I AM INTERN

This is a guest post from our new Campus Ambassador Series.  The author, Catherine Pylant, attends University of South Florida (USF) and is involved with PRSSA, wakeboarding, and field hockey.

Check out Cat’s video here: http://bit.ly/c9Lfg7

It’s not a secret that college kids are not made of money. Aside from the rising cost of tuition and going completely bankrupt buying books every semester, scrounging for lo0se coins in the couch never seems to add up to be enough dough!

So what is a college student to do in order to get some extra money? A lot of people would say, “Get a job!” but sometimes that may not even be an option to a student taking a full course load along with trying to manage an internship on the side. So the student finds his or herself right back where they started: What should I do?

I currently manage school, extracurricular activities, and an internship. Unfortunately there is not one easy sure shot way to land extra spending cash, but I have come up with some options to cut a few corners here and there in order to keep a few dollars in your bank:
1. BECOME A COUPON COLLECTOR! Usually on every business’s website they have a place to enter your email to sign up for newsletters and coupons. If you’re really against e-mails then do it the old fashion way, thumb through the local newspaper for coupons, or search for coupon websites online.

2. STOP EATING OUT SO MUCH! College students love to go out to eat; it’s easy and social! Personally, I am guilty of doing this a couple times per week. If this is really depleting your spending resources (like mine), try going to lunch instead of dinner. Usually the prices are less, but the portions are also smaller. When it comes to ordering a beverage, go for the FREE option, Water. If plain water is too bland, ask for a slice of lemon or lime for taste. Cutting a few bucks out of the check for ordering water accumulates! Also if you usually go home with a doggie bag at the end of the meal, try sharing! If you are someone with a bottomless stomach, check out “All you can eat,” nights at restaurants.

3.  FIND THE DEALS! No college student enjoys being stuck at home while his or her friends are out having a good time. When choosing where to go out for the night, do some research. I like to check out places that have specials or discount prices for students. Be sure to pull out that ID at most college area establishments because it could mean some real savings!

4. RENT YOUR TEXTBOOKS! This is a recently new option for college students, and it is a GREAT one. I did it this semester for the first time and needless to say I did not feel the need to cry when getting my books! There are numerous websites (Ex: http://www.Bookrenter.com) that offer this alternative. This service can save a student hundreds of dollars a semester!

5. KNOW YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA! With the huge craze of social media, I found businesses are using these popular sites to promote themselves. Check out the deal of the day on sites like http://www.Groupon.com, “Like” a place on Facebook for free products, or follow your favorite places on Twitter for instant updates on special prices, you can find a way to save!

So unless you are extremely lucky enough to win the lottery, or a miracle happens and tuition prices go down and books are free, hopefully my 5 easy steps can help you not die on the vine while just trying to live your everyday college life!

Thanks so a great idea from a friend, we are starting a new series called GUESS THE FAMOUS INTERN. Please include your answers/guesses in the comment section of the blog…Today we have two for you to guess…

What famous fashion-guru started as an intern at Mademoiselle Magazine?

What famous entertainment mogul started as an intern for a CBS affiliate in Nashville?

As mentioned, you will read several blogs about time management on http://www.internqueen.com. It’s a favorite subject of mine to cover. Everyone needs to be mindful of how they spend their time and other people’s time. In the professional world, people come to work and have limited hours to get everything done. Most internship coordinators are also entry or mid-level employees at a company – meaning they have plenty of extra work in front of them besides just hiring the interns.

As an intern, here are a few rules to follow to make sure you aren’t the cause of any time wasting:

1. READ THE POSTING. Before applying to an internship or job, read the entire posting. Take a moment to soak it in and determine if this is a position you are interested in and would like to apply for.
2. CUSTOMIZE YOUR MATERIALS. I did a blog earlier in the week about Trash Can Resume. Again, don’t waste an employer’s time by sending them materials that aren’t customized for the specific position.
3. BE HONEST. If you get an email from an employer about a potential interview and you know you don’t want the position, email them back and tell them the truth. Be as positive and grateful for the opportunity as possible and explain you are no longer available.
4. ASK QUESTIONS DURING THE INTERVIEW. Make sure you get off the phone or out of the meeting with a clear understanding of your potential employer’s expectations. Ask them to describe a typical day at the internship.
5. RESPOND ASAP. If you are offered the internship, let the employer know if you will be accepting the position ASAP. The longer you wait, the more time you are wasting. Things come up and often times students are offered more than one position. Again, be honest and try to keep up the relationship as best you can.

During my interview with Jamie Foxx’s The Foxxhole Network, on Sirius XM Radio last week, I was asked about my internship program. The student’s interviewing me on the show wanted to know what I absolutely hated to see on resumes. I started to answer the questions and kept referring to these resumes with errors as “trash can resumes” – resumes that are automatically disregarded or physically thrown in the garbage. But what exactly qualifies a resume to be a Trash Can Resume? I’ve added my thoughts below and I’d love to extend this question out to other employers and internship coordinators…

In your opinion, what qualifies a Trash Can Resume?

