<p>So I'm an entering Junior from community college.
I noticed most of the firms (big4, BB, consulting) start their recruting starting November and stops accepting application around Feb for the Summer internship position.</p>
<p>That means, even if I were to submit my internship application on the last day before the deadline, the only grades in my ucla transcript will be from my fall quarter (which will most likely consist of 3, 4 classes + 1 from summer '07) to show them. And I'm assuming they won't really put much weight on the grades I earned at CC. </p>
<p>Would this put me at disadvantage compared to a "regular ucla student" who's been building up his/her transcript since two years ago and have many more grades to show to the recruiters? If so, should I wait until next year to apply for internship (I plan to stay at UCLA for 3 years) so I can have much better chance?</p>
<p>I think you will get your best advice from visiting the Career Center on-campus. It's right next to the medical complex on Westwood and is a short distance from Ackerman Union. (Hopefully you are somewhat familiar with these terms -- if not these places are such landmarks that it will not be difficult to find them.) At any rate, the Career Center houses a lot of the recruiting sessions from various companies. You can check out sessions or other information through BruinView on <a href="http://www.career.ucla.edu%5B/url%5D">http://www.career.ucla.edu</a> Not only that, they have enough experience with resumes and the whole interviewing process too to amplify your internship prospects. They also have some information or collection of internships. They also have random posters involving recruitment fairs or other just company fairs with prospective employers. Also, I believe they are aware of other events through some of the pre-business fraternities or other pre-professional organizations that have their own events. If not, pursue those and find out the events and anything else that might be able to help. Essentially, I think that by visiting the Career Center, your concerns and problems might be more easily identified and remedied.</p>
<p>I cannot answer your other questions directly...</p>
<p>I was in the exact same situation. It's a great question you asked. I have to also disagree with Emmeline, the career center is not a great help when it comes to specific issues like this. The "help" I got from them was not very useful at all. Not to bash them, for most general resume and internship question they are great, but for more specific, or transfer related stuff, I didn't get much help from them.</p>
<p>dhl3, you're right, the grade thing is a problem. The thing is, no matter how you twist and turn it, by not including any CC grades on your transcript it'll look weird, and by including your CC grades, well it doesn't look weird, but many top employers simply don't like a CC past. And this is really true for the most part, several people who actually do the resume screening have told me that sometimes they are told to sort out students w/ a CC history.</p>
<p>When I started applying for internships in late December, I did include all my grades, CC and UCLA, which was not a good idea. I got rejected from most companies. As soon as I removed those grades, things were getting better, but of course many companies still didn't like the fact that I only showed them grades for about 4 classes I took during the fall quarter.</p>
<p>What I recommend is to not mention CC on your resume and unofficial transcript (for some employers I still included my CC grades in the transcript), and should it come up during an interview, don't deny it or anything (they'll find out eventually) and talk around it. It did come up during some of my interviews but was never a problem at that stage of the whole process. I ended up getting offers from several great companies.</p>
<p>Although you're planning on staying 3 years, I would definitely start applying or at least trying to do something to boost your resume so you're in great shape for your "real" junior recruiting season. A good resume to cover up any potential issues with your CC past is essential.</p>
<p>They don't really seem to care about your CC past. All the recruiters I talked to at the winter job fair just wanted my UCLA gpa.</p>
<p>The only time my cc record mattered is when I went up to some to the Hatchmot mcdonald booth. The guy was like we don't really have any internships available, but he looked over my resume anyway. He noticed that we both went to the same CC and had the same engineering instructor there. After that he seemed to be a whole new person. He gave me his card and some free stuff and told me to give him a call for a position.</p>
<p>It depends on what industry you're talking about. But don't just throw in a statement like "they don't seem to care". They DO care. They even told me. Of course they don't tell you that at some career fair, and of course they want to see your UCLA GPA, but if all you can show them is 3 or 4 classes at UCLA, it just doesn't look too good. You're just talking about your career fair experience, which is not the same as the actual job application.</p>
<p>OK after reading the info more clearly, I would agree with what was suggested. It is possible to get a internship on your first summer. You just have to be persistent with sending applications and doing followup with the companies you applied for. I have seen people with very good resumes, but they don't get a position, because they expect the employer to call them. "You must
stand out from the masses. Once, the door opens, be persistent." Also make use of the job fairs that are offered every quarter. Sell yourself to those recruiters like you did in your personal statement to get to ucla.</p>
<p>As for the career center, its hit or miss in my opinion. It depends on which counselor you talk to. Only one of the counselors was actually helpful, because he was a cc transfer as well, so he kind of knew where I was coming from. But from now on I just go there to have my resume looked over. I get more info talking to grad students and seniors about transfer related stuff. </p>
<p>Edit: Also that bruinview that the career center offers, might be of some help.</p>
<p>I think it depends. If you're looking at a BB-Bank I'd say dont mention ur CC past unless ur asked, cuz it's gonna be hard enough getting an IB internship gig outta UCLA to begin with, once u toss in the CC background it's only gonna get harder. If/When it comes up in interview dont deny it, just talk around it and what not. G'luck to ya</p>