Many employers and managers hold misconceptions about internship programs that impede them from realizing their full potential. Here are the top five myths about internships:

1. Managers don't have the time to supervise interns. The reality is that they may not have the time NOT to have interns. A five-year study by The Internship Institute on student productivity demonstrates that a single supervisor can gain up to 225 full work days of productivity in a calendar year simply by managing interns instead of completing work tasks themselves.



2. Having interns is too much work for too little in return. Properly managed internship programs reap significant productivity benefits by freeing high-level employees from time-consuming tasks.



3. Finding good interns is a crapshoot: By applying the proper recruitment techniques, managers will learn how easy it is to attract the right individuals.



4. Internship programs are only for larger companies. This couldn't be further from the truth. There are now turnkey resources that remove the barriers for any company to create a successful program. Even a company of one can do it.



5. Companies can't have interns without office space with phones and computers: Again, not true. Technology and techniques make it possible for employers to manage interns virtually instead of doing so on-site.

The time has come for students, colleges, employers, communities and relevant organizations to modernize their perspectives about internships and act accordingly.

-- Matthew Zinman founded The Internship Institute to make internships THE solution to close the gap between school and work. He has created several internship staffing management products to make it as easy as possible for employers to create the best program. These solutions include: The Blueprint for Internship Success, a supervisor training video (DVD) of proven best practices, the Intern Toolkit with step-by-step resources and downloadable templates, and The Intern Supervisor Guidebook to improve where the internship experience truly happens: one-on-one. These solutions combine his experience managing more than 200 student interns with his passion to make a difference. The professionalism of these products reflect his expertise in communication management and business strategy consulting to nearly 100 companies since 1989. He is a frequent lecturer and author about related topics.

Posted by Candice Arnold on March 27, 2008 at 5:07 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

I was blessed to grow up in Chicago during a time when the Bulls were the most dominant sports team in the world. I was crazy about each and every player on the team, but was especially obsessed with BJ Armstrong. Now, I know that you may be thinking that BJ is a funny choice, given the more obvious picks of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and the likes, but there was something about BJ's work ethic and drive that made me fall in love with him. So when I saw him eating dinner at a restaurant near my house, I could hardly contain myself. Now imagine yourself eating dinner everyday next to your favorite Olympic heroes. As an intern at the U.S. Olympic Committee you could do just that, plus breakfast and lunch.

The United States Olympic Committee, aka USOC, conducts a summer internship program for college Sophomores and Juniors. The internship sites are in Colorado Springs, Colo., Lake Placid, N.Y., and Chula Vista, Calif. Positions are either with the USOC or within an individual sport National Governing Body (i.e., Archery, Swimming, Volleyball, etc.). Interns receive a small stipend in addition to free meals in the Athletes' Dining Hall.

The program offers internships in the areas of: broadcasting, journalism, marketing, sports administration, culinary nutrition and sport science (strength and conditioning or training/performance). To apply, you must fill out an official application and attach a resume and an official grade transcript. To receive an official application, visit the USOC internship webpage, and send an email to the contact listed at the bottom.

Article by Willy Franzen and courtesy of One Day, One Internship | A blog about internships for college students.

Posted by Candice Arnold on March 26, 2008 at 11:08 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

Today, we're going to look at Draftfcb, which happens to be the world's third oldest ad agency (although there have been a few mergers and acquisitions inbetween). They often do contracts in the nine-figures, so they're kind of a big deal.

Those contracts come from names like Kmart, Kraft Foods, and the US Census Bureau. They may not be brands that really get you excited, but that's why they need brilliant advertising minds like those of the people at Draftfcb (or yours). So what kind of interns is Draftfcb looking for to help them get people excited about shopping at Kmart and eating Lunchables? They lay it out pretty well on their "What About You" page. We'd link to the page, but Draftfcb's entire site is in Flash, which doesn't allow links to individual pages. Despite this, it's a nicely put together site with great copy - exactly what you'd expect from a major ad agency. They even have a blurb on why you should intern for them (okay, so it's not an entire site devoted to recruiting interns):

Because you don't like making copies and running out for coffee (unless it's your own). Here, we'll put you in the trenches and through the ringer and you'll come out the better for it. You'll gain real advertising experience and witness what it's like to work at a brand new breed agency. And, of course, you'll have fun while you're at it.

