Drake University wrote some great coverage on Intern Queen recently !
Check it out ! http://drakej70.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/lauren-berger-the-self-professed-intern-queen
Check out my feature “Interns Wanted and Working Harder” below:
http://www.recessionwire.com/2009/08/17/internships-in-recession/
In the past few weeks there have been several blog posts and articles focusing on the wealthy advantage of certain students in conjunction with unpaid internships. This particular advantage infers that students coming from middle to upper class families have an easier time taking on unpaid internships. The advantage also assumes that students from lower-income families need to pay their own way through school and therefore cannot realistically participate in an unpaid internship program.
In an ideal world, all internships are paid programs. However, the current economy has proven many young adults are willing to make financial sacrifices during difficult times because the experience of working at a desirable company will pay off in the long run.
A recent Forbes article stated: “an extremely large percentage of the student population cannot afford unpaid internships. These are students who struggle to balance the rigors of college with the need to earn enough to cover living expenses.”
This article provides students with a reason to not pursue internship opportunities. Lack of time. Lack of money. It incorrectly suggests that wealthy students are taking advantage of internship programs while disadvantaged students are working too many hours to fit in time for internships. As someone who has worked for several years with thousands of college students from diverse backgrounds, I can assure you that this is not the case. It takes a motivated and ambitious individual to pursue available internships. As educators and mentors, we should constantly be encouraging students to consider internship opportunities – both paid and unpaid.
It is not the financially secure person who gets the job; rather it is the focused candidate who strives to succeed and understands the value of an internship opportunity. This candidate will find a way to make everything work in their specific situation. If anything, their lack of financial means serves as a motivational tool which provides the necessary incentive to excel in their chosen fields.
Lauren Berger
“The Intern Queen”
Lauren Berger is the CEO of Intern Queen Inc. She is known as “The Intern Queen” after participating in 15 internships during her 4 years of college. Berger currently runs both http://www.internqueen.com and http://www.quarterlife.com/intern. She has been featured in Business Week, The New York Post, Washington Post, etc. Her National Fall Speaking Tour kicks off September 30th 2009.
COMMENTS
As usual, I asked my followers on Twitter what they thought – Is there a wealthy advantage?
segod@InternQueen no weekends is how I handle a FT job & FT school & an internship & really really long days but it’s all worth it… Right?
saramckinniss@InternQueen 1 of the internships I had was paid, but it was in NYC and I had to take out a student loan to cover living costs. =ed out tho.
rachellevi@InternQueen Job and Internship plus student groups and classes is stressful!
bruin@InternQueen Yes, most definitely. Especially in the fields of film and television, where it’s just about who you know.
gogetterjanet@InternQueen I don’t know? Maybe in a way because they might not need the money/work hourly @ a job so they can do an internship 4 free.
tiaramerchgirl@InternQueen Oh definitely (and I say that as a former sorta-wealthy student). You don’t have to worry about basic needs as much.
Dtothel_o…during college and never got to do an internship. Now I lack relevant experience to start my career. @InternQueen
joanntran@InternQueen YES, of course!! Some can afford to do it unpaid, or take off a quarter, while the rest of us need to pay the rent and bills!
laurashumaker@InternQueen of course wealthy students have an advantage! Other students either can’t take unpaid internships or have to juggle a job too.
chadkennedy@InternQueen Absolutely! They don’t have to worry about the expenses. All they have to worry about is the internship and networking.
smart_blonde@InternQueen Yes! As do students w/ parents who still finance them. Especially with NYC & Fashion internships. No kid can afford that alone.
EricSan@InternQueen Some advantage of course. They have financial backing to take that risk. Others may still chose to do it, but more pressure.
I recently read an astonishing statistic provided by NACE (National Association for Colleges and Employers),
“As of April 2009, 59 percent of graduating college seniors, had NOT started applying for jobs .”
WHAT ? Even in a “good” economic climate this demonstrates a lack of preparation. Student’s should be applying for jobs towards the BEGINNING of each semester. The job search process can be a very LONG one and it’s key to get started as early as possible.
- Students graduating December 2009 should start their job search process mid-September.
- Students graduating May/June 2010 should start their job search mid -January.
Prepare For the Job Search
1. Keep a Calendar. This your time to really get organized. While you hang around and have summer “lazy days” or fun time on the weekend, take a moment to create a calendar. Use your IPhone, Blackberry, Microsoft OutLook, Google Calendar, or even a planner to choose days that you will accomplish certain tasks. You’ve been through the back-to-school a few times by now and should know what you will have to do. I suggest marking down the following days on your calendar:
- 2 days where you can sit down and start applying for Fall internships.
