The Retired Intern

If you’re looking for an answer to your career-related questions, you have to check out Linkedin Answers.

Similar in features and functions as Yahoo Answers, Linkedin’s version is targeted and questions are promptly answered by business professionals from around the world. Compared to Yahoo, the typical responses seem to be more informative and the percentage of “smart-guy/jerk” answers are much, much lower.

For example, here are a couple of the most recent questions asked:

What’s your favorite “We’re going to be late…” excuse?

A non-profit rockstar needs a job….Can you Help?

Can you provide career path advice?

What’s the biggest problem when seeking job on the Internet, according to your experience?

Overall, topics for questions range from career and education to hiring to business to technology. You can access answers even if you’re not a member, but you might as well create an account while you’re over there. If you have a question of your own, ask away and wait for the answers to come rolling in…

Fog Creek Software treats their interns well. Like really well. This New York City based software company strongly believes the key to finding the best talent is to start young - when students are in college. The best of the best (of over 800 applicants, about 6 are selected) are offered spots in the internship program. Of these finalists, the cream of the crop are invited to stay.

With such a selective process, Fog Creek really aims to find the best and keep them motivated and happy.  From real work assingments (more on that in a second) to free lunches, evening activities to free summer housing, no details are overlooked. Even before being hired as an intern, Fog Creeks flies the best applicants to NYC, picks them up in a limo, and puts them up at a swanky hotel in the fashion district. Yeah, Fog Creek is playing for keeps.

If you’re interested in applying, check out their recruitment section of their website. Also, check out this INC article which calls their program the World’s Greatest Internship.

In 2005, the four talented interns were invited to intern at Fog Creek and over the course of their summer, the movie “Aardvark’d: Twelve Weeks with Geeks” was filmed. I encourage you to check their story out. 

Below is the trailer to the film:

For 44 students at Ithaca College in New York, the summer Olympics in Beijing will have be more than just something to watch on t.v. - it will be their summer internship.

As the world’s attention shifts to Beijing tomorrow for the start of the Olympic Games, these students will be working on the front lines to ensure that every goes smoothly. With so much riding on these games (from national pride to billions of advertising dollars), everything must go perfectly.

Depending on their majors, students will be interning with NBC Sports or the Olympic News Service. Positions will be based in both Beijing and New York City.

Sounds like an incredible internship to me. Check out the Ithaca At The Olympics page for more information.

Do you remember the show “2 Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Shop”? It was a show about a couple of twenty-somethings trying to figure our their personal and professional lives - typical late 90’s comedy.

Anyways, I just found this episode on YouTube titled, “2 Guys, a Girl, and an Internship.” I haven’t watched the whole thing but the premise is that Pete is struggling to find a career. After being in a job slump and getting rejected time after time, Pete really nailed this one…Best first day of work, ever!

Watch Part 1

Watch Part 2

Watch Part 3

As a reminder and according to IMDB:  The lives and loves of three close friends - Pete, a neurotic architeture student, Berg, the laid-back pre-med, and Sharon, a tough girl with a soft center. Pete and Berg are roommates and students at a local Boston university, while Sharon struggles with her work and relationships.

If you’re looking for a non-profit internship, you need to go explore Idealist.org.

On their website right now, they have over 2,000 internships with a variety of organizations across the country. From the Sierra Club to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America, from the
Chinese Information and Service Center to Habitat For Humanity, there are no shortage of interesting internships available. Locations include many of the major cities in the US, including DC, New York City, Miami, Seattle, Detroit, and everywhere in between.

Whether you’re set on a career in non-profit or just exploring the possibilities, you should check out the “Idealist Guide to Nonprofit Careers for First-time Job Seekers.”Sections include “Why do you want to work in the nonprofit sector anyway?” and “Dispelling some misconceptions about the nonprofit world,” along with basic resources such as resumes, networking, interviewing, and accepting an offer. This is a must read.

There is a growing movement of students who are interested in getting involved but don’t know which organizations are a good match and even where to start looking. With resources like Idealist, complete with resources, listings, and even a community, you can really get your feet wet.

All too often, students assume nonprofit careers can’t apply to them. Think again. From accounting to web design, non-profits are looking for students with a variety of majors, interests, and skills. Non-profit internships are in supply and if you go explore the listings for yourself, you’ll see they cover a wide array of career paths within this sector.

Despite the economy cooling off, the average starting salary for graduate of the class of 2008 was up. Regardless of major, entry-level salaries were up 7.1% nationally over 2007. Comparing Fall 2007 and Spring 2008, the spring had a smaller increase than the fall but both were moving in positive directions.

So, are you wondering who is making the most this summer?

Chemical engineering graduates with expertise in petroleum and coal were offered the highest starting salary at $71,976. Regular chemical engineers did well for themselves by securing an average of $63,165, which is a 6.4% rise over 2007.

