Tag Archives: Indiana INTERNnet
Internships: A Constant State of Arrival
Last Monday, I arrived at the doorstep of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, ready to begin my internship with the Indiana INTERNnet, with a combination of anxiety and excitement. Is that not true of any adventure one is about to embark upon: knowing that nothing holds you back from failing; nothing holds you back from succeeding? The thrill of approaching the edge of a cliff in anticipation of jumping is suddenly contrasted by the gut feeling that claws you back to safety. Fortunately for me, this was not my first internship, and I did not have to fight that instinct too strongly for too long, but rather used it to propel me forward.
From the moment I walked in, I was greeted not only with smiling faces, but also with a finely choreographed office set up. Whether it was the signs that welcomed me onto the team or the cubicle …
The potential of virtual internships
Are you an employer low on office space? Do business nationally or internationally? Office located far away from major cities or college towns?
Are you a student with an academic course load that doesnât lend itself to an office internship? Canât find any internships near your campus?
If you answered âyes,â a virtual internship could be a great option for you. Itâs a trend that is picking up steam because the benefits are numerous. In 2012, there were 58 new virtual internship positions posted to our website.
Virtual internships are a great way for employers to nurture talent in soon-to-be professionals and for students to secure full-time employment post-graduation. Take it from our friends at Ativio, an information technology and business process outsourcing solutions company in Indianapolis.
âWe work in virtual environments all the time,â said Susan Nierste, vice president of business affairs. âWe know what we need as a …
Feeling the IMPACT, Part II
Indiana INTERNnet hosted the seventh annual IMPACT Awards Luncheon on Feb. 6 at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. This year, we received more nominations than ever before, and it was a sold-out crowd. This is the final recap blog, focusing on the inspiring keynote address from Caroline Dowd-Higgins, particularly her words to employers. If you didnât join us this year, we hope to see you in 2014!
Each year, the IMPACT Awards Luncheon is our opportunity to celebrate the significance of internships and spotlight the success stories. The focus is on the interns and how they are working to become the best and brightest in Indianaâs workforce. We were inspired by each story of accomplishment and believe our âRock Star Internsâ theme couldnât have been more fitting.
This year in particular, though, we were reminded that itâs not only up to the interns to be rock …
Behind the Scenes of the IMPACT Awards
The IMPACT Awards Luncheon was a great way to see some of Indianaâs brightest interns, professionals and companies. I had the opportunity to learn why Indiana is such a great place to work and intern.
Caroline Dowd-Higginsâ speech was very moving and inspired me to create my own career plan path. She stated that 70% of employees are disengaged and unhappy. This really spoke to me because Iâve always believed in finding a career I will love going to each day and where I can make a difference.  Her speech was relatable–stating that itâs okay to change your mind and that we are each a âwork in progress.â
As an intern myself, it was great to listen to three different rock star internsâ (high school, college and nontraditional) success stories. It demonstrates the work you put forth in internships directly affects your career path, making it that much easier to land …
Look Beyond Résumé to Predict Hiring Success
This article is from the Indiana Business Journal titled, âLook Beyond RĂ©sumĂ© to Predict Hiring Successâ by Jenny Vance, President of LeadJen.
Here is some insight into the mind of an employer. It is important to remember that although your rĂ©sumĂ© may not have a lot of relevant experience to a job you are applying for, companies still look for transferable skills and qualities. Donât get discouraged when applying for jobs or internships because your background doesnât necessarily reflect the description. Instead, try to highlight other qualifications that might show the company why you would make a great fit. See Indiana INTERNnetâs blog where other Indiana employers provide intern tidbits: Take it from the internship supervisors.
I hate resumes. Okay, “hate” may be a little strong, but I do think resumes are overrated. They tend to put prospective hires into a box and possibly limit companies from hiring outstanding employees. …
Intern InsightâWeek One on the Internship
As I begin my new journey into my internship with Indiana INTERNnet, I am most excited about creating content that will be useful to other interns and employers. I must reflect and admit that this wasnât where I thought I would be six months ago, but I am so thankful that this is where I am today. After finally graduating in August 2012, I was ready to embark on my journey of âlife after college.â I landed a job with the Indiana Department of Homeland Security after I had interned with them. I was funded by a grant, and found out that I would be losing my job at the end of the year, so I decided to explore other career opportunities. I actually created a profile through the Indiana INTERNnet website and began searching for internships. Â I was very excited about applying for the Marketing/Special Events coordinator position and …
Marketing internship provides applicable work experience
Megan Nelson is a student at St. Mary-of-the-Woods College in Terre Haute, Indiana. She is an employee at Lake Land College (LLC) in Mattoon, Illinois.
The goal of my internship was to use online marketing to increase the collegeâs non-traditional audience, expand its brand, and get noticed on the Internet. Part of my assignments involved using avenues like Google AdWords to reach this goal. I spent the majority of my first two weeks researching Google AdWords and how it worked before I determined the best way to learn was to “dive in head first” and create one. I generated three text ads on AdWords and conceptualized a single video ad to reach adult students from start to finish. I also explored the possibility of advertising on Pandora Radio by gathering demographic information and creating a survey via SurveyMonkey.com to help determine if that opportunity would be worth the investment.
During …
Internship helps solidify career goals
This is a guest post by Constance Chasteen, former intern at Summersville Regional Medical Center. She is a computer information systems student at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Wabash Valley, Ind.
