Internships and co-ops can be bridges from school to the working world. Many kinds of businesses, including those with IT needs, offer students opportunities to get in the door before they graduate. Companies directly involved with IT like Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, WA) and Texas Instruments (Dallas, TX) look for rising stars with IT skills to work on products. Other businesses, from hotels to health care institutions, seek IT students to help them deliver services and manage administration.
"I encourage every college student to seek an internship," says Ashley Martin, a Unix systems administrator and former intern at Texas Instruments.
"What you learn in school is important, but it's nothing like the real world," adds Takeya Allen, programmer/analyst for the Hilton Hotels Corp operations center in Memphis, TN.
Minority students can find internships and co-ops through many avenues, including programs like Inroads, campus organizations, and college placement offices that have recruiting contacts and schedules. They can also reach out to college alumni now employed in IT, or take advantage of faculty or family connections in the industry. And they can access websites where IT interns and employees comment on their jobs and offer advice about locating worthwhile positions.
Garlin Gilchrist is a software design engineer at Microsoft
Garlin Gilchrist II learned from two summer internships in the automotive industry that he wanted to be in computers. His mother worked in finance at General Motors (Detroit, MI). Her connections got him the internships before he even entered college, but after the second one he could see that his future lay elsewhere.
"I asked myself, 'How can I get into a technology industry?'" he says.
He found his way in as president of Black Electrical Engineers and Computer Scientists at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI), where he worked with Microsoft's recruiter at an event. She suggested he apply for an internship, and he was among the three out of 300 at the event to be offered a spot.
Microsoft has about 29,000 employees at its headquarters in Redmond, WA. Its seven core business units employ nearly 60,000 people worldwide.
For three summers, starting in 2002, Gilchrist worked on a team of thirty as a software test engineer, taking on more responsibility each year. He tested features and built tools that made his team members' jobs easier. He also made presentations that helped him polish his communications skills and increased his visibility. "I did a lot to help people understand who I was and what I could bring to the team," he says.
He was offered a job at the end of his third summer, contingent on finishing his degree. He received his BSCE and BSCS in the spring of 2005, then drove to Washington with his father and settled into his new location.
At Microsoft Gilchrist is a software design engineer in testing for Windows SharePoint Services. The opportunity to have an impact on existing and future products makes it exciting. "If you understand that you can directly affect the customer through the product you're working on, and make yourself accountable, you will succeed," he says.
Gilchrist, who led an on-campus African American men's support network and mentored young men at a juvenile detention center during college, plans to continue his community involvement in Seattle through connections he made at school.
Texas Instruments' Ashley Martin upgrades software
MIS students at the University of Texas (Austin, TX) are required to work at least one internship in order to graduate. Ashley Martin started looking for one when she was a sophomore, and met Texas Instruments (TI, Dallas, TX) recruiters at a campus career fair.
TI is a leader in digital signal processing and analog technologies. It is expanding in technologies like wireless and broadband access, and emerging markets like digital cameras and digital audio. The company has 19,600 employees nationwide and 34,800 worldwide.
Martin impressed the recruiters and was invited to intern the following summer at TI's headquarters in Dallas. An assignment in a data center gave her the opportunity to work with several groups and learn about different areas of TI.
TI organizes events for all its interns in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, nearly 100 in total, to give them a chance to make friends, develop a contact base and make the transition to the corporate world. The events helped Martin warm to the corporate culture. "I knew the data center was not where I wanted to spend my career, but I loved the company and the culture, so I came back for a second term," she says.
She returned for a second rotation as a system administrator in the back-up and recovery group. After she received her degree in 2003, she joined that group full time and is now the project manager for a major software upgrade. The contacts she made from her internships help her in coordinating the project's four teams, and she expects to meet her end-of-year deadline.
Martin participates in TI's new-employee affinity group or "initiative," open to all employees with five or fewer years at the company. The initiative sponsors lunchtime speakers as well as community service projects and social events.