Here is a brief breakdown of disciplines, average salaries, and percentage increases over 2007:

Civil Engineering: 6.4% to $51,632

Mechanical Engineering: 5.3% to $57,009

Electrical Engineering: 2.9& to $56,910

Computer Science: 13.1% to $60,416

Information Technology: 3.1% to $52,418

Accounting: 2.9% to $48,085

Business Management: 5.1% to $45,915

Economics: 4.2% to $50,507

Finance: 4.7% to $42,053

And what about those well-rounded liberal arts majors? They saw a staggering average increase of 12.6%. Despite this huge jump, the average salary was $36,419 - almost half of those petroleum and coal chemical engineers.

Maybe that’s why gas is so expensive…

The MBA is oftentimes viewed as the perfect bridge to the next level in one’s career path. After some years in the workforce, armed with experience and a better idea of one’s professional goals, the MBA degree can open new doors of opportunity and arm the diploma carrying individual with a brain-full of case studies, management styles, and a Rolodex of alumni connections.

If an MBA seems too good to be true, you should read the collection of BNET articles titled, “What’s That MBA Really Worth?” Exploring the hard truths of the degree (including cheating and diminished return on investment), this article discusses some of the challenges and problems with current MBA programs and schools. Taking real CEO’s and executives perspective on the degree, this article accounts for the MBA craze from the other side of interview desk.

Many students have plans and goals of attending graduate school - many with a focus on business. If this is part of your plan, I encourage you to check these articles out. An MBA is far from extinct. The most competitive programs will continue to see record numbers of applicant. Before you invest your time and money into an MBA, it’s wise to understand exactly what you’ll be getting out of it.

Think Intern is now on Twitter!

Twitter is a free service that let’s friends know what everyone’s doing. With short messages (less than 160 characters), these text-like messages are quick, simple, and help you keep up on what’s going on.

The Think Intern team will be using Twitter to keep everyone in the know about the site and random tidbits. We’ll try to keep it funny so you can consider our messages an intern fortune cookie, minus the stale cookie.

You should start to follow us and since we’re always looking for friends, we’ll follow you back. Our name is easy (thinkintern) and you can find our latest updates at twitter.com/thinkintern.

Open up your wallet. Besides old gym memberships, student ID’s, and maybe a couple bucks, you probably have at least one credit or debit card. In fact, in a recent study of high school seniors, more than 1 in 3 were packing plastic (credit cards).

By the time you go away to college, the odds of carrying around a credit card is greatly increased. It’s tempting to get one. The idea of buying things today and paying for them tomorrow is hard to resist. It’s convenient, just think about pumping gas. It’s great to walk around it today’s society without cash yet still manage to take care of daily purchases. Everyone takes credit cards. Plus, the credit card companies always lure you in with low introductory interest rates, great incentives like cash back rewards once you’re a user, and usually a free prize when you sign up.

Despite all the benefits of a credit card, all too often, students fail to realize the long-term impact a credit card can have on their financial reputation. By being careless, students can find themselves in debt - owing a lot of money and being forced to pay astronomical interest rates or even worse, having to file for bankruptcy.

With a credit card, Newton’s Law applies - for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Poor decisions with credit cards, from assuming debt to making payments late, will have a serious impact on your credit score and financial reputation.

So… why does this even matter?

Your financial reputation is determined by your credit actions and results in your individual credit score. Depending on your credit score, it will impact everything from getting a loan for a car to the interest rate you pay on your credit card.

A credit score is defined as “a statistical analysis of a person’s credit report, and is used to represent the creditworthiness of that person—the likelihood that the person will pay his or her debts.” So the more likely you are to pay back your debt, the better your credit score, and the easier it is to secure a loan and pay a lower interest rate.

Here is the breakdown of how your credit score is compiled:

• 35% — punctuality of payment in the past (only includes payments later than 30 days past due)
• 30% — the amount of debt, expressed as the ratio of current revolving debt (credit card balances, etc.) to total available revolving credit (credit limits)
• 15% — length of credit history
• 10% — types of credit used
• 10% — recent search for credit and/or amount of credit obtained recently

As you can see, the punctuality of payment and the amount of debt you carry with you are both major determining factors of your credit score.

What does this all mean?

In short, you need to be aware of your financial reputation and of your use of credit cards. The reaction for charging on a credit card recklessly can scare your reputation for years. While going out with friends, shopping, college expenses, and even gas, are priorities right now, understand that credit cards can have a huge and costly impact your financial life and reputation. Be smart with credit and you’ll save yourself a lot of aggravation and money.

In the next installment, we’ll discuss how you can develop the right tools and habits to improve your financial reputation.

Check out this little video blurb to find out the only 2 questions that count for your next internship…

Soundclip Animation from sujay karmakar on Vimeo.

Over the past few months, we have worked with the Hispanic College Fund to help students find internships. They have been great partners and we’re excited for a few things in the near future (more details coming soon).

This week, the HCF will be sending their monthly newsletter out to it’s members and affiliates, including students, applicants, and alumni. For this newsletter, the HCF asked us to compile a list of some cool and interesting internships, along with all the relevant details for each internship program.

For this list, I realized the importance of having a diverse mix of industries, backgrounds, and locations. What are students looking for these days when picking an internship? Here’s my conclusions. I’ll walk you through my logic below:

1. Business - It’s a must for any internship list. When most people think of internships, they often assume business. We know there are tons of internships in other industries/majors, but for the purpose of the list, having a good business internship program is a must.