This sounds like a genuine message from a company that cares about its interns. They're looking to develop your talent for the future while giving you a summer that's still fun. It's no wonder that Draftfcb was named one of the Top 20 Places to Work in Chicago.

Unfortunately, Draftfcb's blurb about internships is all they offer. There's not even information on how to apply. You're left to assume that you should submit a resume just like you should for any other job that they offer. We had to do some serious digging to find some more in-depth information, but a little poaching from the University of Michigan School of Art & Design's Career Services Blog turned up this gem. It's a PDF file that tells you everything that you could want to know about interning at Draftfcb. Internships are offered in Account Management, Media, Planning, Customer Intelligence, Finance, Event/Sports Marketing and New Business. You can apply by submitting a resume and cover letter to molly.martin@draftfcb.com. Apparently Draftfcb does some campus recruiting, although they don't make it easy to find out about. We'll also add that internships are located in Chicago and paid $600 a week. That's great pay for a summer intern.

We thought we were done, but we were able to find information about one more internship at Draftfcb. It's in User Experience Architecture and the description is extremely in-depth. For this one, you should send a resume and work samples (and probably a cover letter too) to renetta.welty@draftfcb.com. It's amazing what a little research can turn up. A lot of internship searchers would probably give up, or just send in a general resume, but by subscribing and reading our job search tips, you'll be able to find new internships that are below the radar every day.

Article by Willy Franzen and courtesy of One Day, One Internship | A blog about internships for college students.

Posted by Candice Arnold on March 26, 2008 at 10:54 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

Fox News - a name that brings a broad array of reactions depending on whom you say it to. Some see it as the only fair and balanced news source. Others call it a propaganda machine. Some tune in every day for the sheer tabloid-like entertainment value. A lot of people even have opinions without having watched Fox News more than the 3 minutes they saw it muted on a tv in a public place. No matter what your opinion is, you can't deny that Fox News' formula has made it a cable news ratings giant. Whether you want to pursue a career in journalism, or you're much more interested in becoming a television personality, Fox News has internships that can give college students the experience that they need to get a top entry-level job in broadcasting.

As you'll quickly realize, Fox News doesn't have the most organized online recruiting presence, but you have to love this quote from their FAQ page, "Get a head start in your career and an unfair advantage in the job market with an FNC internship." We've never heard it put that way before, but we like it. The Fox News Internships site is all in Flash, which means that we can't link to the relevant pages. The site is kind of odd too, for its main focus seems to be on convincing students to join the campaign to bring Fox News to more campuses across the country. The mention of their internships program (on their internships page, nonetheless) seems like an afterthought. Basically, they say that most internships are located in New York City and are for college credit (read: unpaid). To apply, you can send a resume and cover letter to internships@foxnews.com.

Beyond Fox News' internships site, there's also a video that Fox News' Jobs page says is about their "Intern Program." It's actually a video about Fox News Channel's Apprentice Program. What's that? Well, we're not exactly sure. After watching the video (which had an advertisement before we could watch it - how stupid is that?), the only thing that became very clear was that the Apprenticeship Program is geared towards minorities. Since Fox first calls it an intern program, we thought that maybe it was a special internship program, but it appears to be more of a year-long segue into an entry-level job at Fox. It's kind of somewhere between an internship and a full time job - we think. An article from the Indiana Daily Student clears up some of our questions and tells us that "Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes established the apprentice program in 2002 to attract and assist minority employees." We're not sure if non-minorities are excluded from this program (is that even legal?), but it doesn't matter all that much since Fox News fails to say how one should apply for the program. We're telling you about it, just so you don't end up confused about what you should apply for.

Basically, just e-mail Fox News a resume and cover letter about why you want to work in broadcast journalism and at Fox News in particular. It seems to be an informal application process, which can be a good thing - especially for those who use the openness of the process to showcase their creativity. Interning at Fox News will definitely offer valuable experience if you do a little more research and figure out how to get your foot in the door.

Article by Willy Franzen and courtesy of One Day, One Internship | A blog about internships for college students.

