UW-Whitewater Student Internships Blog

Last week, Ron Buchholz and I spoke with graduate students in UW-Whitewater’s Counselor Education program. We are both graduates of “the program,” and we were visiting these current students to talk about about resumes. Many of those attending are preparing for their capstone experience in the program: internship.

It can a challenge for some students to prepare a resume for internship applications. Some, or many, of you might feel like you don’t have enough experience – that’s what you’re looking for from an internship, right? For others of you, a resume is just one more to-do to fit into an already packed schedule. I’m guessing that you do want to be a marketable candidate in the internship search process though, so a polished resume is important.

The nuts and bolts of formatting a resume are easy to learn, and there are lots of resources out there to help. However, the strategic aspect of developing your resume is a little more challenging. Here are some pointers for developing a solid resume for your internship applications:

• Think like an employer. Part of the internship search process is developing your goals for completing an internship. While you might have a firm idea of what you want out of an internship, have you thought about what an employer wants out of their intern? For any internship you are considering, ask yourself what the employer is looking for in an ideal intern. What qualities or skills would such an intern possess? Keep in mind that while your resume is about you, it’s also not about you. It’s about the employer, too, so approach it from their point of view.
• Reflect on ALL of your experiences. Once you have identified the qualities and skills the employer would seek in an ideal intern, identify situations in which you demonstrated those traits. Consider all of your experiences: jobs, classes, activities, interests, honors, etc. Here are some samples from JobWeb:
  • Handling large sums of money as a cashier shows that you are trustworthy.
  • Working three summers at the same camp shows that your employer had confidence in your abilities.
  • Having a high GPA tells the world that you learn quickly and apply yourself diligently.
  • Serving as a lifeguard at the neighborhood pool shows you can react quickly in emergency situations.
  • Working for the school paper reveals your writing skills.
  • Holding a club office shows your leadership and interpersonal skills.
  • Participating in sports can show you are a “good team player.”
  • Having taken introductory courses in computers, marketing, or public speaking suggests that you have some basic knowledge on which to build.
• Connect the dots. It’s not enough to think or know that you possess the necessary skills; you must demonstrate that you possess them. Connect the knowledge, skills, and abilities that the employer needs and you possess. Write to the reader (i.e. the employer), using the same words as those in the position description. Be specific. Quantify whenever possible. Describe your accomplishments and what you learned from experiences as well as what you did. Finally, focus on the future – what skills and abilities are you bringing to their organization?

Beyond these strategies, it’s a matter of organizing your resume in a relevant, appealing, and professional way. This is where Career & Leadership can come in. It can be helpful to talk through these strategies with a career counselor and connect the strategies with your specific experiences and career goal. At the very least, have a career counselor review your resume. You will get helpful feedback that is tied to an employer’s perspective.

While I realize that you might be crunched for time as the semester winds down, try your hardest to work in some time to polish your resume (or write it if you don’t have one yet).

What concerns do you have as you prepare your resume for internship applications?

Photo by anomalous4 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/31333486@N00/ / CC BY 2.0)

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Career & Leadership Development has several great employment opportunities opening for Spring 2010. Gain some excellent experience and build your resume working in the Warhawk Involvement Center, with SEAL, or with Homecoming. These experiences could be particularly valuable if you are considering a career in event planning/managment, communications, graphic design, or student affairs.

First, the Warhawk Involvement Center is hiring two Leadership Assistants, one in the PRIDE Resource Center (Outreach) and one for the Multicultural Resource Center (Programming). Position descriptions and applications can be picked up at the Career & Leadership Development front desk (UC 146).

To apply for one of the Leadership Assistant roles, submit the following by 4:00pm on Friday, Novmeber 20, 2009:

• Completed application form
• Resume with references
• Typed responses to the five questions listed on the application form.

Turn in all application materials to the Career & Leadership Development front desk. You will sign up for an interview when you turn in your application.

Career & Leadership Development is also hiring a SEAL Entertainment Intern, Homecoming Steering Committee Chair, Graphic Artist, and for the SEAL Event Crew.

