Monthly Archives: March 2010

How To Turn Your Internship Into A Full-Time Job

Written by monica. Posted on March 31, 2010. Filed under Career Planning, Internship Advice. Tagged , , , , . 1 Comment.

Want to turn your internship into a job?

You’ve graduated (or you are soon), now what?

Are you a recent college grad struggling to find a job? It may not be the glitz and glam you imagined, and it may not even be paid, but an internship is a great way to test the waters and land the job of your dreams.

Do you feel like after you graduate, you’re supposed to have your life planned out?

Well, times have changed and most grads don’t even follow the path of their majors. You may not know what you really want to do with your life, and that’s okay. An internship is a great way to explore your options.

Intern to employee: Turning your internship into a full-time position

Aside from dipping your toes in an industry you might want to work in, you’re also starting your networking and getting your first opportunity to impress. Employers extend job offers to about 70 percent of their interns.

What you need to know

But what exactly does it take to get hired? First, you need to do some research to find the right internship:

-Who is the employer? What kind of opportunities do they have? Could you see yourself working for them?

-What kind of work do they want you to do?

-Is is challenging enough for you to learn from, or will you be filing papers all day?

-Is the internship paid? Unpaid? If it’s unpaid, can you get a travel stipend?

You will obviously need to make sure it fits your interests, but also be sure to review their hiring track record. Talk to previous interns or the company’s human resource department to inquire about their hiring policy.

Big or small: Choosing the right size company

Depending on your field, you may find yourself trying to decide between a big company and a small one. Big name corporations will be less likely to hire you, but having their name on your resume may be good for your experience, or at least make for great window dressing. If you’re looking to get a job immediately, a smaller company may be a better way to jump-start your career.

Come into your internship willing to exceed standards, and if you don’t know what your internship expects from you, figure this out up front. Contribute your own ideas if you have them, this is not the time to be shy. Be proactive with your work. Take the initiative to learn programs on your own, beat the deadlines, and ask for extra work (only if you have finished your assignments). The goal is to take as much from the experience as you can.

Done with your internship? Ask about a job!

Apart from an in-house job, internships offer many networking opportunities that can help lead to a full-time position. After you’ve spent time with your company, don’t be afraid to ask your boss or mentor what your future looks like with them. Set up a meeting, let them know that you have enjoyed working with them, and ask what your chances are of getting a position with the organization.

Internships Off the Beaten Path

Written by monica. Posted on March 26, 2010. Filed under Internship Advice. Tagged , , , . No comments.

Organic farming internship - who knew?!

Think internships are just for business students? Think again.

College students with an uncommon major such as musicology, environmental design, or human and family development, may feel they have no access to what some may call a common internship. Rest assured that business and computer science students are not the only ones with decent internship opportunities. All it takes is a little digging. If you’re patient and put in the effort you’ll come to find that there’s a path into almost any industry, off the beaten path or not.

For example, if you are a theater major and have no clue where to begin, try looking into interning at a summer theater company. Stars from Broadway began by interning at New Jersey’s Surflight Theatre. Interns are hired for the summer, paid a stipend, and are provided with housing all while using this hands on experience as training; something you won’t see in class. You get the chance to work on stage and off doing technical work and acting, and some have had the opportunity to audition for productions. Being immersed in this kind of atmosphere gives you an upper hand when it comes time to dive into this industry.

Organic farming is a growing area of interest; however this is another field that is not referenced regularly. Whether you’re interested in the actual farming, sustainable resources, or just want a change of scenery, you can sign up on small farms across the country. Even if this direction won’t land you straight into your dream business career, it’s a chance to diversify your experiences, which can look great on your resume. Great internships aren’t always the obvious or standard internships. With a little digging you can find something unconventional, but extremely valuable.

Good internship possibilities await you! Especially in our current economic situation, it’s difficult for college students to find jobs after they graduate, and an internship is a valuable starting point even after graduation. Find something you are truly interested in. It may not be your dream, but it could take you to unimaginable places.

Getting an Internship Is Tough, Intern Inc. Makes It Easier

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

Having trouble finding an internship? Intern Inc. can help!

