Category Archives: Career Advice
Considering an intern as a full-time employee
This is a guest post from Megan Crowley, an associate consultant at FlashPoint. With a background in industrial/organizational psychology, Megan contributes a unique perspective based on some of the newest research and techniques in her field. Megan also interned with FlashPoint.
I’m a little biased because I enjoyed my intern experience with FlashPoint, but the savviest recruiters know the benefits interns bring to your company. In case you’re not familiar with FlashPoint, we provide customized talent management consulting in three practice areas: organizational performance, talent development, and compensation. Bottom line: we help you leverage your talent. FlashPoint partners with mid-size to large organizations to help leverage talent and develop leaders in order to accomplish strategic business objectives. We consider interns a vital part of the talent management strategy!
So, if you don’t have interns, here are some benefits:
Complete project work that may be on the backburner Increase productivity Reduce …
High school intern makes big impact on community
Jose Fregozo is not your typical high school student. A senior at Evansville North High School, he balances a full class schedule, works 30 to 35 hours weekly as a Papa John’s assistant manager, interns at architecture and engineering firm Three I Design, competes on cross country and track teams, and takes part in a variety of philanthropy events. In a nutshell, Fregozo is one of North High School’s shining stars, and he has a humble spirit, too.
Many employers may not traditionally consider a high school student for their internship program, but Three I Design was open to the concept after communicating with Andy Beadles, Fregozo’s teacher at the Southern Indiana Career and Technical Center (SICTC). The facility provides high school students with classroom and hands-on training in 18 diverse areas of study using the latest emerging technologies and equipment.
The management team at Three I …
Indiana Career Explorer: A Useful Tool
Today, society expects students to know their major and future career plans long before entering college. This puts a lot of pressure on students to pick a field of study, often times without fully getting to explore their options. The truth is over half of college students change their majors at least once before graduation. I was one of these students who thought I knew what I wanted, but ended up changing my mind. I recently found Indianacareerexplorer.org, which is made for students trying to decide what they want and what careers best suit their skills and values.
After registering for the site, the first step is to take three assessment tests. The first, Kuder Career Search with Person Match, gives you sixty sets of three activities. You are asked to rank which activity you would prefer to do first, second, and third. Then, you are given results about …
College student finds meaning in higher education internship
This guest post was written by Kaitlin Owings, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods student. Owings reflects on the challenges and exciting moments during her internship in a college admissions office.
When many college students think about future internship possibilities, large companies in “Corporate America” seem to come to mind. However, when I thought of doing an internship in a higher education office, I thought of no better place than Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, my home at heart.
The Office of Admission at SMWC accomplishes many tasks throughout the year. One would think that the function of this office is simple because their main goal is to either admit or decline prospective student applications. While this may be their main task, how they get to this point is complicated and requires a lot of hard work and dedication. Recruiting these prospective students takes a considerable amount of time and energy to travel to various high …
Indiana INTERNnet adds its own intern to the team
This guest post is written by Indiana INTERNnet’s own intern, Tabitha Atwood, IUPUI student.
When people asked me, “Tabitha, what do you want to be when you grow up?” I always thought I knew the answer. I wanted to be a pharmacist, but I considered dentistry as a “backup plan.” I started college eager to begin all my science classes. I also joined a freshman interest group where I lived with other students with the same interests and we immersed ourselves in all things medical field related. I was so sure I was doing what I loved.
After a couple of semesters, I realized I did not love my science classes as much as I had hoped. I had such a dilemma. I didn’t know if I should give up my original dream and move on to something else, or if I should just sick to …
Reconnecting With Your Internship Network
This guest post is from Jennifer Weinmann, Student Employment Consultant at IUPUI.
In recent weeks, I have been helping my sister (who will soon be graduating) implement strategies for her upcoming job search. In my recent conversations with her, networking has come up time and again. As many of us are aware, networking today most often consists of LinkedIn and other electronic sources of reaching out to individuals. Striking up a conversation with an old contact sometimes seems hard to do in an online environment.
That is the question I wanted to help answer:
How do I reach out to my internship network for help with my job search?
In my sister’s final years of her undergraduate degree, she completed two internships and two immersive learning projects. All of which have left her with a great deal of knowledge and an excellent group of contacts in her LinkedIn profile. …
A “Mental Health” Internship – Challenging, Unique, Fulfilling
This is a guest blog post, written by Saint Mary-of-the-Woods student, Shandi Gerkin, who interned with IU Health Bloomington Hospital Behavioral Health Unit.
For many of you, a behavior health clinic is not something with which you are familiar, so first, let me share my perspective on my internship environment. The IU Health Bloomington Hospital Behavioral Health Unit is an acute care facility that services Central and Southern Indiana. The Behavioral Health Unit provides acute care to individuals who are experiencing crisis or extreme stress in their daily lives and who need a positive healing environment in which to recover their own stability. The Access Center of the Behavioral Health Unit addresses calls for admission made to the unit. The Access Counselors provide an initial assessment of the patient’s problem in order to identify the type of help that is needed. When a patient requires acute inpatient care, they …
Stretch Your Mind in 2012 with WGU Indiana
The guest post is from Allison Barber, Chancellor, WGU Indiana. If you are not familiar with WGU Indiana’s programs, please visit www.indiana.wgu.edu to learn more about Indiana’s only fully-accredited online university.
P.S. @WGUIndiana on Twitter; WGU Indiana on Facebook and YouTube!
