Category Archives: Indy Interns

Write a Compelling Internship Posting, Part I

Summer internship season is quickly approaching. This is Part I of a three-part series on crafting internship postings that will attract qualified candidates on Indiana INTERNnet and elsewhere.

Writing an internship description can be a challenge. Human psychology plays a major role in whether or not candidates will be interested in the position or skip to the next. The description has to catch their attention, but not overwhelm them with information. Here are some tips to help perfect your posting.

 

Position Title

Be descriptive – never use “Intern” for the title of a position. That’s like saying “Staff Member” for the position of Executive Director of Financial Services. What kind of intern are you looking for? Use the job description as a guide. If the intern will be performing legal services, use “Legal Intern” or “Law Student Intern.”

 

Organization Biography

There should be a short description of your …

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Employer Feature: Dunes Learning Center

 

Northwest Indiana is brimming with opportunity for young professionals. One organization that truly exhibits internship excellence is Dunes Learning Center. Located in Chesterton, the organization offers internships as camp counselor and interpretive naturalist. We spoke with the Education Director, Erin Crofton, about their program.

 

Indiana INTERNnet: What exactly is the Dunes Learning Center and what role do you play in the organization?

Erin Crofton: Dunes Learning Center is a national model for place-based residential environmental education. Operating in partnership with the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Dunes Learning Center educators provide year-round curriculum and standards-based learning experiences in nature. Our trained education staff and 63-acre campus located inside Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore are truly unique and valuable resources.

As the Education Director, I lead education staff and programs. This includes program development, implementation, education staff recruitment, training, supervision and evaluation.

IIN: Why is the Dunes Learning Center …

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How to Rock a Career Fair

 

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Collegiate Career Expo. I experienced both sides of the table; employer and student/job seeker. This year’s event was held in the Marriott hotel in downtown Indianapolis. It’s a great venue, with delicious coffee and tea!

After registering as a student, I was given a self-adhesive name tag and a map of the different employer booths. The self-adhesive tag would eventually become my enemy. It would constantly pull my hair out and at one point it relocated itself to the back of my arm. My advice is to purchase a plastic sleeve for name badges. This way you can insert the one they give you and clip it into place.

My next piece of advice for students is to find a spot before entering the fair, if possible, and study the map of employers. In this case, there were …

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7 Ways “The Office” Relates to College Life

1 . Struggling through another PowerPoint presentation.

All professors have a different style of teaching. Some will write material on the dry-erase board, provide printed materials for you to follow along with, or utilize the magical PowerPoint presentation. PowerPoint is a great tool for classroom lectures, but you might only get half of your notes if you’re a slow writer. Professors may post these presentations for the class on Blackboard or Canvas. If not, students have resorted to taking photographs of the slides using their phones and later copying the information into their notes.

 

2 . Spending hours writing a paper and forgetting to click save.

This might have been the worst moment in Kevin’s life, spending all that time cooking the chili, bringing it to work, carrying it up the stairs only to spill it before anyone has a chance to taste it. The …

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Making an IMPACT: Sara Jones

The IMPACT Awards Employer of the Year is netlogx! We had a chance to interview one of the employees of netlogx, Sara Jones. Sara started as an intern with the organization and made her way to becoming a full-time consultant. She is a true story of a successful internship!

Indiana INTERNnet: What attracted you to intern at netlogx?

Sara Jones: When I started as an intern at netlogx, I did not have a very deep understanding of netlogx services, but I did know that netlogx was a growing small business with a great culture, which really appealed to me.

IIN: What learning experiences and projects did you have during your internship?

SJ: During my internship, I was able to take ownership of several internal administrative initiatives, but also was assigned part-time to a client project. Being part of the project team was incredibly valuable because it gave me the …

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Wrap Up Your Internship Like a Boss

It’s party time because you’ve almost made it through your summer internship! You’ve learned new things and grown professionally. You’ve become a significant part of the team. Whether you are sad to skedaddle or ready to roll, how you leave is just as important as how you arrived. Here are some tips for wrapping up your internship in a professional manner! What will they do without you?

Reflect

Internships are like swimming in the kiddie pool. It’s the same water the professional swimmers use, only it’s specifically constructed for learning. In other words, internships are the time to test the waters and even pick up some new strokes. After “splashing around,” perhaps you know that you are in the right area, or maybe you need to explore another career path.

Make a list and reflect on things you liked about your experience and things you didn’t. What did the …

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Intern-to-Hire Calls Indy “Home”

The journey Alex Eaton embarked on after his sophomore year has come full circle.

A recent Indiana University graduate, Eaton, utilized Indiana INTERNnet to apply for an internship position at Pete the Planner, a small financial wellness company based in Indianapolis founded by Peter Dunn. Dunn is an author, radio personality and financial expert.

Now, Eaton has transitioned into his new full-time role as the Director of eLearning at Pete the Planner.

While his job involves marketing Pete the Planner’s online platforms, he wears many hats during the day.

“I’m reaching out to a perspective client and starting the sales process, I’m running the actual product demos all the way to helping sign them on as clients, and I’m working with them once they are clients to make sure everything is working,” Eaton explains.

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“If you can find more situations where you don’t know what …

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Nonprofit internship leaves lasting impression

Lynn Zeheralis is a recent graduate of Butler University and former development intern at Make-a-Wish Foundation.

As a new college graduate currently going through the job search process, I am grateful for the experiences and skills I gained through Butler’s internship program. Oftentimes, you gain more than just skills to put on a resume, and those turn out to be things you value most.

In March of my junior year, I was extended an offer to serve as the Development Intern for the Make-A-Wish Foundation in Indianapolis. I had no idea when accepting this internship that not only would I gain skills many future employers would find impressive, but I would also have to opportunity to directly impact the lives of kids and their families.