- 1 day where you can take a last look at your Fall 2009 classes and make sure you are meeting all of your requirements.
- 1 day to write Thank You Notes and log contacts from your current internship and any career-related events you may have attended.
- 3 days (after your semester starts) to start researching job possibilities in your location of interest.
- 1 day to compile your job application materials and put together any sort of portfolio, letters of reference that you might need.
- 1 day to set up informational interviews with any of your contacts that are already in place.
- 2 days to start your job reachout and start sending in application materials (clearly stating your graduation date) and requesting interviews for October (ish).
2. Organize Your Contacts. If I had to go back in time, I would have starting organizing my contacts much earlier. Go through your piles of business cards and random papers and start really keeping track of the people you meet. If your email system provides a great way to store contacts, go for it. Do you need to save everyone’s number in your cell phone ? No. I like to use Excel documents that are always saved on my computer and that I can import into other programs to organize when necessary. Organize your contacts list with the following columns so that you can view the document in many different formats on an ‘as needed’ basis.
- Contact First and Last Name (Make sure to spell it correctly).
- Contact Direct Number and Office Line (You want to have the office line just in case the person leaves their position).
- Contact Email Address
- Company Address (If you don’t feel like typing in the entire address, just write the city and state the person is located in for time zone reasons and if you are ever in that city you can contact them).
- Status/Notes (This column is for you to keep track of how and where you met this person and when you last spoke to them. If you put in a call or email to them, track it).
- Category (Try to categorize your contacts by field or industry so that if you want to search all of your contacts in a specific field – you can).
Dinner at the Mirage with the CollegeRecruiter Gang
Here are some of my thoughts from NACE 2009. I do have some great videos that I share with http://www.collegerecruiter.com that will be made available at a later date.
1. The recruitment world actually does know how to have a good time in Vegas.
2. You can still sense the barriers between career counselors and career coaches. You can call it a “territory battle” or just a “new mindset” but I still feel a slight uncomfort coming from a majority of career counselors when they speak with career coaches such as myself or other vendors at the event. Many career coaches are using social media to reach students. Career Centers are just starting to break into that area. I think once the Career Centers put themselves where the Career Coaches are (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc) the gap will slowly close.
3. The pace of this conference was moderate. The crowds weren’t huge and apparently the turnout was down from last year. This was rumored to be due to school budget cuts and restraints. However, if a school is going to make budget cuts, should the career center be where these cuts are being made ? Shouldn’t the career center, in a terrible economy, an economy where over 63 percent of college seniors are worried about the job market (NACE), be putting funding towards the career center instead of taking it away ?
4. There are jobs. News alert ! Jobs are available. I spoke to every vendor at the NACE conference and tons of employers who attended the event. Guess what ? I found that almost every employer I spoke with had job openings and were currently recruiting college students. There is an on-going conversation among parents and students that there are “no jobs”. Perhaps we just aren’t looking in front of us ?
5. College Credit was a hot topic among the few internship sessions I attended. There was major confusion from both employers and schools on the best way to get paperwork filled out, reviews done, and the proper coordination for internship credit. Employers seem frustrated because they deal with so many different schools who all have different policies. Schools seem frustrated with employers who don’t have an organized internship program and system in place. If only there was a way for all of the schools in each state to abide by the same internship guidelines and use the same internship paperwork…..
6. There is no doubt that NACE does a wonderful job of putting on a valuable conference for both career counselors, vendors, and employers. However, the unfortunate news is that there is still quite a gap between student and career service office. For some reason, students still aren’t properly utilizing their career centers. The representatives from the career office come to these conferences and find out about great opportunities. If only the students would frequent the career offices to FIND OUT about these opportunities. This raises the question of what creative things can career centers do to reach more students ? How can we get students to take their career more seriously and fully take advantage of the resources in front of them ? Many career centers have put on speaking events, joined Twitter and Facebook, and constantly have workshops to help reach their students but what else can they do ?
It’s officially internship season ! Wahoo ! Get excited everyone. An more important, get ready to make the most of your experience. This week, I will list 5 internship secrets – stay tuned !
SECRET #1
START REQUESTING MEETINGS.
You have been at your internship for about 2-3 weeks or so by now. It’s time to request meetings with the execs and high-ups. Make a list of anyone you admire within the company. Think big – any department works. Approach your internship coordinator and ask if you can request general meetings with those people somewhere from now until the end of your internship.
THE NOTE.
Send short, to-the-point meeting requests to the person or their assistant (ask what the proper protocall is). In your email, state that you are a student, your school, year in school, the department where you are interning, and what your request is. See below:
Mitchell Baker,
I’m a student at University of Arizona and currently interning in your drama development department with Rob Gold. I’d love to request a brief meeting with you at some point over the next 8 weeks. I’m here until August 8th and very interested in pursuing a career after graduation with your company. I’d love to here how you got started and introduce myself.
