The Real World — Internships the best way to launch a career, get experience and avoid the wrong job

Jeremy Olson may have made better money fighting forest fires the past six summers, but this summer he’s glad to be working at Gaston Engineering and Surveying in Bozeman as an intern.

By GAIL SCHONTZLER Chronicle Staff Writer

"It triples or quadruples my chances of finding a job when I finish my master’s," said Olson, 24, a civil engineering graduate student at Montana State University.

"It’s been a real eye-opener," applying the fundamentals learned in the classroom to the real world, he said.

Olson has been working on cost estimates, preparing bid documents, inspecting water and sewer lines for new subdivisions and doing some design work. He’s learning to talk with seasoned contractors and not have to ask, "What’s that?"

Married and raising two kids, he’s earning about $2,000 a month.

"My goal is to go into civil engineering," he said. "The only way is to get your foot in the door or get an internship like this."

Internships can have a big impact on young people’s careers — providing experience and contacts needed for landing a first job.

Some are paid, some are part time — others pay little or nothing for working 50 hours a week. Many internships are offered in summer, while others are year-round. Internships can be found from Bozeman to Washington, D.C., Russia and Guatemala.

"The number one reason a new college graduate receives a job is because they did an internship," said Carina Beck, MSU’s career services director.

The career services office recommends that every MSU student try to work as an intern before graduation, Beck said.

"Students come out of internships knowing how to conduct themselves in a professional or business environment," she said. "They learn the ropes, they get socialized in that organization. They know the lingo, understand some of the politics. They’re aware of the expectations and how to succeed."

Employers consider their own internship programs to be the most effective way of recruiting new college grads for full-time, permanent jobs, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers Job Outlook 2003 survey.

Businesses in the survey said more than 54 percent of their new employees hired right out of college had internship experience, either at their own company or another.

New employees who graduated with intern experience earn about $750 a year more than those who didn’t, according to a 2001 NACE survey.

NACE offers college students these tips for finding an internship:

€ Check with your academic department and ask if they know of any internships.

€ Attend job fairs, where recruiters are often looking for interns.

€ Network — talk with friends, family, co-workers, teachers and professionals in your field, and let them know you’re searching for an internship.

€ Design your own internship. If a company you’re interested in doesn’t have an internship, propose one to the company, explaining what you want to learn and what you have to offer.

€ Once you find an internship you’re interested in, do research on the company or organization so you can tailor your resume and cover letter to that employer.

MSU’s career services office, in the Strand Union Building basement, collects information about internships, Beck said. It recently heard, for example, from Sen. Max Baucus’ office about an internship with the Senate Finance Committee.

MSU students can look through a binder about internships at the career services office or check online (www.montana.edu/careers/intern.htm).

Olson said he found out about the Gaston Engineering internship from a sign posted on campus.

Engineer Jerry Gaston said his company, which has a full-time staff of about 17, hired four interns for its peak summer season.

"It helps them and it helps us," Gaston said. "Just about everybody who works here full time has been an intern."

MSU’s College of Engineering may have a good reputation for educating engineers, but it leaves out something important, Gaston said, namely, "the real world."

"Communication in written form and speech, with a client, a contractor or regulatory agency — that’s what we teach," he said. "If we can’t talk to a client or a regulatory agency, we’d have to shut our doors."

Sheryl Wambsgans, 21, wants to go to law school and become an attorney and possibly a judge. She’s an MSU junior majoring in sociology and justice studies, and has been working since January with the Albin Law Firm as an unpaid intern.

"I used to argue with my dad a lot and everybody told me I’d be a good attorney," she said. "The justice system is incredibly complex and so interesting. It’s something I can be passionate about."

As an intern, she has done some simple jobs — filing, taking phone messages — as well as more challenging tasks — helping to write motions and briefs. Sometimes she goes to court to sit in on hearings.

"You’re getting experience you can’t get anywhere else," she said. "Everything has made me know more and more this is what I want to do."

Attorney Brock Albin, who has five interns in his office this summer, was an intern himself 10 years ago as a college student. It confirmed his decision to go into law and gave him practical experience.

"You pretty much have to take a vow of poverty for a few months," Albin said.

Rather than feeling exploited, he felt grateful.

"The first several months, I was probably more a hindrance than a help," he said. "After a while, you become a help.

"Law schools are extremely theoretical and professors often have not practiced," Albin said. An internship "make the learning more concrete."

A summer internship changed Cathy Conover’s life.

She was a political science major at Cornell University, aiming for a career in the diplomatic service and studying Russian. But a summer internship in Washington, D.C., working on translations in a stuffy Department of Defense office, changed her mind.

"I was so bored I couldn’t believe it," she recalled.

The next summer, Conover interned with a corporation and loved it. That led to a career in business, which eventually led to a personnel job at Montana State University and to one of MSU’s top administrative jobs — lobbyist and university relations director.

Bethany Erb, 21, a student from Dillon studying agribusiness and communications at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, applied in February to be a summer intern in the Washington, D.C., office of Sen. Conrad Burns.

She has been working in the press shop and on some agricultural issues. One of her jobs is compiling headlines from national and Montana newspapers to keep the senator’s staff up to date.

"So far my experience has been wonderful," Erb said. The office "gives us real tasks," she said, unlike some, where interns just open the mail.

"It’s great hands-on experience."

At-risk young people benefit from internships

Internships aren’t just for college students.

The nonprofit Human Resource Development Council operates a youth employment program that provides jobs and internships to kids at risk of dropping out of school, teenage parents and other young people, ages 14 to 21, who face barriers to employment.

Federal Workforce Investment Act funds pay their wages, said Stephanie Gray, youth development director.

"Practically, it gives them some work skills — showing up on time, interacting with bosses — and specific work skills," Gray said.

Even more important, she said, it connects them to responsible adult role models.

Sharon Cavanaugh, 20, said doing secretarial work at the Emerson Cultural Center and Montana Veterans Affairs office taught her a lot about dealing with different kinds of people, and how to overcome "that generation gap."

"It’s a stepping stone from adolescence to adulthood," Cavanaugh said. "You build your confidence level and are able to do a better job.

"A lot of kids right from high school have no job skills whatsoever," she said. For those kids, fast food jobs may be their only option, and that, she said, "is kind of sad."

Luke Matthews, 20, apprenticed with a tile installer for a couple months. "I learned responsibility," he said.

Shannon Webster, 22, a mother of three boys, is interning with HRDC’s youth program. "I’ve learned tons of stuff — responsibility, computer skills, office skills, organizing," and, she added, "nagging."

Lynsey Apple, 19, who’s still recovering from the recent death of her mother, interned in the office of the local massage therapy school, to find out if that’s the career she wants to pursue.

Tori Wenman, 17, a Bozeman High senior, worked for several months at the Museum of the Rockies planetarium and then at the Children’s Museum, which has since hired him.

Wenman said the internship taught him to do more on a computer than he could do before, which was just playing video games. One big skill it taught him, he said, was how to control his temper when children started crying in the middle of a planetarium show.

"This program offers a lot to people starting to get their first jobs," he said.

Information about the youth employment program is available at 585-4874.

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