What’s a college graduate to do? Many students are finding it difficult to get a job paying minimum wage — about 20 percent of 2009 graduates successfully found jobs by last April whereas about 25 percent of students with internship experience had jobs lined up.

The virtues of internship experience are vast, but the recession is redoubling the value of experience. There’s no more resting on your laurels, just your accomplishments.

So if the solution to this problem is for you to find an internship, where do you begin your search?

Getting an internship can seem daunting. How do you go about finding one? How do you know which one fits? Will the internship count as credit towards my degree? These are all questions you should be asking yourself, and sometimes it’s hard to find the right answers.

Intern Inc. is working to simplify the process for you. Whether you’re looking for an internship in New York City or near your school, paid or unpaid, in industries ranging from consumer products like Nestle to tax and accounting with KPMG, we’re building a platform that makes the whole internship process simpler and better, from start to finish.

We are here to help you not only find an internship, but find you the right one. You may be getting an email overload from your career counselor with numerous internship opportunities, but do you know which ones to look through? Intern Inc. helps narrow your search by providing you with a list of opportunities that fit your needs based on your profile.

Our goal is help you build out a modern, Web 2.0 professional profile that goes beyond your paper resume. We want to simplify and clarify the problems facing a student seeking an internship. Join our site, let us know what you think and here’s to pulling the internship process into the modern age!

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!

MeBot: Meet your future workplace robot assistant

Written by sarah. Posted on March 24, 2010. Filed under Amazing Things, Other Stuff. Tagged , , , , . No comments.

Sigurdur Orn's MeBot

Who wouldn’t love to have a likeness of yourself to take care of boring business while you sit in your pjs and eat poptarts? The technology is out there. Telepresence robots are on the rise, and may be taking over the work world. Okay, that may be exaggerating, but it’s still a cool concept.

MIT student Sigurdur Orn has unleashed an interesting little bot called the Mebot, that features expressive gesture abilities which Orn is calling “socially embodied communication.”

The robot was debuted at the Human-Robot Interaction Conference in Oskaka, Japan. It has a little screen that sits on a moving neck. This screen displays the user’s face. The robot also has two moving arms as well. To top it off, the robot also has a wheeled base, which allows it to move about. Although this little thing looks like some sort of strange alien bug person, these moving parts help to convey user expressions to the other party.

Maybe these avatars are the future of business, but for now, your best bet for success is still face to face contact (for those of you who didn’t learn this lesson from Up in the Air).

Having productivity issues? Try Hemingway’s Hack.

Written by sarah. Posted on March 24, 2010. Filed under Professional Advice. Tagged , , , . 1 Comment.
Hemingway had a few tricks up his sleve to keep him writing.

Hemingway had a few tricks up his sleeve to make sure he kept writing.

Maximizing productivity is a goal that a lot of people have. Earnest Hemingway, world famous author and winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize in literature, was a pretty productive guy. Hemingway had a secret to his productivity that seems almost too simple. He has a way to permanently keep himself from getting writer’s block.

Hemingway said:

“The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day … you will never be stuck. Always stop while you are going good and don’t think about it or worry about it until you start to write the next day. That way your subconscious will work on it all the time. But if you think about it consciously or worry about it you will kill it and your brain will be tired before you start”

Hemingway and other writers such as Roald Dahl have used this trick to keep them productive, and it seems to work.

So, the basic idea is don’t finish your daily task if you want to keep the momentum going. The more momentum, the more productivity. If you make finishing your task your next task, you will have more momentum when you start up again.

To put it simply:

You should stop your task when:

1) You know what you will do to finish it.
2) When you feel the drive to finish it.
3) When you reach a creativity peak.

—–Then don’t think about your task until the next day.—

Using Hemingway’s trick will help you to:
1) Avoid being stuck.
2) Keep your momentum going.
3) Start the next day with the reward of finishing a task.
4) Boost your self confidence and motivation level before moving on to the next task.
5) End your day on a high note.
6) Allow your brain purposeful rest when you stop working.
7) Allow your subconscious to work on the bigger picture while you relax.

This trick works not only for writing but for any creative process. So, no matter what you need to get done, take a tip from Hemingway and take a break when you’re ahead. You will feel more confident and be more productive!