Best,
Aaron Brandy
Email: Abrandy@gmail.com
Direct: 787 888 8888
WHAT TO SAY.
Some executives won’t give you the time of day – BUT others will. I’ve sat down with at least half of the people that I requested meetings with as an intern. Remember, keep your meeting short and sweet. The goal is to introduce yourself, make a great impression, have a firm handshake, clearly state your career goals, have questions prepared, and thank them for their time.
A FEW QUESTIONS TO ASK.
1. How did you get started ?
2. What was your first position at this company ?
3. If you could do it all over again, is there anything you would do differently ?
4. What do you suggest I do to best prepare myself to enter this field ?
5. What newspapers, websites, blogs do you suggest I read to keep up on the industry ?
REMEMBER TO SAY….“Do you have a card so that I can stay in touch?”
Q: Hi Lauren,
I just finished my freshman year. I’m from VA and I found it difficult to get an internship for the summer here. I found your website online while looking for internships. I was impressed by how much you interned during college. Do you have any advice for me? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Nitisha
INTERN QUEEN: Hi Nitisha. My advice for you is start small. It all begins with baby steps. Start by researching any employers of interest in your area. It’s not about the big name companies. My first internships were with companies you have never heard of. It’s all about getting some solid experience on your resume when you are young and then slowly building upon that. Try to intern in your hometown at a local company for this summer. Next summer, you can reach a bit higher and set your sights on a company in NYC. Good luck !
Q: Hello,
I am a recent graduate from the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC. I came across the quarterlife website and see that you have very intriguing internship postings and i was wondering if you do the same with jobs? If not, I was wondering if you had any suggestions on where a good place is to look ( monster.com is not very helpful), Thanks so much.
Brittany
INTERN QUEEN: Hi Brittany, Congrats on graduation ! That’s a huge accomplishment. The first step in finding a job is to make sure that your resume is completely updated and ready to go at a moments notice. The quarterlife site does have a few job listings under GIGS on http://www.quarterlife.com. Otherwise, I suggest checking out http://www.collegerecruiter.com which has tons of great jobs listed from all over the country. I also suggest the Grapevine Agency who run a great job coaching program. Let me know if I can be of greater assistance. Good luck !
PAYLESS CONTEST !
I recently partnered with PAYLESS SHOES to create the “START YOUR INTERNSHIP OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT” Contest ! The contest launches TODAY, Monday, June 1st 2009. This is a traditional ESSAY contest. BUT, I will also accept web videos as long as they are under 1 minute in length. Write to me or show me (via video) WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO MAKE A GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION AT YOUR INTERNSHIP.
The first place winner each week will receive a $25.00 gift card to PAYLESS. The second place winner will receive a $10.00 gift card. Considering the affordable, savvy-prices as PAYLESS – these giftcards should get you a cool new pair of kicks for your internship.
The topic for the contest will change each MONDAY for the next FOUR weeks. Good luck ! All entries should be emailed to me: internqueen@quarterlife.com with I WANT A FREE PAIR OF SHOES ! in the subject line.
In today’s Examiner.com Internship and Entry-Level Advice Column, I take a look back at my first internship at the Zimmerman Agency in Tallahassee, Florida ! I was attending Florida State University at the time!
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8143-LA-Internships-and-Entry-Level-Jobs-Examiner~y2009m6d2-What-Was-Your-First-Internship-Like–The-Intern-Queen-Remembers-Internship-1
You got the letter. You got the email. You received the notification. You did NOT get the internship. You think the world is over.The Intern Queen has news for you. Not only is the world NOT over but you can also use this rejection and turn it into a future opportunity.
How to Turn Rejection Into Opportunity
1. Find the Rejection Notice. Open the letter or email that you received stating that you didn’t get the internship. Try to decide if the letter has been personalized to you or if it’s a template form letter. Look for specific notes that apply to your resume. Most of these letters do tend to be template forms.
2. Find the Rejector. The email or letter you got, should be signed by someone. This person is usually in the Human Resources department. Make note of their name, email, and phone number and add it to your list of professional contacts (that you should be starting).
3. Contact the Rejector. Send an email to the person who wrote the rejection letter. If the person’s email is not on the letter. Do some investigation and figure out what the company email is. Your letter should be short and sweet and ask the person if there is anything to do in the future to better your chances of getting the internship. Thank them for their nice letter and let them know that you will stay in touch. This could be a future wonderful internship experience.