Seeing women in positions of leadership has always encouraged Martin to aim high. Her high school computer science teacher was a woman, and one of her managers at TI, also a woman, has provided her with guidance and support. "She's an amazing mentor to me," says Martin. "She's teaching me a lot about leadership."
Takeya Allen and Antoinette Andrews: interns to employees at Hilton Hotels
Takeya Allen started at the Memphis, TN operations center of Hilton Hotels (Beverly Hills, CA) after she received her BSCIS from Delta State University (Cleveland, MS) in June 2002. She and Antoinette Andrews, who earned her BS in business information systems from Mississippi State University (Starkville, MS), were two of the first six interns in a program championed by Hilton CIO Tim Harvey, a Delta State alum. They were also the first two to accept full-time positions at the conclusion of the ten-week internship.
Allen, a programmer/analyst, began at the company working on a Web-based help application for hotel managers. She now works with both Windows and Web applications that support Hilton's worldwide reservations system.
"I won't say I didn't have any difficulties, but I had a lot of help to get things done," says Allen, who plans to pursue an MBA this fall.
Allen participates in community activities sponsored by Hilton, like the Light the Night walk to raise money for cancer research and the Special Olympics. She also mentored one of this year's interns, Eric Wilson, another Delta State alum.
Andrews has known she wanted a career in computers since high school. She co-oped at Raytheon Systems (Waltham, MA) in Dallas, TX for three alternating college semesters before interning at Hilton. Her Raytheon experience using technologies like C++ helped her grasp what her classes were trying to teach her. "What you need to know is how to program so you can adapt to any new language that comes along," she says.
Today she is a programmer/analyst for Hilton's brand support solutions, developing the Owner Relationship Management application that contains basic information about the hotels and its brands. She anticipates working on an even bigger project next year: a database of detailed marketing information about each hotel, down to its specific amenities and proximity to local attractions.
"Having a quality product is important, and meeting the needs of your users is the most critical part of your job," she says.
Lashell Vaughn, vice president of IT services at Hilton and a Mississippi State alum, has been a mentor to Andrews. One of her lessons is that you need to do more than your job to get ahead. "She made sure I never became complacent and pushed me to do better," Andrews says.
Andrews will begin a masters program in information systems in January. She feels her talents are more on the technical side than the business side. Another mentor, Jane Ellen Rawdon, has encouraged her to put in the time to advance her career no matter how busy she is.
Like Allen, Andrews is active in Hilton's community service activities and recently served as a "hugger" for the Special Olympics.
Tara Sharma: a perfect fit at UBS
UBS (Zurich, Switzerland) is an integrated wealth management, investment banking, securities and asset management firm that employs more than 69,000 people in Switzerland, other parts of Europe, the Americas and Asia. The company is also a perfect fit for intern Tara Sharma, who received her BSCS with a minor in economics from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI) in 2004. "Having a technology degree allows you to explore many different industries," she says. "UBS is a great company where I can use all my knowledge."
Sharma found the UBS internship at a campus career fair. In the summer of 2004 she worked for ten weeks in the equities IT group, where she gained experience in project management and did business analyses of UBS Wealth Management and UBS Investment Bank IT systems.
She joined UBS as a full-time member of the Graduate Development Program (GDP) after she finished her degree in December. The program offers a five-week training session and two nine-month rotations. Sharma chose to go back to the group where she'd interned for her first rotation.
During the summer internship her manager was a woman, and Sharma is one of five women in this year's GDP class of fourteen. UBS' commitment to diversity was one of the qualities that attracted her to the company. "I realized in talking to people here that UBS is a leader in diversity," she says. "You have to go beyond what's written on the brochure."
Sharma has attended, and enjoyed, two career development workshops for women at UBS. The events attract women from all levels, including senior executives and directors, to discuss career objectives, problem solving and work/family balance. UBS has a permanent women's network called All Bar None.
UBS posts community service activities on company bulletin boards. Sharma has spent time doing landscape maintenance at the Bartlett Arboretum in Stamford, CT.