Posted by Candice Arnold on March 26, 2008 at 10:45 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

We're big fans of Seth Godin. In case you don't know who he is, he's a marketing guru who happens to have his own action figure. If that's enough to sell you on him, then you might want to take a look at some of the books he's authored such as Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync?, Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers, The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick), and Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable. We love Seth's advice to companies, and we love it when they use his advice in marketing their products. It's all about making customers happy. What's not to love? We just wish companies would take the same approach to recruiting for internships and entry-level jobs. That's why we're here writing for you every day. We want to give you the experience the employers don't, while showing them how it should be done. Potential employees should be treated like customers, not like telemarketers who call during dinner.

When we saw that Seth Godin was offering a summer internship, we got excited for you - it doesn't get better than this for a college student with an interest in marketing! After we settled ourselves down, we went over to Squidoo to read about the details of the internship. Our excitement continued as we read on. It's open to college and high school students. There are 4 or 5 positions. And there's a deposit required. Wait! What? We immediately knew what Seth was up to, but for most people this is an off putting idea. Seth knows how people work. If you offer the an opportunity like this internship (which is more of an educational experience than a job), there's a good chance that someone will not show up, slack off, or just be a pain the butt. A deposit weeds those people out so that only the right people get access to the opportunity.

If anyone else served up this idea, we would be very skeptical, but coming from Seth made it seem legit. In his words, he wanted " to combine the 'you pay to come' model of summer camp with the 'we pay you to do low level work' of an internship to create a learning experience for students that was, split the difference, free." We get it. We kind of like it. But it still feels wrong to us, as it did to Seth's friend Joel. Joel e-mailed Seth and got Seth to rethink this idea. Seth responded with this post, where he goes through his thought process and why he has now decided to pay his interns instead of charging a refundable deposit.

Seth is now offering $3,000 per month for college students, and $1,500 per month for high school students. That's big money for an internship! The program with Seth runs from June 30th to July 21st, and then interns will be invited to work on Squidoo projects for the remainder of the summer. Here are the rest of the details. The offices are located in Hastings on Hudson, NY, which is a short train ride from New York City (the offices are within walking distance of the train stop). The hours are 10 AM to 5 PM (Seth clearly knows what interns want). And to apply, you must send an application in PDF format to seth@squidoo.com. What should you include in your application? Anything you want! Being creative is part of the application. The deadline for applications is April 2nd.

UPDATE: Apparently we didn't emphasize being creative enough. Don't send a resume! You're more than just a list of accomplishments, so sell yourself! Seth says so.

Article by Willy Franzen and courtesy of One Day, One Internship | A blog about internships for college students.

Posted by Candice Arnold on March 26, 2008 at 10:34 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

The President's Council of Economic Advisers is exactly what you'd expect it to be, a group of economists who advise the President on economic matters and drive the policy that the President pursues. The current Chairman is Edward Lazear (he wrote one of the more interesting economics textbooks that I encountered in college), and former Chairs include Ben Bernanke (current Chairman of the Fed) and N. Gregory Mankiw (a Harvard professor and one of my favorite bloggers). You can see that the council is a collection of the finest minds in economics; hence, an internship with the CEA is just what any budding economist needs to get started. Whether you're looking to go into finance, government, or academia, there are few better opportunities.

Interns with the Council of Economic Advisers typically assist the CEA staff in researching a wide range of macroeconomic, microeconomic, and international issues; provide assistance in making charts and analyzing data; and take on administrative duties to support the work of the Council. The description makes it sound like interning at the CEA might include some of the less desirable tasks associated with an internship such as making copies, filing folders, and getting coffee. That's what "administrative duties" means to us. To put it in economic terms, it's a tradeoff. You might be bored some days, but you'll get to work with great economic minds, network with important people, and have a prestigious name to put on your resume.

Internships are offered at the CEA in Spring, Summer, and Fall. If you'd like to intern this summer, you need to get your application together by March 31st. Those looking for a fall internship have until May 31st to apply. Applicants are expected to send a resume, transcript, and cover letter to rrogers@cea.eop.gov. The CEA only accepts interns who are full time college students, U.S. citizens, and at least 18 years old. Lastly, we noticed that even the White House website gets it confused about whether it's the Council of Economic Advisers or Advisors. Advisers seems more prevalent, but you may want to try both if you're doing Google searches for your research.

Article by Willy Franzen and courtesy of One Day, One Internship | A blog about internships for college students.

