Undergrad Internships - Articles - Zimbio

Internship at the Atlantic Resort and Spa

Thu, 7 Mar 2008 00:34:36 GMT

posted by lynnblogger

I don’t think I have told you about my new internship. Recently I have been interning at the Atlantic Resort and Spa. It is a Starwood owned property and part of their luxury collection hotels. It is located in Fort Lauderdale right on the beach.

Since I left the Resort in Singer Island I have been looking for an internship in Revenue Management. It is part of the industry that interests me and there are tons of job opportunities available, and not enough individuals to fill them. I was going to work at the Ritz Carlton and then they were unable to host me. I was looking into the Boca Raton Resort and Club and my schedule didn’t work. I finally was able to set something up with the Atlantic. When I was hired I was going to be working for one person then I received a call a week later saying they were no longer employed. Nevertheless, my internship is going really well.

I worked 9am-5pm on Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday I was able to sit in on the weekly departmental meeting with the General Manager. Iworked with Accounts Receivable on verifying refunds that the resort provided. If the Atlantic offered a refund, I needed to go into Galaxy (POS system) and confirm that they actually paid for something originally. Later on in the day two guests called disputing charges on their credit cards so I had to go into the Night Audit reports to find the actual receipts that show that the guest signed.

On Thursday I worked on a mail merge for the unit owners and continued to do more refund verifying. However, towards the middle of the day I worked with the revenue manager on room blocking and putting in a rooming list into the system. I was able to view the star report which tells the Atlantic how they are doing compared to last year in the area of RevPar, ADR, and Occupancy. I concluded the day working on a database that included rooms sold, ADR, and total revenue across all rate schedules in 2007. Using that data I would create a graph to show how it has changed over time.

So far it is pretty neat and I am learning a lot of new things…

Misplaced Internship Impacts Career Opportunities!

Wed, 24 Jul 2008 12:10:00 GMT

posted by tomstateler
By Dwane Perry
Spending your summer internship in a position that is a complete mismatch for your future career could hurt your chances for the best job offer later on. Aggressively pursuing the internship that fits your passions and skills will help solve this potential costly problem.

The number of U.S. and international summer internships have increased dramatically in recent years. Top companies have discovered the importance of choosing qualified employees from interns whose work they have seen first hand. They want to choose from among the best available people who will help their organization succeed.

Focusing your year long or summer internship search on your passions and abilities should be a high priority because, according to one recent survey, you will have at least a 65% chance of receiving a job offer from a company where you have had a summer internship. The same survey of top summer internships said that many well known companies offer jobs to more than 90% of their interns.

When you choose your internship based on your interests and strengths you will be more motivated. You will learn more in your internship if you have an intense interest in the company and the work you are doing. The added benefit is that you will also have a better chance to get those all important "job offers" when the time comes to launch into the your career.

What if you have a lot of different interests and strengths? All the better! In fact motivated prospective interns could be successful in a number of types of internships in different types of organizations. If you are highly motivated and successful, or know you should be, it's a matter of taking a more organized approach to compete with others who are equally or even better qualified than you.

You'll even have to compete with the people who are just looking for something to put on their resume or beginning the internship search at the last minute. So, GET ORGANIZED and give yourself the choices that meet your goals and fit your personality.

So where do you begin?

There are excellent resources available if you are one of the multi-talented. If you are less than multi-talented or are truly extremely busy with school and a job, you can still have an advantage, Here's the key to success. You have to PREPARE and have an organized PLAN of attack!

You may have to invest time, energy and maybe some money to reach your objective. Some resources will not cost you anything except time. Whether they cost or not you should seek out and use the best possible tools to your advantage.

Finding and selecting the best internship for you is more than just having the desire to put something extra on your resume. You need to focus on your passions and abilities, get organized and plan your search. Remember you may have to invest some time and money into your effort. This type of focused approach will result in the year long or summer internship that will propel you into your future and career!

So Wow I Haven’t Blogged in About Two Weeks….

