<p>Thanks everyone for posting. I figured she was not the only kid out there with no internship, although she says all her friends are working.</p>
<p>Her internship was in Milwaukee, where she goes to school (we live in Chicago). She is a business major with a concentration in Supply Chain Managment. She has an interview set up for this Monday through a contact one of her professers gave her. She also applied for an unpaid internship but hasn’t heard back yet. She has had several phone interviews which seem to go well but as soon as they hear that her gpa is a 2.8, the interview is terminated ( her major gpa is 3.2) Despite the gpa, she has always been a diligent student and has worked on campus all through college. Her dad and I sometimes wonder if we should have sent her to an easier school.</p>
<p>It’s great to have contacts, but they aren’t any good if the contacts lose their jobs. Her uncle could have gotten her something at his company but has now lost his job. My girlfriend’s brother tried to get her in, but now his company is in bankruptcy proceedings.</p>
<p>My daughter had an internship lined up with a civil engineering firm, and received a call right before finals that the company was not hiring any interns this year. This is not a happy thing to think about when you are trying to study for exams!</p>
<p>She is a junior, and really wanted summer employment that would look on her resume, so she did not even try to get a job at the mall, or anything like that. Found three jobs, all part time. One is working on a research project with one of her profs that involves something with concrete, and it pays very little (however she loves it). She is also working for the university on a summer engineering class for high school kids, and also with the university’s WISE program. In addition she is taking two classes. </p>
<p>Her combined salaries are chicken feed compared to what she would have been earning at the internship. And she is probably putting in more hours too. However she is happy with what she is doing, and I have to say that I am darn proud of her for turning a bad situation into something positive and productive.</p>
<p>Wolfpackmom, my daughter also turned lemons into lemonade. She is thrilled to have full time employment even if it’s not in her engineering field. She told me that the only students at her university who are having success are the BUSINESS majors…internships seem to be plentiful. I quipped “well…many of those companies are receiving government money…not so with the engineering firms.”</p>
<p>S is enjoying is internship so far, even tho after paying airfare, rent in his college apartment & at the internship across the country + living expenses, he’ll net out very little cash. He’s also having landlord hassles, but working thru them. We are thrilled he got this entirely on his own by sending out LOTS of apps in January–he was disappointed he didn’t receive more offers but is happy and grateful he got this–many of his other engineering buddies didn’t get any offers.</p>
<p>D was just hired as an intern yesterday but the start date and whether/how much she will be paid is unclear (at least some minimal amount, we believe)–after the fiscal year ends, but no firm date. She’s still thrilled, as she will be taking German at the U & doing the internship at the edge of campus. Best thing is that it’s in her field–cinema. I told her to write a nice thank you note to encourage further communication about these details. If they aren’t forthcoming in response to her thank you note, she can do a follow up phone call. She was hired by a family friend. Her buddies are all networking thru family connections to get paid or unpaid internships in fields they’re considering.</p>
<p>Sigh…DD is a business major and the only things she’s been offered are nonpaying where she would have to pay living expenses far from home. She’s hoping that her former big box employer will find some hours for her. </p>
<p>I lose sleep worrying about the job situation next year.</p>
<p>Small business owner here. Sounds like the company that was dealing with the OP’s DD handled it pretty badly. In their defense times are tough. I have people calling and coming in looking for work all the time. I have some candidates who call me weekly. The bottom line is we don’t have work for them and I am trying to find enough work to keep my full time, regular employees right now. I always tell people I appreciate their diligence and that it doesn’t hurt to call. The bottom line is I can’t do much right now…we had a paid college intern last summer but I don’t have enough work for that this summer. I would hesitate to even taken an unpaid intern because I would have to keep them busy.<br>
Our youngest is going to college in the fall and hasn’t been able to find a summer job so if I really need some minimal office help I’ll get her to come in and cover.<br>
Our oldest is at NEU where internships are part of the program. He ended up taking an unpaid internship this semester and works a part time paying job nights so he has money coming in. The internship program there has been extremely difficult this year.</p>
<p>Son starts his research internship on Monday with a bunch of other students. We’re not exactly sure what he will be doing but it apparently involves a lot of programming so I think that he will be very busy. </p>
<p>I saw a several NSF internships offered this Spring, some added due to the stimulus money. Also saw lots of corporate internships in our area. I don’t know if any of them have been rescinded but there were good opportunities.</p>
<p>I know that times are tough but the signs of the downturn have been with us since last September.</p>
I think in this case the business deserves to be beat up since they didn’t notify the interns of being let go until a week after they started. This really puts the individuals through the ringer unnecessarily. The business should have made the decision before they started (as happened in the other cases posted here) - the sooner the better. I don’t think the business has any good excuse for treating people this way due to their own lack of business acumen.</p>
