internships

The Online Internship Search

by Guest Blogger / October 5, 2011 / 3 comments

The Online Internship Search

A new school year has begun and for many college students, it’s time to start thinking about internships. Interning can be the best way for you to get your foot in the door at a company or organization you’re interested in working for; it can also give you valuable work experience and a taste of life in the workplace.

Just as there’s fierce competition for jobs in the current economy, the search for an internship can be daunting as well. The key to finding the right internship for you often includes consulting your school program director and campus career center. But for students who are earning online degrees and don’t have immediate access to a career center, or for students want to take internship selections into their own hands, the Internet can be an indispensable resource.

Internship databases

Finding internships online takes work and attention to detail, but it can be done. Sites like Internships.com are designed to bring potential employers and aspiring interns together, similar to job search engine Monster. Interships.com also has a blog where interns and employers can write about their experiences, a Career Navigator to help students find the right fit for internships, and an iPhone app for students on the go. And One Day One Internship features a different company every day that’s looking for interns. They also allow students to sign up for a daily e-mail with internship opportunities.

Other internship search engines include InternWeb and Monster College, Monster’s comprehensive site that helps college students prepare for the workforce and features businesses looking for interns. You can find internship opportunities by searching mainstream job engines as well.

A day in the life

Sometimes reading the experiences of other interns can give you some insight into your own internship or search. Blogs like Teen Vogue’s Intern Blogger give readers a first-hand view of what it’s like to work for a world-class publication. Interns share their education histories, their favorite things about interning, and the challenges they face in the fast-paced world of fashion magazines. Indiana handbag maker Vera Bradleyalso has a blog for their interns, where interns and employees reveal the daily life in the office. Both blogs are rather specific to their industries, but they also give you a glimpse into how interns blend into company culture and make a real difference at the businesses for which they work.

Finding your own way

Landing the perfect internship for you should start with a self-inventory of your current skill set. Your current major may not lay a direct path to your career, but your internship will give you an idea of where you might best fit once you enter the workforce. So, before you begin searching for internships, make a list of your strengths, weaknesses, and interests. Doing this could save you the headache of enduring an internship you don’t enjoy, and it could help you discover new interests.

Internships are often challenging and rewarding—and they should be. But the most important part of doing an internship is finding one that’s best for you. Take the time to search for the right one, and it could also be the first step to a fulfilling career.

Jesse blogs at the Professional Intern, and she also shared with us her thoughts on going back to (grad) school. Thanks Jesse!

What are your tips for finding internships? I managed to land a great one by cold-emailing magazine editors. I’ll devote a post to that in the future! – Emma

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Unpaid Internships

by Emma / August 11, 2011 / 9 comments

Unpaid Internships

One of my favorite design bloggers — Bri of DesignLoveFest — recently posted a notice that she had an internship position available.

Bri has her hands in a bunch of amazing projects. She’s the creative force behind Rue Magazine, she has a fabulous blog, and she does freelance design work. Seems like a budding designer or editorialist could benefit greatly from an internship with Bri.

Problem is, the internship — 20 hours a week — is unpaid. And among other things, it requires “nitty gritty things like managing finances with accounting software, keeping up with correspondences with professional etiquette, and lots of research.” Some commenters pointed out that this may run afoul of the Department of Labor’s unpaid intern guidelines. Namely, the requirement that “the intern does not displace regular paid workers and that the employer ‘derives no immediate advantage’ from the intern’s activities — in other words, it’s largely a benevolent contribution to the intern.”

A battle erupted in the comments, over whether it was appropriate to bring up the Department of Labor guidelines, whether the internship was actually violating the guidelines, and the value of unpaid internships in general (similar to the comments on a Design Sponge post about hiring interns). Many, many commenters wrote about how enormously helpful unpaid internships are in developing skillsets and — more importantly — gaining contacts in the field you want to enter.

In college, I spent a summer with a popular women’s magazine in New York as an editorial intern. Although it was paid, we earned minimum wage, which doesn’t go very far in the Big Apple. I was glad that it was a paid internship, though, because it signaled to me that our time was valued. It was a true job. That said, I probably would have still taken the position if it were unpaid.

Another thing to consider is that the nature of the paid v. unpaid debate may change based on whether college students, grad students, or non-students are the potential interns.

Apart from what the law is (you can check out a NY Times article on the legal guidelines), what are your thoughts on unpaid internships in general? Do you think the benefits outweigh the lack of compensation, or do you think unpaid internships just give employers an excuse to avoid hiring paid employees?

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