In the three months I spent working for Make-A-Wish, I became much more confident in the work I did and realized how much I …

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Finding Fulfillment at Your Summer Internship

Do you know how depressing it is to spend a summer at an internship that’s not right for you?

Fortunately for me, I don’t have the answer to this question because I truly enjoyed my past internship experience. I have found something that I hope every intern finds this summer – internship happiness.

Last summer I was an intern for Building Tomorrow, an Indy-based non-profit that continues to have big impact in East Africa by supporting access to quality education.

My assignment: the 2nd Annual Indy Burger Battle. This would be the epic event where nine restaurants duke it out to be crowned the best burger in Indy.

I’ll be the first to admit that sunshine, live music, drinks and juicy burgers at an exclusive venue can cloud your view of what it is to be truly happy at your internship. Still, I realize the true key to internship …

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The New Era of Marketing

Clayton Maddox is a content marketing intern with National Trade Supply, LLC in Greenwood, IN.  He assists with social media accounts, creating content, graphic design, and PPC advertising.

The 60s are often called the Golden Age of Advertising.

“Mad Men” like Donald Draper were the pioneers, with beautifully crafted stories and ideas rolling off the tongue one after the other. The interns only dreamed that they could ever be as witty and cool as them. All ideas were destined for TV, print, billboard or radio.

That was 50 years ago though, and the marketing and advertising industry has changed immensely.  Fedoras, plaid suits, smoking and drinking at work are all gone. Even though change is rapid, it’s time marketing classes incorporate modern aspects of marketing.

Creatives like Donald Draper are still essential for marketing agencies, but there’s a whole new side to marketing that wasn’t covered in any of …

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8th Annual IMPACT Winners Part II

We recognized six individuals and organizations that dedicated their energy and expertise to successful internships in 2013 during the 8th Annual IMPACT Awards luncheon, sponsored by Ivy Tech Community College. These are the second in a two-part series on winners.

Claudine Meilink

Career Development Professional of the Year

Since 2006, Claudine Meilink has played a key role in facilitating student-employer connections at Purdue University. She wears many hats within the Center for Career Opportunities (CCO), including career counselor, employer coordinator and data collector.

Meilink volunteers as a Faculty Fellow and has served on search committees for various departments on campus. She also serves as an at-large board member with the Career Development Professionals of Indiana and also held leadership positions with Midwest ACE (Association of Colleges and Employers), even chairing two of its conferences.

“Claudine is one of those people who makes working in career services at …

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Three Internships Prep For Big-Girl Job

This is a post by Ball State University graduate Kelsey McPheeters. After graduating with a Bachelors of Science in public relations from Ball State University in May 2013, Kelsey McPheeters joined LMV Consulting as the marketing and communications intern. Not only does she maintain client websites and update social media, but also develops newsletters, among other various tasks.

As graduation was approaching, I began my job search hoping to land an account executive position with a public relations agency in Indianapolis. Early in my search, it became apparent to me that the positions I wanted to apply for required agency experience, or post-graduation experience.

Although I had two non-agency internships (Special Events at Indiana State Fair and Marketing/PR at IU Health Ball Memorial) under my belt, I decided to turn to Indiana INTERNnet to look for a third. After all, the third time’s a charm, right?

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Announcing The Winners of The Internship Movie Ticket Giveaway

Most internships have moments of laughter, learning, and (rarely) lament. As “The Internship” movie opens this weekend in a theater near you, abundance of laughter is guaranteed. For the past week, Indiana INTERNnet has hosted the “Win Tickets to The Internship Movie” giveaway, which asked current and past interns to share the story of their favorite internship.

The 2 winners selected in this giveaway will receive a Fandango gift card each, good for 2 tickets to The Internship movie (maximum value of $25). While the winners vary in terms of background and aspirations, they are bound by one similarity: they each have a unique story behind their internship experiences.

Here are the winners of Indiana INTERNnet’s “The Internship” movie ticket giveaway:

Thank you to all who entered our giveaway, and congratulations to Robert and Jenn!

Stay tuned as we share our review of The Internship movie in the …

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Win Tickets to The Internship Movie

A new movie, The Internship (PG-13), featuring comedic icons, Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, opens June 7th, 2013.

The movie follows two former salesmen who must compete with a group of young, tech-savvy geniuses at a coveted internship at Google for a shot at employment. In an age where digital smarts is quickly outweighing street and book smarts, we can only imagine what hilarious mishaps are in store for Vaughn and Wilson’s characters:

Watch ‘The Internship’ movie trailer here.

To enter to win tickets to “The Internship” movie, sponsored by Indiana INTERNnet, tell us about your favorite internship by filling out the Entry Form via Formstack. (It takes less than 5 minutes – we promise!)

Entries must be received by 11:59pm on Wednesday, June 5th, 2013. Two winners will be selected at random and emailed an electronic Fandango gift card good for two movie tickets (Maximum $25 value).

P.S. For extra entries, share …

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Mind The Employment Gap

From “what are you going to do when you grow up” to “what are you going to do after graduation” to even “what’s next for you,” life seems to be one never ending string of career questions. These questions assume that one is continually equipping one’s self with the tools needed to proceed onto the next career milestone. Up until my graduation from college in May 2011, I thought I was ready to take on “the real world” – to do whatever I was going to do when I grew up. However, like many of my generation, I faced a reality that I was not expecting: the student employment gap.

A labor shortage is a stark realization as the Baby Boomer workforce retires, heating up the competition for emerging talent. However, a striking contrast exists bewteen what employers require and what college students bring to the table. As reported …

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