What is Internship: Definition and 211 Discussions
An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and government agencies. They are typically undertaken by students and graduates looking to gain relevant skills and experience in a particular field. Employers benefit from these placements because they often recruit employees from their best interns, who have known capabilities, thus saving time and money in the long run. Internships are usually arranged by third-party organizations that recruit interns on behalf of industry groups. Rules vary from country to country about when interns should be regarded as employees. The system can be open to exploitation by unscrupulous employers.
Internships for professional careers are similar in some ways. Similar to internships, apprenticeships transition students from vocational school into the workforce. The lack of standardization and oversight leaves the term "internship" open to broad interpretation. Interns may be high school students, college and university students, or post-graduate adults. These positions may be paid or unpaid and are temporary. Many large corporations, particularly investment banks, have "insights" programs that serve as a pre-internship event numbering a day to a week, either in person or virtually.
Typically, an internship consists of an exchange of services for experience between the intern and the organization. Internships are used to determine whether the intern still has an interest in that field after the real-life experience. In addition, an internship can be used to build a professional network that can assist with letters of recommendation or lead to future employment opportunities. The benefit of bringing an intern into full-time employment is that they are already familiar with the company, therefore needing little to no training. Internships provide current college students with the ability to participate in a field of their choice to receive hands-on learning about a particular future career, preparing them for full-time work following graduation.
Hi all,
I'm not sure if this should be here or in 'Academic Guidance' but I'm sure the mods will make that call.
Anyway, I accepted a summer internship at JPL/NASA this summer and just received an email that had me complete some registration steps. One of the steps wants me to upload a...
Hi,
I am a sophomore mechanical engineering student looking for an internship to get some real life experience. I applied to an aerospace company which makes hybrid electric motors for a manufacturing/industrial engineering internship and have an interview. This seems like the type of...
Hey guys,
Has anyone done an internship at SLAC?
If so, what was your experience? Please describe in detail.
I applied for a one year internship there, and I'm really hoping to get it. I want some more "hands on/laboratory" work before graduate school.
Currently, I have been accepted...
Hi all
I have recently been approached for two offers for this summer. One is a SULI internship at Argonne Nat'l Labs in the software engineering field, and the other is with a DOD contractor (Dynetics) for similar work (i.e. low-level software development). I am currently a sophomore in...
I am currently going to school to become an engineer and I have just recently started working for a start up company ran by a mechanical engineer from MIT. I am learning a lot and love working there. My question is should I stay there and learn as much as I can or should I intern somewhere to...
Hi all,
I have been in touch with a very well know faculty member at a big institute (top 10 school) and we talked about me doing an internship with him. The only issue is that he has no funding at this point. He said that if I can arrange for my funding then it could work out.
I am...
I've put myself in a sticky situation. One of my friends referred me for a quant internship in NYC and just for fun I went along with it. He already works there full time but he's also already finished his PhD. They flew me out last week for an interview and I recently got the offer... The main...
Hello,
I am a second year master's student at a so-so engineering program, and am trying to determine what the downside to finishing my degree sooner rather than later might be (if any).
My undergraduate major was physics with a math minor (beyond the substantial math I learned, I have yet...
I attend ryerson university for computer engineering (freshman) and I'm wondering what the magic formula is to ensure that I land an internship.
From Ryerson Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering website:
The problem is that I have zero work experience as of right now. Do they...
Hey guys,
My advisor wants me to send him my resume for next week and I am a little nervous that i won't have anything to put. I've been employed at Mcdonalds, Roundtable, and i also work as a Lab tech at my univ. (setting up lower division labs). I was also a grader for a year.
Over...
Hi guys, I've started a programming internship about a month ago and i have some concerns and I'm hoping to hear some of your programming internship (or any internship for that matter) experiences.
My biggest concern is that i feel that i am doing too much rummaging. I am always searching on...