If you would like to apply for one or more of these positions, please conplete the following by Wednesday, November 25, 2009:

1. Complete and submit the online application found at www.uww.edu/involve/employment.php.
2. Send your resume and contact information for two references to cldaps@uww.edu. A PDF or Word file is preferred. Please put your name in the file name (ex. resumejanedoe.pdf)

Career & Leadership Development will be holding interviews for these positions during the first two weeks of December. Training for these positions will take place during January.

A new feature on the UW-Whitewater Student Internships Blog is the Intern Spotlight. UW-W students are doing great things as interns and have important stories to share. The Intern Spotlight will provide insight into the internships UW-W students and alumni have completed. Featured individuals share their internship stories and provide advice to current and future interns.

Our first featured intern is Michael Van Den Bosch ‘08. Michael completed a Research & Program Managment Internship with the Walworth County Economic Development Alliance (WCEDA) from April to December 2008. After his internship, he was hired on as the Director of Business Development for WCEDA.

Describe your internship experience.

I did a great deal of research, analysis and report writing for WCEDA. Some of the research that I did involved searching for new legislation coming out of Madison, WI and Washington, DC and determining the effects it would have on local businesses. I also did a considerable amount of research on grant and business incentive programs through federal and state departments.

Since the organization was only a few years old when I started my internship, I also found myself working on a marketing plan, reviewing and writing business plans for clients, forecasting future staffing and financial needs, and providing the technical expertise for the organization.

What was the greatest benefit of this internship?

The greatest benefit of this internship was the wide range of areas that the internship covered. Since I was able to dabble in management, marketing, operations, finance and IT, I was able to see what areas suit me best and plan my career around them.

What advice would you give to current or future interns on how to be successful in an internship?

Be willing to speak up. The company that I was interning with was fairly young, and they had no idea of the wide range of skills that I possessed as a student. Also, letting them know my limitations gave them a benchmark to measure my success when I exited the program. As students, you study the many different ways companies operate and that type of knowledge coupled with a fresh perspective is valuable to any employer.

Other thoughts or advice?

As an intern, try to learn as much about the company and how it operates as possible. Doing things that are outside your “Job Description” shows them that you are versatile and worth holding onto. Companies generally are not going to spend extra money training someone new to do the same things that you already know to do.

If you have an interesting internship story to tell and you would like to be considered for an Intern Spotlight feature, please email a brief synopsis of your experience to me at MorrowL@uww.edu.

Photo by cmcgphotography (http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmcgphotography/ / CC BY 2.0)

It seems like everyone is getting sick. I was out sick for the better part of the past week, as were several of my co-workers. Colds and the flu are making their rounds.

Do you want to work in healthcare or a health-related field? If so, what kinds of internships or career-related experiences might you find? As an undergraduate, direct patient experience can be difficult to come by due to liability issues. However, related experience is super important for learning more about the field, building your resume and/or qualifications for a professional school application, and demonstrating to future employers/professional schools that you are serious about the field.

Depending on the health field and/or professional school programs you are considering, specific amounts of health-related experience might be necessary. Even if it’s not a requirement, you should still gain substantial experience both to test your interest and to demonstrate a concern for others – an important characteristic for those in a health profession. Remember that the quality, not just quantity, of experience is important, too. A quality health-related experience is one in which you can see healthcare being provided.

Here are some ideas for gaining related work experience in a health profession while still an undergraduate:

• Community Service – Volunteering is a great way to gain experience in a health-related environment. Check out UW-Whitewater’s Volunteer Opportunity Clearinghouse. You can find opportunities in Walworth, Jefferson and Rock counties as well as in the Milwaukee and Madison areas. While you are not providing direct patient care, you are often working with patients or clients in some capacity. You might be working in a hospital providing assitance to patients as they wait, or you might be doing activities with nursing home residents. It’s this people-directed attitude that is becoming more in demand of those in the health professions. Volunteering demonstrates this focus and provides valuable opportunities to develop strong communication skills, another attribute becoming increasingly important among healthcare workers. 
• Paid Positions – While they require special training and certification, it is possible to obtain paid jobs in a health field while still a student. Such jobs include:
  • Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA)
  • Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)
  • X-Ray or Lab Technologist
  • Phlebotomist
  • Home Health Aid/Care giver
• Health Education Programs – Some agencies might hire students to serve as health educators. UW-Whitewater University Health & Counseling Services will often host interns to work in health education. Work experiences you may have in such a role include developing brochures or displays; co-facilitating health education programs in the residence halls or for student organizations; writing articles for the RP, Healthy U newsletter, or website; and/or developing and staffing an outreach booth. Much of the work involves a great deal of research into a health-related topic which you then teach to your peers or other clients.
• National or International Experiences – There is no better way to spend your summer than using it to gain career-related experience. Consider participating in a work experience program outside of Wisconsin or even outside of the US.
• Research Experience – While research experience is seldom required for admission to a professional school program, it is still extremely valuable. Research experience allows you to develop important skills, and it also reflects intellectual curiousity and motivation. You are also developing your network by working with a faculty member. A letter of recommendation from someone you know as both an instructor AND as a research supervisor can be a great asset to a professional school application.