Posted by Candice Arnold on March 26, 2008 at 10:25 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

Unlike college seniors who are looking for full time employment, interns-to-be don't need to worry much about recession and other macroeconomic factors. Since internships are temporary and often meagerly paid, if paid at all, they don't put the same kind of strains on companies that a permanent hire does. That means that you don't need to worry about recession-proofing yourself yet; however, you may want to keep an eye to the future by considering an internship at a non-profit that takes many of its interns on full time. One example is the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, "a private, nonpartisan, not-for-profit institution dedicated to research and education on issues of government, politics, economics, and social welfare," which has hired 50 of its interns permanently over the past 10 years.

The main activities of the American Enterprise Institute are sponsoring research and conferences and publishing books, monographs, and periodicals. By doing so, they push for a "competition of ideas" that they see to be the essence of a free society. They claim to be non-partisan, much like the Brookings Institution; however, there tends to be some debate over that. Both organizations have a similar focus, but allegedly their political leanings are opposite of each other. It's good to know that, despite their differences, Brookings and AEI have a history of cooperation, having launched the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies as well as the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project. You'll certainly want to take a look at the types of research that AEI conducts before you consider applying for any of their internships.

The reason that we see non-profits like AEI as recession resistant is that they get funding from a variety of sources - donations from corporations, foundations, and individuals in addition to investment gains from their endowment. With that said, there's almost no better way to recession-proof your future job search than by being a superstar intern. Now is the time to find a great place to work, and prove your worth. Do that and you'll be sitting pretty while your classmates are freaking out about how entry-level hiring has dried up (not that we predict that's going to happen, but just in case). Let's look at AEI's internship program, so that you can see what kind of opportunities will make your job search easier a year or two from now.

Interns at AEI are paired with a "a scholar or business director whose area of expertise coincides with the intern's interests." In addition to this, there are many educational opportunities for interns such as entrance to lectures and tours of Washington, D.C. There are about 50 positions in fields that include "economic policy, foreign and defense studies, social and political studies, media affairs, The American magazine, publications editing, information systems, marketing, and human resources." The AEI internships page is very in-depth but doesn't say a lot about what day to day tasks interns are expected to take on.

The deadline to apply is April 1st for Summer internships and September 1st for Fall internships. AEI has a page that details their application process, but you should know that a cover letter, resume, writing sample, and unofficial transcript are all required. Like we said, there's a lot of information on the AEI site.

Article by Willy Franzen and courtesy of One Day, One Internship | A blog about internships for college students.

Posted by Candice Arnold on March 25, 2008 at 6:56 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

The One Day, One Job/Internship team is partaking in the tradition of Spring Break (even if some of us aren't in college anymore), so our posts are going to be on the shorter side for the next week or so. We figure, time off from school should give you plenty of time to do the research yourselves, right? Our compromise is that we're going to give you more links, and less commentary. How's that? I'm enjoying the wildlife of Puerto Rico, which includes ospreys, tarpon, egrets, iguanas (invasive, but still cool to look at), and a lot more, so it's appropriate that today's internships come from the National Wildlife Federation (NWF).

The NWF is a non-profit organization that aims to inspire Americans to protect wildlife for our children's future. If you love the outdoors and the creatures that live in the wild, then interning with them is a great way to spend your Summer. Internships are paid and vary in length - many last much longer than the typical 10-12 weeks of most internships. In their Ann Arbor, MI office the NWF has internships in Environmental Management Systems (Conservation Programs) and Legal. There's also an internship in Education (Conservation Programs) listed, but it says that the start date was in January. Either they reused a listing, they never took it down, or they haven't filled the position yet. Lastly, there's an internship in International Affairs (Conservation Programs) at NWF's Washington, DC office. You can also search internships on the NWF website, but at the time of this writing, you won't find any that we haven't already mentioned.

Article by Willy Franzen and courtesy of One Day, One Internship | A blog about internships for college students.

Posted by Candice Arnold on March 25, 2008 at 6:48 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

"May you live in interesting times." It's allegedly a translation of a Chinese proverb, but Wikipedia can't even figure out who actually said it first. Regardless, an internship at the Federal Reserve Board should be extremely "interesting" over the next year (at the very least). With Bear Stearns almost falling into bankruptcy, and a lot of other investment banks in trouble, an internship in finance doesn't look nearly as attractive as it did last semester. Still, if you're interested in economics, finance, or a related field, a job at the Federal Reserve Board is a great alternative. Although connected to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Federal Reserve Board is a different entity. If you don't already know, the Fed, which is led by Chairman Ben Bernanke, is responsible for crafting the monetary policy that supports the American economy.