Tue, 8 Oct 2008 12:49:27 GMT

posted by lynnblogger

While I was waiting for things to get busy again, I didn’t realize they would get this busy! As for free time, it doesn’t exist. I’m working 43 hours this week! Barnes and Noble has been very generous with my hours, and I just increased my hours in the library. But don’t worry, this won’t be happening often. I just put in my two weeks at Barnes and Noble….

Why? Good question. I love Barnes and Noble; I love working there. However, I just landed an internship with the Palm Beach Poetry Festival that will be taking up a lot of my time. At first, I thought I could do two jobs and the internship (not to mention school), but when Laura, my liaison, emailed me my duties yesterday, I realized that it just won’t be possible. And I refuse to give up the internship. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity that will give me the chance to work with two published poets, Gerald Stern and Anne Marie Macari. My friend Christina, who graduated last year, has done the same thing, and I know, as much work as it is, that it is so worth it. So I sacrificed Barnes and Noble, but I definitely gained a lot more. Plus, maybe since I don’t work there anymore, I can actually hang out and look at books (if I can find some free time). You just can’t browse the way you want to when you work somewhere.

In other news….I’m attending the National Collegiate Honors Council in San Antonio, Texas, October 21-26. I have been accepted to a Poetry Masters Class, where I will get to work on my poetry with a few other students. I’m excited about that, too. The conference will also host many (many!) little workshops about how to improve honors programs. The President and Vice President of the Honors Colloquium, as well as Dr. Villa, will be attending with me. I keep hearing that San Antonio is beautiful, so I can’t wait to see it.

So I will try not to leave such huge gaps between blogs again, but you can see why it happened! Besides, I’ll have plenty to blog about!

Finding an Internship

Mon, 17 Jul 2007 12:57:00 GMT

posted by Troy
Let’s explore the anatomy of the world of internships and examine the logistics and psychology involved with finding a ‘last minute’ summer internship.

Competition is King

Yes, its true that some companies that are really on top of their recruiting schedules start seeking top interns 10 months (or more) in advance of the summer internship. This would apply to VERY COMPETETIVE fields such as investment banking on Wall Street, Federal Government opportunities in DC, international assignments such as a curator at the Louvre in Paris, advertising on Madison Avenue, theatre on Broadway, film in Hollywood….you get the idea. In addition, these types of summer internships usually have only ONE opening and thousands typically apply. This would constitute approximately 10% or less of the total internship pool. If you would like to throw your hat in the ring for a popular and competitive internship for the summer of 2008 or 2009, the spring of 2007 would be a great time to get started! See, its not too late!

It is also true that a decent share of companies (roughly 20%) have all of their summer interns hired before New Year’s Day of that calendar year. These internships typically fall under the category of HIGHLY COMPETETIVE and might be those you would find at very popular companies, such as Microsoft, Google, Disney and the like. These are companies that hire lots of interns with typical majors (business, engineering, liberal arts, etc) but due to the fact they hire interns in large volumes, they have to start recruiting, interviewing and hiring very early in the year. And, because they are very prestigious companies with wonderfully rewarding internships, lots and lots of students apply.

And, yes, it is true that a good number of companies (about 40%) hire their summer interns before April. This scenario would constitute the vast majority of internship opportunities and they would be categorized and COMPETETIVE internships. This means that very popular corporations, non-profits, government agencies, etc that offer great experiences, or good pay or both are usually on the radar screen of most students. Unlike the two previous categories of internships, those in this category are quite often local or regional internships and not national or global. Because they are local, this would quite often mean you would be competing with more students from your college or university. If you have sought an internship at a job fair or via on-campus interviews, you know that you are not the only student who wants a local summer internship. The solution here is to use the job fair to network for the following summer. Use the on-campus interviews for the current summer. It takes some planning ahead, of course.

By now, you might be wondering how you can find a decent summer internship. The three scenarios above all require preparation well in advance, but you need an internship NOW! Let’s do a deeper dive on our anatomy of a summer internship search and look at the numbers.

