Category Archives: Internship Advice

Training, office skills — help and tips for the student intern or student seeking an internship.

Want a higher paying job? Well, get an internship!

Written by monica. Posted on March 25, 2010. Filed under Internship Advice. Tagged , , , , , . No comments.

A breakdown of what employers look for in a candidate

If you’re looking for a higher earning potential when entering the job market out of college, having internship experience is key. 49 percent of employers say when they’re looking to higher college grads, they place more emphasis on those with experience outside of the classroom. Why is this experience so crucial? When you graduate from college, everyone has a degree. A degree is not enough to differentiate you from competition for the same position.

If you expect to make big bucks right off the bat, you’ll want to make sure you have the experience to attract employers’ attention. Many internships you’ll come across are unpaid, but that doesn’t mean they won’t pay off later.

Employers are looking for someone with skills not found in the classroom. Every employer wants you to have appropriate work etiquette and be able to interact in a professional setting. And they want you to know how to handle responsibilities involved in your desired field, not just homework submissions and tests. We have all played the grade game and the workplace is not a game where high test scores and extra credit matter.

The workplace is however, a competitive playing field where the quality of your work matters, organization makes everything run smoother, and a loaded resume will most likely lead to greater opportunities. So why not take the opportunity to fill your resume with experience outside of a restaurant gig or shelf stocking, and create that competitive advantage that will get you a real foot in the door. Make your employer realize they want you because of your skills, not just your GPA. Get an internship!

I trust your cash will fund my future, mom and dad.

Written by sarah. Posted on March 16, 2010. Filed under Career Planning, Internship Advice. Tagged , , , . No comments.
Trustfund Guy
I trust my fund will never run out, right mom and dad?

A lot of students are lucky enough to have Mom and Dad front the bill for their college education. College is expensive enough, but according to the Wall Street Journal, college isn’t the only thing parents are stuck paying for.

In all seriousness, some parents have always shelled out cash for their kids. With college graduates facing a brutal job market, kids are milking their folks for as long as possible. A better solution? Getting one or several internships before (or even after) graduating can help make all the difference.

After all, rich kids like to work for free, and with the bad economy, parents are worried.  So, an ever-more popular solution is buying their kids that foot in the door with an internship post-college. Some parents are creating direct mail campaigns advertising their kid’s potential, while others just buy internships in auctions.

Internship-placement programs are doing really well, but the price paid is pretty steep. University of Dreams in Los Gatos, California helps place interns at internships, for a whopping $5000-$9000 dollars. If that is a little out of your price range, you could always try out Fast Track Internships, they will help you polish your cover letter and resume for a mere $799.

The reality is, we don’t all have rich parents. And yes, internships are invaluable, and can defintely help you become successful, but there should be an easier, more accessible way to get an internship. That’s why we started interninc.com — we want to help you get the internship of your dreams at a price that’s a little more affordable for everyone: Free.

Are Unpaid Internships Illegal?

Written by michael. Posted on March 8, 2010. Filed under Internship Advice. Tagged , , , , , . No comments.
Don't get eaten by jaguar sharks, intern.

Don't get eaten by jaguar sharks, intern.

These days, 84 percent of college students complete an internship before graduation and 64 percent of those are paid.

So are the other 36 percent college-educated slaves shackled by the burden of building a resume while being whipped until each and every TPS Report is filed alphabetically?

The legality of unpaid internships has been clouded by companies that don’t develop a truly valuable internship experience. Small companies may have a lot to offer a student looking for experience through an internship. They might not necessarily be able to afford paying an intern though. But when an internship is unpaid, it needs to meet a higher standard for what the intern gets out of it in terms of experience. In other words, if you can’t pay your intern, you better make sure they’re really getting something of value for their time.

Unpaid internships themselves aren’t illegal — it’s just that there are too many employers that can get away with substituting a valuable experiential learning experience with a filing cabinet and some phone jockeying.

It’s not unpaid internships that are the problem. It’s employers that think an intern is for slinging coffee.

Many employers offer internships that are either unpaid or for college credit in lieu of pay. The intern meme is that of a college student desperate for experience, hurriedly filing away endless mountains of paperwork, doing menial tasks and being given unwanted work.

If a business’ internship programs fits that meme, chances are it’s illegal. The Department of Labor created a 6-point test to evaluate whether a “trainee” is an intern or technically an “employee.” Each of these six points must be true for a legal internship:

1. If the training, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in a vocational school;
2. If the training is for the benefit of the trainee;
3. If the trainees do not displace regular employees, but work under close observation;
4. If the employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the trainees and, on occasion, the employer’s operations are actually impeded;
5. If the trainees are not necessarily entitled to employment at the completion of the training period;
6. If the employer and the trainees understand that the trainees are not entitled to wages for the time spent in training.
The part that makes this dicey is displacing regular employees and the bit about the employer not directly benefiting from the activities of the intern. That may make you scratch your head — aren’t interns supposed to help? Yes and no.

Interns should be benefitting at least as much if not more than the employer from a given internship. At play here is the idea that an employer should be taking a hit to their productivity by taking time out to help serve a mentorship role, teaching the intern and helping them develop.

But let’s turn the tables and think about internships for a second: Sure, some smaller companies might be able to offer a great experience to a student looking to add experience to their resume. But at the same time, if the extra help isn’t worth $8 an hour to a company, there’s probably either something wrong with the help…or the company.