Most internships at the Federal Reserve Board are in Economic Research. Project Internships are paid and targeted to undergraduates with a background in economics, finance, statistics, mathematics, or computer science. These are for the summer only, and the application deadline is April 1st. There are unpaid internships at the Fed year round. The deadlines for these are April 1st for the summer, July 31st for the fall, and November 15th for the spring. The Fed also offers IT internships and internships for graduate students (for both Summer and Fall internships apply by April 1st). The links below should help you get started on your research while we enjoy the sunshine.

Article by Willy Franzen and courtesy of One Day, One Internship | A blog about internships for college students.

Posted by Candice Arnold on March 25, 2008 at 6:28 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

Everyone has more to do than the time to do it in. Do you want to free your salaried staff for mission-critical tasks? Put interns to work for your business and harness their full potential.

A common misconception is that it takes more effort to manage students than what they can produce. However, a recent study shows how a single intern supervisor can gain up to 225 full work days of productivity/year simply by trading their time to manage and mentor multiple interns instead of doing everything themselves. Our friends at The Internship Institute call this the "Intern Productivity Time-Paradigm," and they've got the data to prove it.

All any manager needs to do is inventory five or more hours/week of work they do that they can delegate. This time exchange creates opportunity to accomplish project work that would otherwise remain on the proverbial 'backburner' and it enables managers to rise above lower-level tasks to be more productive themselves. To be effective, managers must shift their attitude toward interns and realign their actions to manage them most productively.

Maximizing productivity involves five core skills that qualified interns possess: research, writing, planning, phone and computer work. In fact, college and even high school students often bring knowledge and skills that full-time employees may not have; including being technology savvy, knowing research methods, and applying career-specific talents based on classroom learning and other experience.

These core skills apply to hundreds of meaningful projects that support common needs among most businesses. Some examples include having interns conduct surveys, do competitive intelligence research, uncover and pursue marketing opportunities, develop and manage website content, write and edit articles for publication, plan events, contact organizations of interest, prepare presentations, and find online resources.

More and more employers now realize that college students are highly competent, highly motivated and, if well-managed, highly valuable. Any business that hires college graduates or simply needs added staff resources can benefit from having interns and infusing their bottom line with productivity.

-- Matthew Zinman founded The Internship Institute to make internships THE solution to close the gap between school and work. He has created several internship staffing management products to make it as easy as possible for employers to create the best program. These solutions include: The Blueprint for Internship Success, a supervisor training video (DVD) of proven best practices, the Intern Toolkit with step-by-step resources and downloadable templates, and The Intern Supervisor Guidebook to improve where the internship experience truly happens: one-on-one. These solutions combine his experience managing more than 200 student interns with his passion to make a difference. The professionalism of these products reflect his expertise in communication management and business strategy consulting to nearly 100 companies since 1989. He is a frequent lecturer and author about related topics.

Posted by Candice Arnold on March 24, 2008 at 4:57 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

USAToday has internships available year round for students who need experience in the field of journalism. The internships are only open to students who will earn academic credit for their experience. Whether your interest is in print, broadcasting or new media, USAToday has an internship waiting.

According to their site, USAToday wants "outstanding journalism and media-experienced students in News, Sports, Life, Money, Tech, Weather, Travel, Op/Ed, computer-assisted reporting and more."

If you're a journalism student looking for a quality internship, USAToday might be just the place for you. Based in McLean, VA - with the exception of an internship offered each term in their New York bureau - USAToday also needs students who are proficient in editing, packaging photos, graphics, video, and audio.

Posted by Candice Arnold on March 18, 2008 at 10:10 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

InternZoo has many employers registered on its site. It's certain that there are many less well known than others. The featured employer profile is one way that InternZoo helps students learn about employers they might otherwise missed.

Brick Wall Management is a music artist management and entertainment consulting firm based in New York City. An internship with Brick Wall Management could one day lead to a lucrative job in the music industry.

In addition, the Kristin Ann Carr Fund, which offers grants for cancer research focusing on teens and young adults, is headquartered at Brick Wall Management.

If you're looking for an internship or entry level job in the music industry, consider applying to Brick Wall Management.

Posted by Candice Arnold on March 14, 2008 at 9:14 PM | Leave a Comment (0)