I am finally back on the mend, and I hope the same goes for you if the cold or flu bugs have gotten to you, too. Stay healthy!

Some Resources:

UW-Whitewater Volunteer Opportunity Clearinghouse

UW-Whitewater UHCS Internship Opportunities

Co-Op/Internship Opportunities for Pre-Med Students

Internships in Medicine/Public Health

Internships/Scholarships in Health Professions

Health Careers – International Experience

Internships/Research Experiences in the Biological Sciences (UW-W)

UW-Whitewater Undergraduate Research Program

Photo by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com (http://www.flickr.com/photos/notionscapital/ / CC BY 2.0)

Saturday is Halloween, a holiday that is all about fear and terror. One thing that elicits fear in students and internship professionals alike is a bad internship.

An internship can go bad for different reasons. Sometimes the organization and the intern or experience and the intern just aren’t a good fit for one another. In other situations, the experience itself might simply be a poorly structured one.

What do you do if you are not happy with your internship or if the experience isn’t what you thought it would be? Here are some points to guide you through a bad internship:

• Is it you? Do some true soul-searching. Is the problem the internship or is the problem your expectations? For example, it is always important to set goals for an internship experience. However, if the goals you set are unrealistic, you might experience disappointment in the overall experience. Assess your attitude in the workplace. Negative workplace behavior or a negative attitude will have an impact. Do you complain, miss deadlines, dress inappropriately, take part in office politics, arrive late, and/or leave early? These all indicate negativity that might be killing your internship. By setting attainable goals and fine-tuning your attitude and behavior, you can possibly turn your experience around.
• If the internship is not what was originally described, attempt to improve it. Talk with your supervisor to clarify your goals for the experience and to identify the organization’s expectations of you. If there are specific skills that you want to develop, suggest projects you can work on that are both beneficial to the organization and that allow you to gain the desired skills. During the conversation, clearly articulate how the internship is different than you thought it would be. Keep in mind the possibility that responsibilities will increase over the length of the internship. By establishing open communication with your supervisor, you will learn if this is the case, or your supervisor will learn more about what you want to get out of the experience.

Remember that all internships are about learning, even the bad ones. Use a less than ideal internship to figure out what you don’t want in a career. Was the organization the problem? Be sure to assess company culture and personal fit in a future internship or job search. Was supervision an issue? Identify what kind of supervision you want or need. Did you dislike the job duties or the field as a whole? Meet with a Career Counselor and discuss other potential career paths.

Every internship is an opportunity to gather information that will help you make an informed career decision. Bad internships, though, also provide you with good material for those moments when you want to scare younger generations of interns. Mwahhaha!

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: networking is a top strategy in the search for an internship. When you consider that surveys have found that networking was the key to job search success for approximately half to three-fourths of employees, it’s probably a good idea to do it.

In college, you have an extensive array of potential networking contacts right in front of you: professors, staff, and other students. Think about all of the potential connections you could make with over 700 professors and other professional staff plus 10,700 students!

Even beyond who is right in front of you are all of the people who have been here before you – alumni. There are more than 70,000 UW-W alumni and many of them stay connected to UW-W through Facebook and LinkedIn.

I would do the math to summarize what this all means, but I’m terrible at math. Needless to say, if you are looking to start building your network in order to find an internship opportunity, college is the place to do it.

Get to know your professors – talk to them, build relationships with them. Many professors have connections with professionals in the field, and it’s those second-tier contacts (friends of friends) who could be the keys to opportunities.