The difficulty is that I am graduating from high school this year and most internships are either for undergraduates or high school students. I am not really sure which I am considered and I prefer to be in a program in which I am neither underqualified nor overqualified.
I am a prospective...
Hey guys,
I'm having difficulty deciding what I want to do next summer. I'm currently a junior, so this is the last opportunity I have to do an engineering internship. Last summer I did an REU. I know I want to go into the renewable energy field, but I don't know if I need to go to grad...
Hello,
I posted on college confidential and they advised me to come here. So here's my questions !
I'm currently a French student in fifth year of higher education (physics/engineering) and I'd like to do an internship in a US lab for 3 months.
I currently have some opportunities :
-...
Hello, I'm currently a sophomore in high school and my school counselor suggested trying to get an internship in the field next summer (2013) but I'm not sure how to go about it. My main interest is physics research just to be clear, not engineering. Does emailing professors work or will it...
I am an undergraduate student, pursuing a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering at Rolla (Missouri S&T). I transferred here, and have been attending classes for about a month now. My studies in Nuclear Engineering are limited to the past month here at Rolla. We have a Nuclear Career Fair this coming...
I'm currently an ME student about half way through my Bachelor's degree and plan to graduate in 2 years. I'm older (37) and because of that I planned to get through my degree without doing an internship so I can get back to work asap. I don't mind taking a low paying job after I graduate for a...
What research opportunities are there out there for the summer between undergrad and grad school?
For undergrads, there are the REUs that most people do.
But REUs require that you have not graduated yet.
This upcoming summer I'll be between graduate and undergraduate studies. So no REU...
I am currently seeking for any open internships. So, I decided to Google search what I could find in my area, and I found an engineering internship. Would this apply to me (I'll tell you more...)?
Here is the description of the engineering internship (it's very vague):
I have not took a...
Do younger college internship applicants have an advantage over older applicants?
My cousin told me that it is important to look for internships early (when you are a freshman or sophomore), because employers prefer interns to be younger. My cousin said that it is because they want to keep and...
I have a chance to work for a very small software startup in San Francisco that develops mobile games. They're doing pretty well as a startup even they only have 7 employees (one of their apps has over 1,000,000+ downloads on the Android market and high ratings = 4.7)
However, I'm also debating...
I have a situation and I wanted to know what the Engineers on this forum thinks of it and maybe some advice.
i work for a small company. 3 people left including my supervisor. it is now just me and the owner as far as engineers. then just one guy to do packaging.
This is one of my first...
This is my first day, first post and first...
A little bit about myself. I just finished my second year in EE in a Moroccan university and presently on an internship.
I would like to ask 3 questions after going through this wonderful forum.
1. How many internship months should someone...
I have 2 years left in my Civil BS. I plan to do my emphasis in structural engineering. I am currently enrolled in my schools co-op program and have completed the first of my 3 terms. The office I am working in does environmental work. I am learning allot about project management, communication...
Hi !
I am a French student in nuclear engineering, I will complete my master degree next year and between February 2013 and July (or August) 2013 I will have to do an internship to practise all I have learnt.
I will have studied nuclear technology, reactor physics, thermal hydraulics...
So, I am an undergraduate student who wasn't able to obtain a national scholarship (REU, NSERC type) for this summer. But I was able to get an internship with a professor, who needed a certain project to be done in his lab, and apparently rather desperately. However I went in with the premise...
Right now I'm at an internship for a startup company. (I'm a chemical engineering major) I've been there for 6 months. Overall it's been great experience for me but lately since I am part time I'm being assigned to more and more mundane tasks. Things a secretary could do. They assign the real...
Hi,
I would like to know, what are good strategies to use when you are trying to get an internship. My background is Computer Science, I'm in my second year now. Should I just send my CV to as many companies?
Hi,
I am a 4th semester engineering student of electronics and communication discipline. My semester is going to end and I am very worried about the vocational training. I am from a small town and I don't belong to a very rich family. Should i collect money and move to a big town like New...