2. Green - It’s hot these days… and I’m not talking about global warming. From articles on career websites to friends searching for jobs, the idea of working in a green career is more viable and popular than ever before. One internship must emphasis a company/organization related to the green movement or an internship that is directly involved in changing our impact on the environment.

3. Medical - From biomedical engineering to nursing, internships in healthcare and medical are extremely in demand and popular. Besides essentially becoming a prerequiste for many students applying to grad school in this field, internships are ideal for helping students who know what field they want to work in narrow down their interests a little more. Ok, so you want to be a doctor… ok, now, which type?

4. International - We’re living in a global economy and more students than ever are beginning to look overseas for international exposure while interning. Interning abroad allows students to interact in a new environment with different cultures and customs. If you’re interested in working in a global career, from law to consulting to non-profit, go get your hands dirty while you’re still young and adventurous. Plus, you might be able to squeeze in some travel before or after your internship.

5. Non-profit - We need young leaders who want to change the world and make a real impact. For many non-profit, interns provide a much needed source of inspiration, ideas, and labor. Ranging from educational tutoring to saving the rain forests, the range of opportunities in the non-profit sector are seemingly endless and it will be quite a challenge to pick just one organization and one program to highlight.

With these sections as the backbone of the list, it’s important to highlight different locations. From DC to New York City, from somewhere international to somewhere in the middle of America, the location of an internship can be as much of a part of an internship as the work done on the job. The final selections will reflect the value in both traditional and new internship destinations.

Wondering which internships made the hot list? Well, you’re going to have to wait until the end of the week before we post it here on the blog and via the HCF newsletter.

If you think you’re the messiest intern in the office, your desk might be bad enough to appear as the “best of the worst” on MSNBC.

Look around your desk. Are papers stacked mile high? Old cups from lunches a week ago? Overall, are things cluttered and out of control. Before you start your week off with a mid-summer cleaning, snap a quick photo and send it to MSNBC.com. While you might want to use an alias (who wants to hire the dirtiest intern in America?), it’s worth entering and the final results are often amusing and somewhat shocking.

In the past, I remember a special on the dirtiest hotel rooms in America. It was beyond gross. I hope people’s desks, cubicles, and offices, don’t even come to being as bad.

You’ll need to snap a photo of your office mess and enter a brief description (less than 3000 characters). Now, to enter your desk, click here for all the details.

Check this out from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. What kind of intern cuts limes and serves drinks…?

Ignore the “Mature Audiences” warning - it’s 100% appropriate, even for your grandma.

The election is approaching fast. With only a few months to go, the Obama and McCain campaigns are kicking into high gear. Both campaigns are looking for eager students interns for the fall - For Obama click here and for McCain click here.

If you’re looking into get involved with the election without picking a party or candidate, check out the Rock The Vote internship program. The non-profit organization is currently recruiting interns for the following departments: Website and Online Organizing, Research, Field and Outreach, Communications, General Support, and Fundraising/Development. Whether you enjoy cracking computer code all day, drafting press releases, or analyzing statistics, there are a variety of internships available to meet your interests and skills.

Rock The Vote is “a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering young people to change the world.”

If you’re interested in applying, Rock The Vote is interested in individuals who are “detail-oriented, proficient in Internet research and database management, have strong interpersonal communications skills, and able to work in a fast-paced campaign environment.” They also recommend an interest in democracy and a sense of humor too. I guess you can’t take politics too seriously.

I hope you have a resume laying around since the deadline to apply is today (July 10th). For more information, check out the Rock The Vote Internship Program page.

Around the office, random little things sometimes disappear. You can blame it on a lack of organization but according to a recent survey by Spherion, it might just be the person sitting in the cubicle next to you. Oh, and they’re not borrowing it, they’re taking it home.

In the past year, 19% of office workers admit to taking office supplies for their own personal use. Whether it’s a stapler, pens, or maybe even the fax machine (who still uses it anyway?), employees are guilty and seems like they have little remorse. Of those who admitted to “stealing the stapler,” less than a quarter felt guilty or remorseful for their acts.

Let’s break these numbers down a little bit further. Most employees aren’t running around the office, throwing laptops into garbage bags wearing ski masks. About 1 in 3 employees said they were given approval from their boss or superior. About 18% stated that “the company just wouldn’t miss” what they were taking for personal use. 42% of employees admitted to taking items since they needed them.

Theft is a huge issue that costs companies billions of dollars every. It is easy for some employees to rationalize their actions - I’m not stealing from an individual, I’m taking it from a big company that won’t even notice it or miss it. Although the “victim” may seem faceless, in reality, the cost of petty office theft affects the company’s bottom line, fellow employees, and even trickles down to customers and clients.

Why is it that nearly 25% of guilty employees felt no remorse for their actions. Stealing is wrong, no matter how you look at it or who the victim is. Most people who download music on-line feel no remorse. Is there a connection here? When the victim is a company, whether it’s your own employer or a record company, does this distance make it impersonal? Absolutely. Does this make it excusable?