The New Year approaches, many of us resolve to takes steps to become healthier and to stretch our minds. We set goals we dare to achieve in the coming year. And for the 840,000 Hoosiers who have some college but no degree, why not set a goal of going back to school to finish what you started? The sense of satisfaction and pride felt by college graduates is enormous as they can say “I did it!”
For those who started college but didn’t finish, their dream for a college degree never died. Life just got in the way. We hear from them that they need individual encouragement coupled …
WGU Indiana features Indiana INTERNnet program
Happy Tuesday, INTERNnet fans!
Did you know Indiana has 53 colleges and universities — many with multiple locations — from which you can choose to attend? With a plethora of options, there is one that may best fit your needs: our state’s newest college, WGU Indiana.
WGU Indiana is a fully-accredited online university and is specifically geared towards working adults and/or career changers. Our own Janet Boston spoke with the folks at WGU about how Indiana INTERNnet can help both traditional and non-traditional students by providing a free resource to locate an internship.
Check out the video to learn more: Janet Boston WGU Indiana Interview
Are you a non-traditional student who needs assistance in locating an internship? Leave a comment or feel free to contact us!
Networking: College’s Best Kept Secret
I’m passionate about a lot of issues, ideas, and organizations, but one thing I enjoy more than anything else is talking with and listening to people. I genuinely enjoy learning and making connections between people. This has bode well for me thus far in my short career tenure; I’ve landed jobs because I enjoy networking and putting forth my best effort. But — networking isn’t exactly something they teach you in college, unfortunately. It’s a skill that must be learned, and it takes work, patience, and sometimes a few bucks to attend quality events.
Looking back on my college experience, the last thing I wanted to make time for between classes, homework, student organizations, being an RA, and interning was figuring out how to network; however, I made it a priority, beginning my freshman year by joining student organizations related to my major and keeping my social media profiles professional. …
A Volunteer Experience by Any Other Name…
Entry by Cynthia McCullough-accountant with 25 years experience; currently Corporate Accounting Manager with Grote Industries; senior-level Accounting Information Systems student in Woods External Degree program at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.
…is an internship when it is completed under the auspices of the “Social Marketing Experiment,” a new type of internship designed by Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College (SMWC) and funded by a Ball Brothers Foundation Venture Fund grant. SMWC is conducting a team internship program which brings together campus and distance students to work for local not-for-profit organizations.
The specific assignment for the interns is to create and implement new marketing strategies using social media to benefit the not-for-profit. A significant feature of these internships is the “virtual” meeting, in which Adobe Connect Pro web conference software is used to facilitate communication between team members, faculty advisers, and the not-for-profit contact person. The balance of communication is handled through emails and conference calls.
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It Pays to Intern
Although wage should not be as important as experience when determining which internships to pursue, the idea of making a good chunk of change is always appealing.
When I was still an undergraduate student, I would ask my fraternity brothers if anyone else planned on interning in the summer. I remember asking a younger guy in the house if he planned on applying for any internships. He replied, “No, I plan on working at a factory like I do every summer where I can make $15/hr, so that’s way better.”
He, like many other students today, didn’t realize that internships pay fairly well:
On average, bachelor’s degree students taking part in internships in 2011 will earn an average of $16.68 an hour, according to results of NACE’s 2011 Internship & Co-op Survey.
At the master’s degree level, the average hourly rate is $24.21.
Aside from the possibility of making a …
“Winners don’t have to explain themselves. Only losers do.”
As many of you may already be aware, actor Charlie Sheen has been working with internships.com to hire a “winning” summer 2011 social media intern to monitor and manage his social media marketing campaigns – imagine having that experience listed on your resume…
If this is your first time learning about the internship, don’t get too excited; the competition/interview process is already in its third round, narrowing the some 82,000 applicants down to 250 individuals who have proven to have #tigerblood thus far.
21-year-old Julia Hatmaker is one of the 250 left. She has made comments to The Patriot-News about her experience:
In the first round, she was asked to tell why she thought she should get the job. Her response was a twist on Sheen’s own words: “Winners don’t have to explain themselves. Only losers do.”
“I guess they liked that,” she said.
Although this answer is …
Still Searching for an Internship?
Entry by Pat Patterson
Are you still having trouble finding a summer internship? With employers planning to hire more interns this year, perhaps you are just looking in the wrong places:
Employers expect to hire 7 percent more interns for 2010-11 than they hired in 2009-10, according to results of NACE’s latest internship survey.
Ninety-three percent of employers responding to the NACE 2011 Internship & Co-op Survey reported plans to hire interns.
The survey was conducted January 15 – March 1; 266 employers responded, for a 30.8 percent response rate.
Indiana INTERNnet has nearly 2,500 internship opportunities available from more than 3,800 employers across the state. If you have not done so recently, log on to your student account and search our database – or if you don’t have an account, get signed up with us today for free!
With most summer internships starting in …
College Student Explores Social Marketing With Virtual Internship
Entry by Pat Patterson – from the February 2011 INTERNnetwork
For many employers, deciding whether to hire an intern is not easy. A lack of office space or time, for instance, may prevent some businesses from doing so. The same applies to students – because of time or distance, they may not be able to complete an internship when and where they desire.
A project at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College known as the “Social Marketing Experiment” addressed these issues. Funded through a $15,000 Ball Brothers Foundation Venture grant and the Lilly Endowment, it allowed on-campus and distance students to collaborate and construct social media marketing campaigns for local nonprofits.
As part of the “Social Marketing Experiment,” students worked virtually for various nonprofits, communicating either through phone or e-mail. This was an ideal arrangement for Annessa Rentschler, a Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College senior and mother of one. As an intern, she worked with …