What about university staff? I met with a student earlier this week to talk about opportunities in a specific field. I referred her to a potential contact and I also reached out to this person. Lo and behold, it just so happens that the contact’s office has hosted an intern, a student who will be finishing at the end of the semester. This opened the possiblity for another student to step into that internship role for the spring semester. Voila! Internship found.

Now, it’s not always this easy. There is a fair amount of luck involved in the process. However, you never know when the perfect opportunity might arise and who in your network knows about it.

Photo by intersectionconsulting

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The Whitewater Arts Alliance (WAA), a local not-for-profit arts organization, is seeking an intern to work in the WAA office. Ideally, the WAA is looking for an intern to work for a 12 month period beginning December 2009, but they are willing to consider single semester internships. This is a PAID internship opportunity!

The WAA is looking for the following in the successful candidate:

• Junior/Senior standing
• Self-starter: ability to work independently
• Willingness to learn
• Strong time management skills, organizational skills, and communication skills
• Ability to interact with a variety of constituents: volunteers, artists, business professionals, people of all ages
• Research skills: ability to find resources, grants, foundation information
• Proficiency on computers
• Ability to lift 25 lbs.

The responsibilities of this internship include:

• Managing incoming proposals for exhibits and performances
• Keeping an organizational calendar
• Assisting with newsletter preparation
• Assiting with volunteer organization
• Researching grants for Alliance programming
• Answering email and phone calls for the Alliance
• Assisting with set up and take down of shows
• Attending monthly board meetings
• Organizing Cultural Arts Center/Whitewater Arts Alliance history and donor archives
• Opening/closing the facility as necessary for shows and public access
• Performing light cleaning and maintenance
• Filing

The intern will work 10-15 flexible hours/week. The salary will be $1000/semester, paid in four installments each semester, for a total potential salary of $3000/year.

The application deadline for this opportunity is Saturday, October 31, 2009. To learn how to apply, contact me (Laura Jacobs) at MorrowL@uww.edu. I will pass along the details. You can also find the information in HawkQuest.

The Whitewater Arts Alliance is a wonderful local organization whose mission is “to promote the visual and performing arts” in Whitewater and surrounding areas. Members include artists, educators, organizations, and community members. The Alliance wishes ”to make the visual and performing arts an essential part of the lives of all Whitewater citizens” in the belief that the arts are ”an essential and integral part of revitalization and growth” of the Whitewater community.

This is a great opportunity for a UW-Whitewater student to work for an important cause and support the local community.

Regular readers of the UWW Student Internships Blog may have noticed that I’ve been MIA here for the last couple of weeks. September is typically a very busy month in Career & Leadership Development, and my schedule was no exception. I was invited to talk with classes about resumes, cover letters, interviewing, and the internship search. I attended meetings with local employers. I met one-on-one with students beginning their internship searches. Add to that the Involvement Fair, the Hawk Career Fair & Expo, and the Disney College Program presentation. I’m tired just looking back at my September schedule.

What was the first thing to fall off of my plate when my workdays filled? Blogging.

In many of my appointments with students searching for internships, the topic of time comes up. How much time is enough to devote to the internship search? Many experts will say that finding a full-time (i.e. permanent) job should be a full-time job in and of itself. What about finding an internship? Do you need to devote 40 hours a week to finding the opportunity of your dreams? What happens when your schedule is booked with school, work, and activities? How do you squeeze in time to find an internship?

To successfully secure the type of internship experience you want takes time and work. However, making your internship search a full-time job – on top of your full-time job of college student – might be a bit much. Here are some time-related tips for your internship search:

• Start Early. Ideally, start preparing for your internship search two to three semesters before you want to participate in the internship. If you hope to have an internship for the summer of 2010, right now is a perfect time to begin preparing. Figure out what you are looking for in the experience and in a worksite. Write your resume and get feedback on it. Begin to network.
• Dedicate the Time. Set aside time each week for your search. Maybe every Friday afternoon you spend a couple of hours identifying potential opportunities or reaching out to contacts within your network. Look at it as a super-part-time job.
• Apply Before Dealines. Make sure to keep on top of the application process and apply well before deadlines hit. While competition has always been a little greater for summer internships (more demand means more competition), competition for fall and spring opportunities is increasing given the growing importance of the experience. Waiting until the last minute to apply could cost you opportunities.