I am looking for summer internships this year. I originally wanted to try Wolfram but they require people who know computer programming or mathematica(which I would have to enroll into their summer camp to learn more about) so this seems to be out of the question. I wonder if I could shadow a...
I applied to the NREL and Idaho national lab for renewable energy technologies and mechanical engineering. Just wondering if anyone has heard any news from these two or any others?
Thanks
Hi guys,
So I have a little bit of a dilemma right now. I got into two internship programs, one for computational/theoretical astrophysics and the other at Fermilab. I want to go to graduate school for theoretical particle physics. So the question is, what looks better when you're applying...
Hey guys. :biggrin:
I just recently was offered my first research internship as an undergrad (community college student, so it's been difficult) at Argonne through the DOE. I just thought I'd ask if anyone else has interned at Argonne (or has held DOE internships at other national labs)...
I am a junior undergraduate pursuing electrical engineering and needed some help as to where should i apply for summer 2012 and whether industry exposure is important or university research intern is suitable for me at this stage..
I am based in India :)
Many thanks in advance
Hey all, I am currently on a 3/2 degree program for physics and engineering, where I'll spend 3 years at one school, transfer for an additional 2 years and graduate with an engineering degree from the second school and a physics degree from the first school.
So I decided I need to start...
Hello, I'm not actually asking a homework question. I'm working at an internship and have been asked a practical question about how long it will take a steel rod to change temperatures.
Homework Statement
Because it's not a problem from a textbook, I may not have all the required data, but...
This is the second year of grad applications for me and although I've done what I could afford to improve my application (paying for and A-minus-ing a semester of grad level QM), I'm feeling pretty pessimistic about my odds of acceptance again. Frankly, I'm almost 26 and I'm not sure if I can...
Hi all,
Well I lucked out and am getting a phone interview with Boeing tomorrow for a Manufacturing Engineering internship. I have researched their interview format and apparently they do a behavioral interview using the STAR method. Has anyone ever been through one of these? I found some...
Hello, I'm intending to apply for an REU internship at Caltech for next summer, and I have a question that somebody American might be able to help me with.
The application is an online application which asks for your name, address, programming languages etc. It seems like the application is...
I have four essays to write for my internship each of a maximum of 350-400 words. I just wrote my first essay and I feel relatively content with it. Though I can't help but doubt my work.. I wrote it rather unconventionally you can say. Instead of being very formal, I used more of a...
Hello,
I'm a first year graduate student from France, and I need to complete a 3/4-months research internship from April to June/July 2012.
My interests are in particle physics and theoretical physics, but I guess it is quite impossible to do something interesting in theory during such a short...
Sophomore Mechanical engineering major. Will declare Aerospace minor once I have the prerequisites. I would like to eventually work in the aerospace discipline, however my state does not have a university that offers the aero major.
A big part of me says "take what you can get," when it comes...
In a week or so, my school is hosting an 'expo' wherein dozens of companies will descend and begin to recruit engineering students for internships. I'm interested in getting one over the summer, but I'm hoping I can get some feedback and advice from PF first.
The biggest challenge I can foresee...
I am a current sophomore (just started soph year) Electrical engineering major at a top state school
So this last summer (end of frosh year) I worked in a research lab. I sort of want to go to grad school after my BS.
But, just in case grad school does not work out for me, I want to keep the...
http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.pdf
Basically, if you are currently in an internship that offers no salary and you do any work at all that benefits the company your internship is illegal. I'm curious to see just how many kids on her are being exploited.
I was wondering if anybody knew of any good paid internship opportunities in the field of accelerator science/engineering or related fields for undergraduate students? They could be located anywhere in the world, but at least accessible for Canadian students. These internships would be...
It would be fantastic if someone could come up with a rough list of what you think the necessary skills are for a programming internship. Let's say in C#, for example. I read that companies want interns who are (in theory) very proficient at a language but want to apply their learned skills in...