<p>1sokkermom.
What a wonderful route!!! It took courage for your son to enlist in this day and age. When I entered grad school, there were 3 men who were Vets. They came with a mature outlook.</p>
<p>Agree. What a great path for your son and I know you are very proud.</p>
<p>^ Proud was definitely NOT the sentiment we felt when he told us he would be joining ROTC his junior year of college! 
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<p>(At that time, the feeling was more of angst and despair.) Not a happy few months…</p>
<p>My job came to me through internships I had done during college. I did a six-month internship in DC with my school’s Semester in Washington Program, and became very trusted by my bosses and pretty good at my job. Good enough that when I went back to school they asked me to stay on as a contractor and they paid me to do research from school or home or whereever I happened to be. That was great because it allowed me to keep in close contact with the network I had made while I was interning. And that eventually paid dividends because my boss, who by the time I graduated was both a boss and a valued mentor, got a job with the government and she needed staff, so she asked me to apply. And here I am. </p>
<p>I had also applied for a Fulbright Fellowship, and was a finalist but ended up not being chosen in the end. Which was for the best because had I been chosen, I would have had to decline. I wasn’t sure I wanted to do a Fulbright anyway. Smith has one of the highest Fulbright acceptance rates in the nation (I think we’re the #2 undergrad institution, after a small school in California), and I thought I would like to work abroad and build my language skills, so that’s why I applied. Figured I might as well keep my options open. </p>
<p>I would say my job search was 50% good luck and good timing, but also 50% preparation, networking, and the work I put into forming connections with my peers and bosses (not so they would give me job, but because I found these relationships very worthwhile and educational). And I owe a lot to the Smith network. It was a Smith alum I didn’t even know very well who helped me secure my original 6 month internship, which led to my full time position today. I guess the biggest take-away is that wherever you are, work hard, because you never know where the next step will take you.</p>
<p>This is a story about a friend’s child. </p>
<p>The young man had a relative who worked for X publication. One summer when he hadn’t been able to get paid employment, the young man asked him if he could just hang around the publication’s offices and do scut work for him. The relative agreed and got the young man a building pass and company ID through a friend in HR. </p>
<p>So, the young man showed up and started doing scut work for the relative. He walked around the offices, introducing himself. He told everyone that was a summer intern working for Mr. X, but Mr. X didn’t have enough work to keep him busy full time. If they had any errands, etc., that need to be done, just ask. He’d rather be busy than just sitting around waiting until Mr. X had something for him to do. </p>
<p>This went on for about a month. Kid made himself very useful running errands, making photocopies, etc. Then one day Mr. Y, for whom the kid had done quite a few errands, asked him to do something right then. He explained that he couldn’t because Mr. X needed him to do something else at the same time. </p>
<p>The next thing he knew, Mr. X was called into the editor in chief’s offices. Mr. Y had gone storming in there, demanding to know why Mr. X got a summer intern and he didn’t. EIC says “I have no recollection of authorizing this. How much are we paying this kid?” Mr. X said "Nothing–he’s working for free. He just wants some experience and asked if he could work for me for free this summer. " </p>
<p>EIC said “Tell the kid to report to me as soon as he returns.” Kid did. EIC said “Write a couple of feature pieces on topics that interest you and give them to me.” . Publication published one of the features. Publication is part of a chain. The higher ups liked the article and it was reprinted in half a dozen other publications owned by the same company. </p>
<p>The following summer, the publication has a formal internship program, initiated by the EIC. It was absolutely deluged with apps. That summer, kid got a PAID internship with a different publication–in large part because of the published article. </p>
<p>Kid got a full time job with the publication where he did his free “internship” following graduation–beating out hundreds of other applicants.</p>
<p>Another “free” internship story. S1 has a firm job offer for a position beginning in August. He volunteered at local experimental school in the city in which he lives. He then was hired to consult part-time. They liked his work and are hiring him full-time at a very good salary for the upcoming year. He has put off grad school to take the job.</p>
<p>Both S ('05) and D ('09) found that networking CAN pay off. S, in design and media arts, uses his network to find free-lance jobs - sometimes working for one company for months at a time but as a contractor so he can decline to work on behalf of specific companies, e.g., Hummer. He’s been working since he was in school and has accumulated, according to him, a pretty healthy savings account.</p>
<p>D majored in Latin American Studies but did her senior thesis on public transportation. After returning home without any job prospects in sight (she had been a finalist for a Watson Finalist and none of her job searches were fruitful), she began networking with folks in or connected to the transportation field. Ended up first working part-time for a private company that did transportation consulting that led, within a month, to a full-time job working for the state department of transportation. Her boss from the P/T job, as well as other contacts she had established there at the DOT, put in good words for her so that, when the job opened up, she was asked if she was interested. Note: she was very reluctant to network with people she knew until H and I assured her that she was not using them and that they would have been disappointed if she hadn’t approached them for advice.</p>
<p>Free internship is techniquely illegal under fair labor law if it’s not done properly. It needs to be for educational purpose and it can’t take away work from otherwise done bybother employees. I’ve had many friends’ kids wanting to work in my office for free, our legal department won’t allow us to do it. I’ve had to come up with a paid internship program.</p>
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<p>This is brilliant. Devious, but brilliant.</p>
<p>A lot of on-campus recruiting is local. A student who wants to relocate to a different area and who has a friend at a college in that area could use this technique to great advantage, I think.</p>
<p>Marian,
S1 spent a lot of time looking at department bulletin boards when he was looking at UG schools. Some had lists of where people were working, attending grad school, etc. Was VERY useful for seeing how well the kids from that program did and how schools/employers viewed the school’s graduates!</p>