<p>An intern may have to buy clothes, transport their things and find housing in another city to work in the internship. Yanking a job with no compensation for moving and housing expenses that have to be paid upfront can actually cost the intern, not just simply deny them income and experience.</p>
<p>I agree with uud’s comment on business acumen.</p>
<p>Last summer my S’s internship ended after 6 weeks. The company, related to the auto industry, laid off 1000 people that day. My S was glad for those 6 weeks and grateful for the opportunity that he received.</p>
<p>He decided last fall to take a 12 month co-op for this coming year. His father and I weren’t thrilled that he was going to delay his graduation for a year but supported his decision. This decision looks better and better as time goes on. He will have an extra year for this recession to abate, he will gain valuable experience, and since summer internships are harder to find this year, he will have work experience where others might not have. It hopefully will give him an edge up after graduation. We will see.</p>
Very true. My D graduated last May and had a job lined up as of the preceding December, thank goodness. This Spring, she was on the other side of the desk: her organization had over 500 applications for 10 internships that were not interchangeable, i.e., the were looking for different combinations of skills/interests/background. D was part of the team evaluating and interviewing for one position. She said that after making the first cut, it was painful. GPA’s lower than a 3.7 weren’t in the game at all. There were lots of very qualified applicants, from rising juniors to graduating students to grad students.</p>
<p>Chicken-and-egg: they didn’t have a bias for applicants from “better” schools but the applicants from “better” schools in general wrote superior applications. Places like Tufts, Amherst, etc. Her group’s intern is from Swat.</p>
<p>S1 got an offer afor a research spot last October and we have been on pins and needles praying it doesn’ get pulled out from under him at the last minute, as he has already committed to a sublet for the summer. He turned down the teaching job at a camp last year because this research gig was such a terrific opportunity.</p>
<p>At my office, our PT college student gave us one day’s notice that he had landed an accounting internship. Doubt he’ll get rehired here in the fall when he wants spending money!</p>
<p>A young man from my church just graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree. He had a good job lined up early … then he got a call recently that the offer was withdrawn due to the economy. Ouch!</p>
<p>my son had a very good job offer in a successful unique niche company in the brokerage industry…in August before his senior year. He was told to think it over, so in October he called to accept the job…where he had interned summer at age 22. He was among the “lucky 20%” of the class of 2009 employed. All year, we thanked our lucky stars, but more and more with a sense of disbelief. He did not interview with corporations at Duke this year since he had made a promise. In January, he called to discuss the economy with the man who offered him this fantastic job. He was told “there will be a place for you regardless of the economy.” In March, the man called to verify his graduation date. In April, he didn’t return my son’s calls. After graduation…son called to get start date settled and was told “a hiring freeze is in effect.” We think they realized this by spring but failed to face up and tell the Duke student they had hired</p>
<p>Can’t blame them for rescinding (seriously!) but feel all companies have an obligation to notify hires of a “freeze” in hiring policy ASAP…he has been told to keep checking in month to month…and they are interested in hiring him later…</p>
<p>On a brighter note, our newly minted VA Tech nephew has been hired on stimulus money that is putting some engineering firms to work. We are extremely happy for him…</p>
<p>So…I need to get off of CC and find Jobs Confidential online…anyone with a lead on jobs///PM!! don’t post because a horde of equally deserving graduates will also put in a resume…</p>
<p>a few other Duke grads we know have been told…check in January 2010 but the offer is deferred/rescinded…
Discouraging to see the numbers that TheDad describes clamoring for an internship.</p>
<p>My girl has patched together a couple of jobs. She is working for the landlord of the family business. It is supposed to be part time and she is supposed to be training but so far she’s been working there full time without direct supervision. (They have known her and seen her work ethic for years.) She is also working in the family business on an as needed basis along with one regular day a week. Last winter without asking she was offered a summer job in her intended field but they now have a hiring freeze. I’m encouraging her to volunteer there so she sees what the field is actually like but until now she’s been too tired to pursue it.</p>
<p>During past summers, dh had paid interns in his (small) engineering firm. He liked to hire college engineering students who had finished their junior year. There is no question that no interns will be hired this summer. As it is, some employees (CAD techs) have had to go to part-time.</p>
<p>I got a few jobs using headhunters when I was a lot younger. The advantage of using a headhunter is that there was a clause with financial penalties (on the hiring company) if they rescinded the job that wasn’t the fault of the prospective employee.</p>
<p>It’s hard to tell a grad or intern that their job has been rescinded or frozen but doing it as soon as possible gives the student the most time to try to recover.</p>
because a horde of equally deserving graduates will also put in a resume…</p>