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First Internship? - 12/18/2007 2:46:13 PM   
CuriousLord


Posts: 3911
Joined: 4/3/2007
Status: offline 		Anyone here remember their first internship (if they took such a career route)?  How you got into it, what you thought of the time, what it was like, what effects it had on you and your career?

Until now, I've been basically a full time student for all my life.  Sure, I've had a couple of chores (minimum wage jobs that a well trained monkey could've probably done) and a bit of tutoring, but nothing that's actually required my education before (besides the tutoring).  I hope that, this summer, I'll get my first taste of a professional environment, and I'm hoping to have some thoughts and experiences related to be better prepared.

The particular internship for me, if I'm lucky enough to receive one, will likely be Engineering related; still, though, any internship experience stories and prospectives would be neat.
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RE: First Internship? - 12/18/2007 2:56:50 PM   
toservez


Posts: 1733
Joined: 9/7/2006
From: All over now in Minnesota
Status: offline 		I spent extensive time working in a hospital before I went real world full time. It was extremely helpful to me as theory and academia can be far different then reality. It was the number one reason I chose to change career paths from studying to become a doctor to going into nursing.

Another great benefit is that you are exposed to people of different ages, positions and positions of power and how everyone reacts, gets along and really for me the first time I truly got a glimpse of seeing adults as just people like me and not authority figures.

I can see no negatives to an internship even if the work is menial your exposure will not be. Good Luck!


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RE: First Internship? - 12/18/2007 3:06:10 PM   
thompsonx


Posts: 23322
Joined: 10/1/2006
Status: offline 		I did a summer internship with a surveying company.  I had been studying for the LS exam for almost a year and this was an opportunity to get some OTJ experience. 
The survey they did encompassed just under a hundred square miles.  The tricky part was that about 80% of the job was over water.  Little that I had studied prepared me for what we did.  It was truly a learning experience.
thompson

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RE: First Internship? - 12/18/2007 3:13:13 PM   
seeksfemslave


Posts: 4011
Joined: 6/16/2006
Status: offline 		Internship in the UK implies the medical profession.
If that is the same in the US then you are at a stage in your career when the death count is likely to be at a maximum.
Good luck....to you and your patients lol
l.

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RE: First Internship? - 12/18/2007 3:18:52 PM   
trappedinamuseum


Posts: 5066
Joined: 8/24/2006
Status: offline 		My first internship was at a museum, and it was a requirement of my program.  I found it by calling random museums in the area that I wanted to reside in that summer.  I was just doing it because I has to, not because I actually wanted to work at this one specific place.  It ended up being the best decision I have ever made.

With the internship, I decided on my future career path: museums.  The experiences there helped me to realize that working in a museum was exactly what I wanted to do.  It also gave me a leg up for grad school, and future internships, since I now have more experience than most other students.

If you can do an internship, I highly suggest it.  Not only will it add to your resume, but it will give you the opportunity to decide if that career path is right for you.

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RE: First Internship? - 12/18/2007 4:57:35 PM   
acissej


Posts: 2370
Joined: 12/24/2005
From: New Jersey
Status: offline 		My first internship was with two magazines--one consumer, one trade--that were focused on shoes.  I think I just found a listing on the publisher's web site and applied.  They interviewed me for a few other magazines, then asked me which one I wanted to work on.  Since I'm a typical female and love shoes, I went with the footwear magazines.  It was a great experience.  Sure, I had to do typical grunt work like photocopying and filing, but I got to write articles, interview footwear "celebrities", and they even let me have my own column for a few months.  Ooooh, and I was able to play in the sample closet with all the loans from designers.  That was a lot of fun. 

All in all, it strengthened my writing, but it taught me that I prefer fixing other people's writing than doing my own.  I went from looking for reporting jobs to looking for editing jobs.  I've been working as a fiction editor for the past seven years.  In a month, I'm going to be leaving my full-time job to do freelance editorial work, but I'm also going to pitch ideas to a few magazines.  That first internship gave me a foundation that I'll utilize in those pitches and any subsequent articles.  The writing clips from that internship will be a big help, too.

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RE: First Internship? - 12/18/2007 7:53:41 PM   
proudsub


Posts: 6142
Joined: 1/31/2004
From: Washington
Status: offline 		What i remember about my daughter's internships is paying 2 more semesters of out of state tuition when i thought we were finished. She never even set foot on campus or in that state during her internships, but they sure got our money.

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proudsub

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RE: First Internship? - 12/18/2007 7:55:44 PM   
laurell3


Posts: 6577
Joined: 5/5/2005
Status: offline 		Although it was not an internship per se, I learned far more from working while I was in grad school than I did from actual school.  I don't see how you could go wrong from more practical experience.

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RE: First Internship? - 12/18/2007 8:19:59 PM   
arkitain


Posts: 22
Joined: 5/8/2007
Status: offline 		My first internship was doing tech support for a rather large law firm in DC.  I got it through a friend of the family who was working as a legal assistant there, and they needed someone with basic computer knowledge to do the stuff nobody else wanted to do.  Ghosting machines, server setup, filling boxes of old equipment, shredding old hard drives, carrying monitors, that sort of thing.

I learned a couple rather important lessons.  First of all, to do my best to NOT end up in tech support once I graduated.  That there are both extremely difficult and extremely nice people in any profession.  And, of course, which particular patterns of server panic beeps should cause frantic running for the fire extinguisher, and which get put in as a low priority ticket.

I also learned just how hellish the DC Metro is during rush hour.  Ugh.  Never again, if I can avoid it.

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RE: First Internship? - 12/18/2007 8:34:19 PM   
slaveboyforyou


Posts: 3607
Joined: 1/6/2005
From: Arkansas, U.S.A.
Status: offline 		I double majored in history and criminal justice.  I never had to do any internships for either.  But I did have to go to 3 different prisons and follow around correctional staff for an entire day for my criminal justice classes.  It was definitely an eye opener.  I later worked at a shelter for runaways and UMs removed from their homes by social services.  I got the job because of my educational background, and that was an eye opener too.  I was only 22 years old, and I grew up in a stable, middle class family.  So I wasn't used to seeing things like that.  It pissed me off in a lot of cases.  I honestly don't think I would have the patience to deal with the parents that social workers deal with.  I wanted to punch out more than a few of them.   

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