete prior to starting the program. Last but not least, you’re hoping to join your friends and volunteer for the local Habitat for Humanity housing project that’s beginning in a couple of weeks; but you’re beginning to wonder just how you’re going to fit it all in while still maintaining your high GPA.

Now if someone were to ask you at this time about what you are planning to do for next summer, you might reply (or think of replying), “Why on earth would I even want to begin thinking now about what I am going to do next summer, when I have so much on my plate and summer is still a long time away?”

Internships With Early Deadlines

The reason is that there are internships (usually with larger organizations) in a number of industries that are highly competitive and some of them begin hiring summer interns as early as October and November of the previous year. Have you ever thought that maybe you’d like to learn more about the CIA or FBI and perhaps do an internship to let you experience what it’s really like working for an agency of this nature? What about doing an internship for the American Society of Editors or participating in the Boston Globe Summer Intern Program? If you’re interested in the financial services industry, maybe an internship with PricewaterhouseCoopers or Lehman Brothers would provide exactly the right experience to make you a more competitive candidate in the job market after graduation. What many students don’t know is that some industries like finance, journalism, and government (along with others), often have early application deadlines and if you wait until January to begin looking, it just might be too late.

How Career Services Can Help

Each year we have students come to our Career Service Office as soon as they return from winter break.. These students justifiably believe that they are beginning their summer internship search early and are very surprised to learn that many of the application deadlines for internships they are most interested in, have already passed. If you are a student interested in getting experience for a career in government, journalism, or finance; it’s important to begin looking for summer internships during the fall semester. There are also many organizations, as well as internship abroad programs, (like IES), who also have early deadlines. Contacting the Career Services Office at your college will help you identify those organizations with early deadlines and, once identified, they can also assist you in developing or updating a resume and cover letter that gets results.

Penny is also the author of the About.com Guide to Internships!