Do The Math

Remember how I mentioned that the VERY COMPETETIVE summer internships usually constitute 10% or less of the total number of internships that are available to the average student. Similarly, the HIGHLY COMPETETIVE summer internships consist of roughly 20% of all available internships, and COMPETETIVE summer internships are approximately 40% of the total. If we add them up, we get 70%. What about the other 30% of summer internships? Let’s take a look!

The Other 30%

Did you know that as many as 50% of advertised internships (paid and unpaid) are left unfilled each summer? There are many reasons for this:

Sometimes a company might have a ‘last minute’ opening, and because it is posted in April or May, many students either have an internship or don’t bother searching because they think April or May is too late and all of the ‘good’ internships are gone.

Secondly, most students frown upon unpaid internships because they are---- unpaid. The truth is, some of the BEST internships are unpaid and in the world of summer internships, they are the diamonds in the rough! Take a closer look next time you see an unpaid opportunity—does it fit your career plans? Is it with a reputable organization? Will you develop skills that will make you marketable when you search for a full time job? Might it lead to possible permanent employment or at least additional internships? If you answer YES to any of these questions, then you should seriously consider an unpaid opportunity. Your return on this investment of your time will be deferred, but believe me, it will be paid in dividends when it leads to future paid internships or a permanent position!

The Unadvertised Internships

We did the math and covered nearly 100% of the internship scenarios---but we left out a HUGE category that contains hundreds of additional internships! Even if you aren’t a math major, you are probably wondering how there can be more internships beyond 100%.

It’s common knowledge that there are typically 4 internship opportunities (paid & unpaid) for every student who wants one. The qualifying term here is: “for every student who wants one.” This means, that from your perspective, the intern hunter, you are not dealing with a ZERO SUM situation. You literally have 4 internships (good ones) waiting for you, and all you have to do is HUNT for them. The bad news is, 2 of those 4 internships haven’t been advertised yet. So, you can either wait for them to be advertised/posted (not ideal) or you can use your career center’s contacts and email recruiters and inquire about any openings they might anticipate for this summer (ideal). It’s not too late to do this, as many good internships open up at the last minute because they are unplanned, or some money has surfaced in a manager’s budget, or in many cases, a hire was made and the student had to decline or back out of the internship. Keep in mind, that some of the best internships are not posted because they are saved for ‘the CEO’s son/daughter/nephew---oftentimes, nepotism doesn’t work out and “Junior” opts out of working for Dear Old Dad and decides that a care-free summer in Europe is the way to go! This is your chance to fill that void in the company’s hiring plans!

Engineering Summer Internship

Tue, 21 May 2008 13:42:13 GMT

posted by MRDPE

An engineering summer internship is a great way to gain some experience and insight into the “real world”, and help you on your way to becoming a licensed professional engineer. A summer internship program provides a work experience in a corporate environment to outstanding college students ranging from sophomores through PhD levels. Some companies offer internships not only in the summer, but also throughout the year. Internships usually are about 10 weeks long. In any case, an internship usually is better in the long run than an ordinary temporary summer job since the focus is on building for the future.

A company offering an internship program should do so with three goals in mind:

Provide summer employment with positive work and training experience
Identify and track potential regular full-time employees
Establish “goodwill ambassadors” for the company on campuses

Those seeking an internship should be aware of the criteria needed to obtain such a position. Citizenship, grade point average, and travel & living issues may all be involved. It is important to start your search early for an intern position. They are often very limited, and the competition is great. Offers for summer internships can be made as early as November of the preceding year, and are often completed by March.

So how do you find these internships? There are a number of ways, the most common are:

Company web sites (the internships are sometimes listed along with regular positions available or there are specific intern web pages available)
On campus recruitment events
Honor societies and technical organizations
Friends, relatives, and other acquaintances (check with your professors, they often have industry contacts)

An engineering summer intern should expect to be given a project that is well-defined, meaningful with specific objectives set. It is expected that the project would be outlined to the intern with specific milestones set. Any needed training would also be provided. This is another benefit of internship; often an entire corporate curriculum of short courses is available to the intern. Of course, since the intern would need to be focused on completing an assignment in about 10 weeks, care is needed not to spend too much time on extraneous training.