<p>Hello, I'm an incoming freshman this fall 2010 and I am a little concerned about how and when I'm going to start the internship. So, do I need to visit the career center to try to look for an internship?? Also, when do people usually do internships? (during school year, winter break, spring break, summer break?)
Thank you!</p>
<p>When: ASAP
How: Earn a strong GPA and don’t let female HR workers intimidate you. They can and will call you Awkward if you give them the chance.</p>
<p>make sure you tell them that you don’t like helping others. Those types of people are definitely in demand.</p>
<p>I got my first internship the summer before freshman year. Did another one during spring semester, which I’m going to continue through sophomore year [and I’ve been offered a job for when I become a junior]. Working on another during this summer after my freshman year, which will continue through to the end of my senior year and allow me to study abroad. So, really, you can start any time.</p>
<p>To find internships, make sure to check out Career Services, online sites, and NETWORK!!! That’s how I got every single one of my internships. One was through reading science journals and contacting one of the researchers from my school, another was through joining a club, and the last was through contacting a lecturer from a seminar series who mentioned that he was the head of a nationally-recognized, government-sponsored internship program.</p>
<p>Whenever, usually freshman start internships the summer after their freshman year so check with your career center about that. Usually you can start applying for them in October.</p>
<p>There is a forum for internships here so spending some time over there can give you a bit of a feeling for internships.</p>
<p>They are several types and they are not necessarily easy to get.</p>
<p>Companies can hire interns for the summer or coop students for a semester. Going to a highly ranked school, getting a high GPA, previous work or research experience and your connections (through your school, professors, parents, parents of friends, etc.) can help.</p>
<p>Schools can provide internships. These are often associated with professors’ research and they usually get to choose so having some sort of good relationship with a professor where you are interested in their research could be a precursor. The relationship might be that you are in the professor’s class and you distinguish yourself as an outstanding student or where you have discussions with the professor about their research. You might be an outstanding student that professors talk about for one reason or another which might get you unsolicited offers for internships.</p>
<p>There are government internships. The NSA funds a lot of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) REUs during the summer. There are also internships for many other majors funded by the government.</p>
<p>Internships this past year were relatively hard to get because of the downturn in the economy. In general, you have to be somewhat creative, resourceful and clever to get them. Most internships are targeted for juniors and seniors but there are students that get them after their freshman year too.</p>
<p>@AtomicCafe: What is the online website you used for finding an internship? And also, what do you mean by network?
@BCEagle91: How can I apply for the government internships?</p>
<p>Oh also, for how long do you guys do internships? Do they write you a letter after finish your internships?</p>
<p>@linoch</p>
<p>I’ve never used a website to find an internship [like I said, all of mine were through networking], but you can Google “internships” or other keywords to find some. I’ve heard of internships.com.</p>
<p>Networking means getting to know people and using them as your contacts and advocates. Talk to your professors during office hours, research people in your intended field, send them emails, make sure they know your name. If you ask and they like you, there’s always a chance of getting to intern for them.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>some of them are posted on [USAJOBS</a> - Student Jobs](<a href=“http://www.studentjobs.gov%5DUSAJOBS”>http://www.studentjobs.gov)</p>
<p>for others, you have to go to individual agency websites. BCEagle mentioned NSA… if you google “NSA internships” you will find the relevant info.</p>
<p>“make sure you tell them that you don’t like helping others.”</p>
<p>Huh?</p>
<p>Can you explain that one?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I get the feeling that was a reference to one of OP’s recent threads about whether community service was necessary in college. Didn’t notice if the OP mentioned not wanting to help people or if the poster just assumed it from the discussion, but I’m pretty sure that’s the reference.</p>
<p>@AtomicCafe</p>
<p>Sorry, but I got a few more questions to ask:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>For how long did you do your internship? I’m planning to intern at another country but I can only stay there for a month. So, do you think month is enough for a summer internship? Also, when and what time did you usually do your internship (Monday through Friday? from morning to noon?)</p></li>
<li><p>Also, did you have to record that you did the internships or do they write a some kind of letter?</p></li>
<li><p>Do I need to write a resume and interview to get an internship?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>haha sorry for asking too many questions =)</p>
<p>sorry for some grammatical errors =(</p>
<p>
One of mine is August-December/January-May [so I reapply every semester and will have done three semesters by the time I move on to a regular job], another is June-August, and the last is April of sophomore year until May of senior year. So, all of them are decently long. I think a month depends on WHAT your internship is; since I work in labs mostly, a month wouldn’t be anywhere near long enough.
As for hours… the summer once I’m doing now is about 60 hours per week. The one that I do during the school year is a minimum of 12 hours a week. The one that I’ll be starting in a few months will be 60 hours during the summer and 3-9 hours per week in the academic year.</p>
<p>
What does this mean? What do you mean by a letter? Most of them go on my transcript since I get academic credit. The only one that I don’t get academic credit for is government-sponsored, so my name goes on a payroll and is kept through my university and recorded by the National Institutes of Health. Most of my advisors have written me letters of recommendation for other things [and will write some for grad school] that have detailed that I did during the internship.</p>
<p>
Depends on whether they ask for one. All of my internships have asked for resumes so far since there was a formal application system, but I haven’t had to do an interview yet since all of my mentors have known me personally. [I did do one short internship before my freshman year that was just me asking a professor if I could work for him in a lab, and that didn’t involve a resume, but he did sit down and ask me questions like a very, very informal interview.]</p>
<p>That was really helpful (:
Thanks for your response AtomicCafe!</p>
<p>I got a NASA space grant consortium scholarship and it requires me to do some work with an advisor. Would that be considered an internship? I have to do it every year to get the scholarship.</p>
<p>Yeah, you should start building up/fixing your resume now. It comes in handy ALL the time. I did two internships myself and I got them by looking around on my school career sites.</p>