<p>
</p>
<p>That’s a good point. I shouldn’t have generalized so much from my daughter’s experience. The unpaid internships she applied to were at government agencies and nonprofit organizations, not for-profit companies. I see what you mean about the situation in the business world.</p>
<p>bc–when you say that there are many internships in your area, do you mean your area in computers or your geographical area?</p>
<p>Geographical area. There were a lot of internship posts from the suburbs of Boston out to Route 495 for software and related fields this past spring.</p>
<p>Here’s a sort of depressing article on the state of things right now.
[Intern</a> Nation: Welcome to the wonderful world of working for no pay. | The Big Money](<a href=“http://www.thebigmoney.com/articles/judgments/2009/06/10/intern-nation]Intern”>http://www.thebigmoney.com/articles/judgments/2009/06/10/intern-nation)
I forwarded to my s and encouraged him to look into a part time opportunity during the school year so he’s not starting at zero next year.</p>
<p>BCEagle - there were quite a few postings in our geo area too this spring…but very few responses to sent resumes. And one of the jobs my s applied to got 1500 apps!</p>
<p>Nice to know! Plus, Boston is a great place for students.</p>
<p>Just found out this morning that a coworker’s husband found contract work in his field (biomedical engineering). His previous company went out of business a few months ago and he was only casually looking for work as he could watch the kids this summer while collecting unemployment.</p>
<p>Everything I read says it’s is very, very hard out there but there are some exceptions by geography or industry.</p>
<p>Bankruptcy lawyers and lobbyists are very busy.</p>
<p>Much to my mother’s despair, my sister (rising junior at NYU) came home from her semester abroad having not started the job hunt. After a couple weeks, she had THREE job offers in hand – two paid, one “stipend”. I’m a rising senior and started looking last fall, got through three rounds of one company’s interviews before being told they were cutting the program, and then in February, landed the paid internship I’m in now. Most everyone I know from my Tier 1 LAC has a job for the summer though a LOT more people are going back up to school and doing research for professors.</p>
<p>By the way, my sister’s a communications major and I’m an English major. I’m totally thanking my lucky stars that everything worked out this summer.</p>
<p>^^^
son’s friend, rising senior, had a similar issue after coming home from a semester abroad. So far…nothing. Briefly considered selling knives until my s talked him out of it. He’s not even looking for internships at this point…just something that pays!</p>
<p>^ Ugh! We have had to put up with several children of friends and co-workers selling those damn knives! It’s great training for something, I guess – aggressive American hucksterism, with a little pyramid marketing thrown in.</p>
<p>Best internship I’ve heard about this year – working with the GM of a major league baseball team creating databases and programs to analyze player trade value. For pay. The person who has it – goes to a small, if prestigious, LAC – worked for almost two years to arrange it.</p>
<p>^how do i get that job. i’ll take it without pay. (this coming from a kid with a paid job this summer)</p>
<p>Reminds me of an episode of Num3ers.</p>
<p>When I was in college, my work study job was at the career center. Talk about being in the right place!!!</p>
<p>For all of you who are looking, run don’t walk there. Career centers help graduates as well as students and have an incredible set of resources.</p>
<p>P.S. I see from looking at this site:</p>
<p>[SF</a> State Career Center](<a href=“http://www.sfsu.edu/~career/alumni/alumni.htm]SF”>http://www.sfsu.edu/~career/alumni/alumni.htm)</p>
<p>That alums and non alums can both use their services for a small fee - looks like $100. Quite a deal. I would bet that other career centers are similar.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Was it the one where the skate boarding high school kid ran a database and could tell which big name ball players were probably using steroids? Boy, baseball could probably use him now to decide which players to keep out of the Hall of Fame. Right now, it seems that almost everyone from a certain era is suspect…another 102 to be leaked out, one by one.</p>
<p>I am doing unpaid work in a local non-profit organization, although I am very thankful that they are taking me on and teaching me the ropes of non-profit organization and management. I’ll be performing a variety of roles (office work, technology services, etc.), and it seems like a great way to spend my summer. I am still waiting on call-backs on some grocery store positions, but I don’t think that’s going to come.</p>
<p>That was the episode. I think that they were showcasing applied statistics.</p>
<p>What’s interesting is that there are companies that specialize in collecting information in databases and then selling that to companies that find the information useful. It could be something as simple as surveys on the best places to eat lunch in New York to gathering data considered esoteric by others that has some use for some company looking to cut costs or increase business.</p>
<p>S1 was very fortunate to land a research/programming gig in Boston with a prof whose work he greatly admires. Got the offer last October and we have held our collective breath waiting to see what would happen. The prof’s funding came through before the economy crashed, so he is now working! It pays for his summer rent, expenses, and he’ll be able to save enough to cover all of his books/personal expenses for next year.</p>
<p>He’s a math major but with serious programming skills. I think he has finally seen the light that the programming can help him pay the bills in tough times (including during grad school).</p>
<p>I finished school during the recession in the early 80s and started with a temp agency while looking for journalism jobs. Got an offer from a big mutual fund where I was temping, it paid the same crummy $$ as entry-level journalism, and I took the leap into pension administration/communications. There are lots of jobs that even new college grads have never considered – it’s not like I set out to be a 401(k) administrator when I was a polisci/journalism major!</p>