I understand how challenging it can be to fit additional work into an already crammed schedule. But for your internship search, making the time can make all the difference. So here is my proposal to you: I’ll be make the time to write on Friday afternoons if you make the time to work on your internship search. Deal?

Photo by lrargerich

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Did you realize that the employers that visit our career fairs are not just looking to fill permanent positions? Many also come to recruit interns. If you are just starting or are in the thick of your internship search, the Hawk Career Fair & Expo should be on your “must attend events” list. In case you don’t know, it’s taking place on Wednesday, September 30th from Noon to 4:00pm in the University Center (Hamilton Center & Ballroom).

If you’re going to attend the fair, you will want to bring lots of copies of your resume. This means, of course, that you must have a resume…

If you don’t have a resume (or even if you do), you should avoid the dreaded templates. You will find these in Word, for example. While they can be helpful for identifying the information to put on a resume, they do not look professional. My co-workers and I can spot a template a mile away, as can employers. And that is not a good thing.

So how do you figure out how to format your resume? If you do have a resume prepared and you used a template, open up a new document and, using your template resume as a guide, make it your own. If you are starting from scratch, seek out sample resumes. You can start with a Google search – you’ll find lots of samples online. If you have a friend who has a nice looking resume (preferably one that has been critiqued by a career counselor), you might base your format on his/hers. There are lots of ways to organize a resume, so start with a format that is visually appealing to you – keeping it professional, of course.

While it is important for your resume to look appealing to you, you also need it to be appealing to the employers who will read it. That is where Career & Leadership Development comes in! If you feel like you need a lot of help with your resume, schedule an appointment with one of us. Call 262-472-1471 or stop by the office (UC 146). 

If all you need is a check up, stop by one of our Resume Dr. events this week! The Resume Dr. is a drop-by event – no appointments. A staff member will give you quick feedback on your resume.

You can find the Resume Dr. at the following locations at the following times:

• Monday, September 21 – 1:00-4:00pm, Hyland Hall Atrium
• Tuesday, September 22 – 1:00-4:00pm, UC Concourse
• Wednesday, September 23 – 9:00a-12:00p, Hyland Hall Atrium
• Thursday, September 24 – 9:00a-12:00p, UC Concourse

I’ll be at the table for the whole time on Thursday.

I want you to feel confident when you’re handing out your resume at the career fair. Stand out from the crowd – in a good way.

And please keep it to one page, or someone might get mad. Wow! Kind of true, but wow!

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Photo by SOCIALisBETTER

Students who have big feet need big shoes. Students looking for internships in advertising, communications, graphic design, public relations, or web development/design also need big shoes…Big Shoes Network that is!

Big Shoes Network (BSN) – www.bigshoesnetwork.com - is an all-around great resource for students looking for internships (and eventually permanent jobs) in the aforementioned fields. Even better, one of BSN’s primary markets is Wisconsin and they’re based in Milwaukee. This is perfect for UW-W students looking for fall or spring semester opportunities.

Through BSN, you can search for internships in specific regions of Wisconsin (ex. Southeast Wisconsin) and Illinois. They have a resource directory where you can search for organizations in specific fields. For example, you could do a search for advertising firms in Southeast Wisconsin. Knowing that some organizations list information about internships on their own sites, this feature can point you to those potential resources.

In addition to search-related resources, BSN advertises industry events. As I’ve said before and will likely say again, networking is super important in the internship search. You could make some valuable contacts by attending industry events.

They also list popular books in areas such as Advertising & Marketing, Leadership, and Personal Development. Finally, their Links section provides information on professional associations and other resources in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota.

If you’re on Twitter, you can find BSN there, too: @BigShoesNetwork. While I “retweet” most of the internships that they “tweet,” you might want to follow them yourself if you’re going into one of their target fields. And if you are going into one of those target fields (i.e. Communications, PR, Marketing, Advertising), you should probably be on Twitter. I hear that “social media” thing is kind of big in those fields.

UW-Whitewater has good connections with Big Shoes Network. I personally thank the hard work that they do in promoting those ever-important internships!

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Photo by richt