Sharma feels her internship gave her a good picture of what life would be like at the company. The attention and support she received from executives made her feel welcome and important. "I got to see a lot of different roles within a group, and also learned that I fit into the culture here."
Deidre Thomas: intern at Humana
Deidre Thomas and Clarence Ellery attend rival colleges, but they joined forces at Humana Inc (Louisville, KY) in the summer of 2005 as Inroads interns. Both learned more about their IT majors through their work in Humana's National Educational Policy Development (NEPD) division.
Humana is one of the nation's largest publicly traded health benefits companies, with approximately seven million medical members in fifteen states and Puerto Rico. It offers coordinated health insurance coverage and related services through traditional and Internet-based plans to employer groups, government-sponsored plans and individuals.
This past summer was the second one at Humana for Thomas, a CIS major at the University of Louisville (Louisville, KY). She gathered claims information and sent it on Excel spreadsheets to Humana's Bill Ryan, the division's national leader for technology. In 2004 she was assigned to the technology lab in the IT building to rebuild computer servers. "I think I'm more of a hands-on type of person, but I enjoyed both assignments," she says.
Her aunt, who works in computers in state government, encouraged Thomas to pursue electronic technology in college. Thomas is mastering Web development in her third year at Louisville. As a Porter Scholar at the university, she is required to keep her GPA above 3.0 and participate in community service; the Porter Scholarship is a minority program that provides full tuition. She also served as an alternate resident assistant in the dorm last year and is a resident assistant this year.
Thomas doesn't mind standing out in a crowd. She was the first black homecoming queen at her high school.
Clarence Ellery: a mentor at Humana
Clarence Ellery is in his sophomore year at the University of Kentucky (Lexington, KY) in computer engineering with a minor in accounting. At Humana he set up databases, provided support for all of NEPD's systems, and worked with audits to sort out trends, standardize information and write auditing manuals.
Connecting regularly with his mentor, Mario Apodaca, a technologist in Humana's centralized billing and enrollment quality department, was an important part of his internship experience. "He left school before he got his degree, and he told me how hard it was to go back," says Ellery. "He's a great guy. He's done things in his career that I'd like to explore."
Ellery is an athlete who is involved with NSBE and Black Achievers, a Louisville-based initiative. He also volunteers at local hospitals.
Both interns agree it's never too early to start looking for an internship.
Mayo's Simran Chhugani overcomes challenges
Simran Chhugani has faced many challenges. In 2002 she left her husband and then five-year-old son behind in India to earn an American college degree at Winona State University (Winona, MN), where she had a scholarship. She has not returned to India since arriving in Minnesota, because tightened security since 9/11 might have prevented her from coming back to the U.S. and completing her studies.
The family has talked on the phone and communicated online to stay in touch, and she took extra classes during the summers to finish her degree sooner. She earned her BS in CIS in May 2005 after only three years of study.
Chhugani also holds a bachelor of commerce in financial accounting and auditing from Bombay University (Mumbai, India). And she earned an advanced diploma in computer software systems and applications from a technical board in Bombay in 1995. She worked as a programmer/analyst in India for three years. She soon realized, however, that she wanted to pursue an advanced degree in computer science. Because that would have taken five more years of school in India, she decided to come to the U.S. instead.
An internship at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN) was part of her undergraduate work, contributing six credits toward her degree. The experience ultimately led to full-time employment at Mayo and a work visa that will let her family join her.
The Mayo Clinic nurtures diversity to meet the needs of its international clientele. The clinic is the largest group practice in the world, with more than 1,600 doctors at the Rochester location alone. With its other two locations in Jacksonville, FL and Scottsdale AZ, the clinic employs 42,000 allied health staff and treats over half a million patients annually. Service information is available in English, Spanish, Arabic and Turkish.
"Mayo appreciates different cultures so much," she says. "I've never felt like someone from another country."