For my internship, I was asked to either revamp or rebuild Summersville Regional Medical Centerâs Intranet site. Since their existing Intranet was only partially completed using Microsoft FrontPage 2003 (an outdated Web building program), I decided to implement a Content Management System (CMS) that could develop along with them.
I took into account that budgeting can be a struggle at small community hospitals. Therefore, I decided to use WordPress as the CMS of choice. It is a free, open source CMS with many plug-ins to expand functionality to meet the hospitalâs growing needs. Because others may need to modify what I have done, I did not want it to be excessively hard to use.
There was really no place for …
Employers: A New Age of Internship Possibilities
I invite you to clear your mind of any pre-conceived notions about internships. Now, more than ever, employers have options when selecting an intern to fit your company’s particular needs. The word “internship” is expanding to include all types of structured and supervised experiential learning beyond the traditional 12-week college internship. Each type offers a distinct approach that can produce innumerable benefits for your organization, the student and our state.
Maybe youâve dismissed the idea of hosting an intern because you donât have the resources to manage a semester-long office internship. Or maybe your companyâs work lends itself to a different internship approach. There are several new internship trends that can address specific goals you have, help you tap into fresh talent and even recruit full-time employees. There are also different demographics you can consider for internships beyond the 20-year-old college student.
New Types
âą Virtual internships: Low on office …
From intern to full-time employee
There is no better case for the value of internships than the rate at which they lead to full-time jobs. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, approximately 60 percent of 2012 college graduates who held paid internships received at least one job offer. Today, I join that group.
I began a full-time, paid internship in September with Indiana INTERNnet, a program managed by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. This was my second post-graduate internship, following three months spent at the Indiana State Fair. Iâll admit that even I â a huge advocate for internships â was a little leery of doing a second post-graduate internship.
One of our mantras at Indiana INTERNnet is âIntern Today, Employee Tomorrow.â We say it because itâs often true.
After about two months into my internship with Indiana INTERNnet, I was offered a full-time job with the Indiana Chamber as an assistant …
Internship experience builds confidence, skill sets
This is a guest post by Nicole Francis, former intern at the Council on Domestic Abuse, Inc. (CODA) in Terre Haute. She is a psychology student at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.
The goal of an internship at CODA is to gain a greater understanding of the field of social services by working to empower survivors of domestic violence. After the intern successfully completes the training program, interns begin to work at the emergency shelter, transitional housing or the CODA courthouse office.
Some of the things that I did during my internship experience include: talking to the residents, listening and letting residents voice their concerns to me. I was not confined to one area because there are several cordless phones in the house, which allowed me to move about the residence and be prepared for any calls at the same time. Interns were able to work in the donation room, linen closet, …
Discovering your career path, Part I
This is Part I of a four-part series discussing ways to narrow down what jobs youâd like to pursue post-graduation.
âSo, what do you want to do after you graduate?â
Itâs a question youâve probably fielded several times in your life. Itâs a difficult one to answer, especially at the ripe old age of 19 or 20. You may have your major solidified, but many fields of study open up an infinite number of career possibilities. How can you narrow it down?
A good place to start is with an in-depth personality test, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment. Through a series of preference and situational questions, the test breaks your personality down into four categories that dissect what makes you tick. Itâs a little eerie how this test knows you better than you know yourself!
By understanding how you function and how you naturally approach situations, …
Tips for balancing your internship and classes
One of the first skills college students learn is how to juggle. Classes, homework, social engagements… somethingâs got to give, right, if you add an internship to the mix? Not at all! Time management and organization are the solutions, and here are some tips to help you succeed.
4. Â Â Be more organized than youâve ever been with your coursework. You donât want to be cramming for exams and trying to work a job at the same time. That school stress will follow you to work and chip away at your productivity and performance. For your classes, build your study materials as you go rather than frantically compiling them right before an exam. Refresh yourself on course material at the end of every week. A great online tool for this is called Quizlet, where you can make virtual study guides, flashcards and study games. You can share information with classmates, you …
Search Scholars: A new kind of internship program
(Click above to view our video featuring Slingshot SEO)
Although Slingshot SEO is just six years old, its prominence in Indianapolis and the âsearch industryâ is unparalleled. Slingshot provides search engine services for nearly 150 clients. With the evolution of search and the nature of constant change in the search industry, Slingshot relies on young professionals to fulfill their clientsâ needs.
Slingshot SEO has launched a new-and-improved internship program called the âSearch Scholars.â The company hosts interns in every department, including sales, marketing, client success, SEO consulting, search media, IT and human resources.
The program now includes:
1-2 résumé-worthy projects Mentor program Networking development A unique intern group project Variety of trainings for professional and personal growth Weekly structured meetings Final presentations at the conclusion of their internship
You may apply for Slingshot internships using Indiana INTERNnet, but weâd encourage you to check out Slingshotâs website, too. Best of …
First-time intern gets top-notch experience at Juvenile Detention Center
This guest post is from Krista Rangel, a St. Mary-of-the-Woods student majoring in Criminal Justice and minoring in Sociology and Psychology. Krista will graduate in 2013.
My internship at Chicago Juvenile Detention Center was not only my first internship, but I was also the first intern to my site supervisor. I can honestly say this was one of the best experiences I have ever had. I learned about so many facets of the system — from the judges to simply being in the building; I would not have been able to gain these hands-on experiences in a classroom.
My internship at the detention center allowed me to see the system’s process first-hand. Working in a big building with a bunch of lawyers and judges was initially intimidating because I had never been in a corporate environment. After a few weeks, I got to know some of my co-workers and realized that although they have “big …