<p>Does anyone have suggestions on the right way to inquire if a company is willing to take on a summer intern/worker, if they don't seem to have any information posted? I'm trying to scout out summer opportunities with local firms or local branches of large firms, but can't really find any information on their summer opportunities (if they exist at all, even).</p>
<p>Usually, I first search job site aggregators like <a href="http://www.simplyhired.com%5B/url%5D">http://www.simplyhired.com</a> and <a href="http://www.indeed.com%5B/url%5D">http://www.indeed.com</a> </p>
<p>Another method was to find local business in the field i was interested in, then "cold e-mailed" them asking if they offered internships. I never found one, but luckily for me, my school has a coordinator specifically for getting students internships</p>
<p>I dont how to start looking though, because All i know is that I want a business related internship this summer, but I dont know how and what to search for. Business is such a broad category, which is exactly why I would like to intern this summer, so that I can get a better feel for what its really like and whether I could be suited to the field.. Any ideas? What kind of local firms would you contact, and what would they make you do?</p>
<p>I've always asked my friends and families for connections. I and some of my friends have gotten great internships that way. Ask around.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I dont how to start looking though, because All i know is that I want a business related internship this summer, but I dont know how and what to search for. Business is such a broad category, which is exactly why I would like to intern this summer, so that I can get a better feel for what its really like and whether I could be suited to the field.. Any ideas? What kind of local firms would you contact, and what would they make you do?
[/quote]
As for what local firms I'm going to contact, the phrase "any and all" seems to pop into my head. I'm a freshman in business and don't have a clear idea of what I want to do, so anything's game. There's a large commercial/business insurance company who has one of their main offices about 2 minutes from my house, but after searching around enough, it turns out that they don't take interns until junior year. Dow Jones is also headquartered in my town, but they too don't accept interns until junior year. I'm currently looking to see if there are any accounting or finance related firms around who will be willing to take someone on even to do busy work. I'm even looking at contacting an up-and-coming VOIP company nearby to see if they'd have anything that could benefit me - I'm sure that they have some sort of business-related department that could help me get to know what some area of business is like.</p>
<p>Its a lot easier if you're in college though isnt it? I'm looking for something over the summer and I'm a junior.. What would I even do as an intern.. Honestly, I dont know the first thing about what "business" really constitutes apart from my econ class.. Is this normal.. lol..</p>
<p>Well, for me, I'm in Computer Science. So I went online about two months ago and searched up all of the major software or other computer-related companies in the USA. Typically, the larger companies have internship opportunities available. So I applied to, for example, Sun Microsystems positions in California that involve application development and software engineering. I applied for it online on their site. You can probably do the same for just about any larger business. So figure out what you want to do and start searching. They won't come to you. You have to find them.</p>
<p>Following up on some family & good friends' (including someone who previously ran the internship program at one firm) connections to the financial institutions in NYC - Hopefully something will come of that. If not, I'll start contacting some of the smaller companies that are local to me. From what I've found so far, most of the larger companies require you to be in your junior or senior year, and smaller firms are willing to take on younger interns as long as the motivation, dedication, and drive are there. I'd love to get an internship at Dow Jones since their headquarters is in my hometown, but they don't budge on the junior year requirement.</p>
<p>oncampus, where are you from? are you in hs or college? it can make a difference. are there any colleges (including ccs) nearby? check their career center to see if they have any internship fairs coming up soon. companies start advertising summer internship opportunities in early winter.</p>
<p>Also search the net....</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rit.edu/%7Egtfsbi/Symp/highschool.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.rit.edu/~gtfsbi/Symp/highschool.htm</a>
<a href="http://www.santafe.edu/education/indexIntern.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.santafe.edu/education/indexIntern.php</a>
<a href="http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=1869317%5B/url%5D">http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=1869317</a>
<a href="http://www.intel.com/community/oregon/intern.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.intel.com/community/oregon/intern.htm</a></p>
<p>You can start by searching newspaper, college, corporate and non-profit organization websites in your area to see if there is any information regarding internships, a career center, etc.</p>
<p>I'm in college.</p>
<p>Try doing a net search on "summer internship" "undergraduate" "business" "2006" or something like that...</p>
<p>Internships at the SEC
<a href="http://www.sec.gov/jobs/jobs_students.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.sec.gov/jobs/jobs_students.shtml</a></p>
<p>2006 Georgia State Undergraduate Summer Policy Internships
...a seven-week learning program for undergraduate students entering their senior year. Interns work with faculty members on policy research projects in the school's research centers.
<a href="http://aysps.gsu.edu/intern/#why%5B/url%5D">http://aysps.gsu.edu/intern/#why</a></p>
<p>The City of New York offers dozens of internship opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students. The NYC Summer Internship Guide 2006 will be released in late Winter / early Spring 2006.
<a href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcas/html/employment/summerintern.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcas/html/employment/summerintern.shtml</a></p>
<p>Tips for those contacting companies regarding internships:</p>
<p>I wouldn't want to cold email asking for internships. I think you may have better chances if you ask to meet with that person to ask them questions about their job. This way, you would be interviewing them about their job and their company on an informational basis. This allows you to show off your communication skills and gain an immediate equal footing in the relationship. At the end of the conversation/meeting/interview I would say something like this:</p>
<p>"Thanks for your time. I really learned a lot about your company today. [insert something that you thought was especially interesting] I have a better idea about what I want to do now. If your company has any internship openings in the future, please contact me as I would love to gain some first hand experience in your field after meeting with you today. [give business card or something with your info]"</p>
<p>This works well because you are not directly asking for a job, which sounds incredibly bad. The company also can see that you are an intelligent person from what type of conversation you have and what questions you ask. This also will put you at the top of the internship list if the meeting went well.</p>
<p>Just make sure that when you do go to actually meet with someone, research that person and their industry ahead of time and come with some prepared questions to ask. It is important that you show your interest.</p>
<p>Good luck everybody. Internships can be hard to get because they are never just handed to you. Despite that, you will learn more at a good internship than in any of your classes.</p>
<p>twl, nasa has plenty of internships listed on each center's education website. they range from engineering and science to graphic and web design, accounting, etc. you may want to look into it if you're near a nasa center or willing to find housing for the summer.</p>
<p>:)</p>