For her internship Chhugani was an IS intern for hospital-based applications in the information services department. The original six-month internship was extended to nearly a year, during which time she also attended classes at Winona State's satellite Rochester campus. She now works as an analyst/programmer for revenue recognition systems, dealing with patient billing and accounting.
Chhugani's husband is planning to come to the U.S. soon on a dependent visa to study civil engineering. Although getting a student visa is difficult and the restrictions on where foreign students can work and how much they can earn make life hard, Chhugani encourages others to follow her lead.
"It's not easy to live a student's life in a foreign country, but you shouldn't lose hope if that's what you want to do," she says, noting that Winona State makes special efforts to recruit and retain international students. "For me it's been challenging, but very good friends and school support have helped me get through."
Jill Hummel: strong team support for interns at Wal-Mart
Jill Hummel had a job at the Sam's Club in Monroe, LA where she was attending college when she met Wal-Mart (Bentonville, AR) recruiters at a school career fair. Sam's Club is one of four retail divisions of Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world.
She was assigned an internship in the Sam's Club membership area at Wal-Mart's home office during the summer of 2000, then returned to the University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM) to earn her bachelors in CIS with a minor in Spanish. "I felt really prepared for classes after my internship," she says. "You see how it all fits together."
She joined Wal-Mart full time after graduation. Her fluency in Spanish helped her find her place as a business analyst in the information systems division (ISD). She manages international business projects that involve the company's Item File database, taking into consideration that different countries require different merchandise.
Her current team includes about forty-five business analysts and translators. They often meet with customers in Bentonville. Hummel herself spends time with developers to coordinate customer requests. "We do what works well for each market within a country, and see where customer requests fit with developers' resources," she says.
Hummel speaks to active and prospective interns about working at Wal-Mart, which also has a high school internship program for local teenagers. In addition, she formally mentors interns and helps other interns on her team. "The teams at Wal-Mart are generous with their support for interns," she says. "I remember I could go to anybody for help and guidance. Your team is like a family."
Hummel has participated in Wal-Mart's diversity activities for women and for the Latin American community. She's not a Latina, but loves the language and culture. Her work on a second bachelors degree in Spanish at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville puts her in contact with Latin cultures in Central and South America.
"I've always encouraged people to do an internship in college," she says. "You get the basics in school, but the internship experience will take you many steps further."
Wal-Mart's Wendell Valdez creates Web applications
Hummel shared some ULM classes with Wendell Valdez. Now they are both part of the Wal-Mart workforce of more than 1.2 million associates in the U.S.
Valdez is a programmer/analyst for the career planning and recruitment system. His team of about twenty-two creates Web applications for the recruiting, selection and hiring processes. Wal-Mart stores have computer terminals that allow prospective employees to apply through the website.
Valdez interned at Wal-Mart in the summer of 2000 as a programmer for management science. He wrote applications for optimizing and streamlining processes, and for analyzing forecasted statistical data and associate scheduling. He used modeling and simulations for projects like calculating how many merchandise packs can be shipped in a freight truck to maximize space usage.
During his exit interview Valdez expressed an interest in Web development. He returned to campus with a full-time job offer in hand, and after graduating in December with a bachelors in CIS he was assigned to a new team writing Web applications for HR. "It was a comforting thing to have a job right away," he says.
He later moved to a Sam's Club website team writing applications for internal use. In another reorganization he transferred to the Sam's in-club processing team to write applications.
The information systems division is the most diverse at the company's home office. Valdez sings bass in the ISD quartet, which performs at company events such as the ISD awards ceremony, district managers' meetings and the bankers and analysts meeting during shareholders' week. He's an animal lover, so he also volunteers at the local animal shelter.
Valdez had a formal mentor when he was an intern, but found everyone on his team helpful. Now, like Hummel, he supports all the interns in his area regardless of who is assigned as their mentors.
Valdez's search for information about internships took him beyond his campus to the Internet. "What really helped me when I was a student was to talk to a lot of people," he says. "You can exchange ideas and experiences that can help you figure out where to go and learn what's available out there."
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