• Spelling errors

• Wrong company name

• Company name or contact name spelled wrong

• An objective that makes no sense or is not in line with the position itself.

• longer than one-page

• reading anything about the student’s personal life that might make me (the reader) feel uncomfortable (relationship status, strange hobbies)

• anything negative about previous employers

• resumes that aren’t formatted properly

• different fonts all over the resume

• picture on the resume

• different colored text

Are you an Intern Queen Fanatic?  Do you catch yourself checking out new listings and internship tips on a daily basis? We’d love to hear from you and have you apply for our Intern Queen Campus Ambassador Program.

Our Campus Ambassador’s are responsible for testing new products, providing feedback, and helping us spread the Intern Queen message. Ambassador’s must volunteer at most 5 hours per month and must currently attend high school, community college, or a 4-year college/university.

To apply, please send one paragraph explaining why it’s important for your campus to understand the need for internships. Please send your applications along with your contact information, school you attend, and your year in school to alyssa@internqueen.com.

We will be selecting the Intern Queen Campus Ambassadors within 2 weeks. Good luck everyone!

As the Intern Queen, you could say that I’m addicted to internships. Or that when I was in college, I was addicted to internships. You might be an Intern-A-Holic if…..

1. You are currently a summer intern and spend most of your time looking for fall internships.

2. You’re only a freshman or sophmore and you’ve already participated in an internship or two or three….

3. You are constantly looking up places to work & people you admire.

4. You tweet everyday and are very aware of your favorite employers & career/internship experts on Twitter.

5. You NEED to know that you have the coolest internships out of all of your friends.

6. You’ve already had bad experiences with the printer, copy machine, and coffee machine.

7. You’ve started blogging about your internship experiences.

8. You’ve already thought about where you want to intern Summer 2011…and maybe Summer 2012.

9. You aren’t supposed to work on the weekends but can’t help checking your intern email account and doing research for Monday.

10. You spend more than anyone you know thinking about internships, social networking, and your future.

What else ?

I did a segment on KTLA yesterday (which I will post shortly) where I discussed some tips on how to really make the most of your summer internship. Here are a few tips I covered:

• Keep your cell phone on SILENT or just leave it in the car. You should not be checking your phone unless you are on your lunch break or you are using it for internship-related purposes. No texting or phone calls or checking apps.

• Stay off of Facebook on work computers. As soon as you are caught on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn your boss knows that you have “better” things to do.

• Don’t Tweet or update your Facebook status about your internship during the actual work day (unless this is part of the employer’s social media strategy). Your boss will most likely find you on these sites eventually and they shouldn’t see you documenting your feelings about the day.

• Don’t “friend” your boss or internship coordinator on Facebook unless they initiate the interaction. This can make many employers feel uncomfortable.

When I was in college, I loved ED2010 (http://www.ed2010.com). Check out my recent article, 15 tips from 15 internships !!

http://www.ed2010.com/2009/10/15-tips-15-internships-courtesy-intern-queen

Hello Everyone,

I come to you with very exciting news. The day has come for my site http://www.internqueen.com to re-launch with new dynamic internship listings that allow users to search by industry, location, and semester. I’ve re-themed the site and really like the new look. The goal of the re-design was to create a clear internship destination for students looking for internships and companies looking to find great intern candidates.

The site still features my blog, I AM INTERN, and will soon feature my clothing boutique for Internal EthiKs. I’ve also linked in my Intern Queen YouTube Channel for even more internship advice.

I’m so proud of everyone who took the internship initiative over the past year. My run with quarterlife was a great one and although my site will no longer live on the quarterlife domain, I continue to have a great relationship with quarterlife and be forever in-debt to everyone who was part of that experience. All users who visit http://www.quarterlife.com/intern will soon be re-directed to http://www.internqueen.com.

On a personal note, I want to thank Marshall Herskovitz, the man who made all of my dreams possible. Every young entrepreneur dreams of the day when a successful businessman approaches them and is fascinated by what they’ve created. I was lucky enough to experience that last year with Marshall Herskovitz. I hope that everyone follows his example and takes a chance on an unknown project. Without taking risks, I wouldn’t be launching this site and I definitly wouldn’t be able to run my business from day to day.

I also want to thank Kevin and Mike – my wonderful creative team behind the new site. They have worked night and day on this project for weeks and I’ve so appreciative.

As always, if you have any questions please feel free to contact me directly at lauren@internqueen.com. I love responding to all of your messages and hearing your feedback.

Keep on applying for internships and looking for interns

Best of luck,
Lauren Berger
CEO
Intern Queen Inc.

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.