Internships and co-ops help IT grads land jobs

"We love to be able to convert interns to fulltime positions." – Catherine Chandler, TriQuint Semiconductor

"Co-ops open doors to challenging work." – Dr Legand L. Burge III, Howard University

By Sheryl Rich-Kern
Contributing Editor

While employment in the IT sector is stronger than in less technical fields, a degree in information technology or computer science is no guarantee of a job.

A degree from a high-ranking college and good grades may help a recent college graduate's resume rise to the top of the pile, but that's generally not enough to land an interview. As in most professions, IT recruiters want to see a candidate's experience. Whether it's called an internship, co-op or "research experience," time spent in a real-world professional setting makes a candidate more attractive.

The Shriver Center at the University of Maryland in Baltimore County (UMBC) coordinates more than 1,700 UMBC student intern, co-op and research placements at more than 500 public and private organizations around the globe. "Students need to distinguish themselves from others to ensure that they can compete in a tight job market," says Christine Routzahn, director of the center's professional practice.

Routzahn says that 2011 internship and co-op placements are up 12 percent from the previous year. Her sense is that more students are eager to network, participate in multiple semesters of internships and other experiential learning opportunities like co-ops and research projects, and are more interested in attending company information sessions.

Internships, she says, are valuable not only for students; companies develop a pool of talented candidates from which they can select permanent employees. Hiring and training costs are also reduced because interns have a minimal learning curve.

Dr Legand L. Burge, III, chairman of the department of systems and computer science at Howard University (Washington, DC), believes that a good co-op experience provides students with excellent mentors and opportunities to network. He says co-ops, which often require students to make presentations to top managers, open doors to challenging work.

"Good co-op experiences give students exposure to different parts of the company," says Burge.

Companies expand intern programs
Despite the recession, many companies have increased the size of their internship programs. Comcast (Philadelphia, PA) doubled its intern program in 2008. Human resources recruiter Nicole Chisholm says the company has also increased the conversions of intern to fulltime hires steadily since 2006.

"We are seeing an increased demand for entry-level talent within the organization, specifically in our finance and engineering departments,"
she notes.

3M Company (St. Paul, MN) has also energized its internship program, doubling the number of positions from 2009 to 2010.

And at TriQuint Semiconductor (Hillsboro, OR), college program manager Catherine Chandler says the company has doubled the number of interns from the previous year, and hopes to continue to expand. "We love to be able to convert interns to fulltime positions and we do this whenever we can," she adds.

The job outlook is good
According to a recent Robert Half (www.roberthalf.us) Professional Employment Report, 12 percent of CIOs surveyed said they planned to add IT staff during the fourth quarter. Sam Page, branch manager for Robert Half Technology in Manchester, NH, says, "There are more opportunities for those with a combination of relevant education and related work experience or internships."

Recent graduates with an IT background have reasons for optimism: finance career experts at monster.com report that the IT job market for hands-on, highly skilled IT professionals has been rising since the end of 2010.

As companies begin to reinstate projects postponed during the recession, they will need qualified IT professionals who can help them cut costs and improve workflow.

Chukwuebuka Emenike: UNCF scholar at Dominion
Chukwuebuka Nnanyelu Emenike, better known as "Chuk" or "Bukas," has never killed a lion or an elephant. But since he arrived in the United States in 2010 from Nigeria, people are always asking if he has.

Emenike doesn't get angry at this question. In fact, he applies good humor about some Americans' preconceived notions of West African civilization. "We don't live in trees," he says with a smile.

After attending the Dority International Secondary School (Abia State, Nigeria), Emenike enrolled at Voorhees College in Denmark, SC. He's a computer science major and expects to graduate in 2013.

Emenike did his first internship in the summer of 2011 at Dominion Resources Services (Richmond, VA), where he worked in the bill planning and analysis group. On the job, he wrote queries and scripts that enabled the company to analyze where it was losing or increasing earnings. For example, he evaluated data that deciphers why customers are not paying their bills. "The reasons vary from incorrect mailing addresses to forgetfulness or deceit," he notes.

Dominion is a producer and transporter of energy, with a portfolio of approximately 28,200 megawatts of power generation, 11,000 miles of natural gas transmission, gathering and storage pipeline, and 6,300 miles of electric transmission lines. The company operates the nation's largest natural gas storage system with 947 billion cubic feet of storage capacity and serves retail energy customers in fifteen states.

Dominion is a corporate sponsor of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF); Emenike is a UNCF scholarship recipient. UNCF and Dominion will provide scholarship funds toward his junior and senior years.

The goal of the UNCF corporate scholarship program is to ensure that successful corporations have a ready pool of well-trained, ethnically diverse young professionals who can create the products and efficiencies companies need to compete in the dynamic, globally integrated marketplace.

During his internship, Emenike was involved in many areas: "I applied good communication skills to ensure I disseminated accurate information. I've also improved on certain business programs using Excel, Access and Outlook."

The Dominion internship was Emenike's first and he hopes it will lead to a permanent position there. He enjoyed the work and also the camaraderie.

Each Tuesday he played soccer with other interns and fulltimers. "It's not about the competition," he explains. "Like a real job, you want to do your best. But you also want to find the tasks invigorating."

Rebecca Mainquist, human resources specialist at Dominion, says the company provides an "inclusive, creative and productive environment where employees with diverse backgrounds are accepted and respected." She explains that the UNCF/Dominion scholarship program engages students for paid work after their freshman and sophomore years.

Alex Silva increased his IT skills as an intern at BP
Alex Silva is an IT business analyst intern at BP (London, UK), an international energy company. He's working with BP's supply and trading group in Houston, TX and will graduate from the University of Houston in 2011 with a degree in computer information systems.

At school, Silva learned the basics and theory of IT application development and IT project management. "But it was not until I started working for BP that I got a complete understanding of these two areas," he notes.

Along the way, Silva has increased his skills in .Net application development and the system development life cycle. He's also been introduced to forward-looking technologies, like Microsoft Silverlight, a development tool for creating interactive Internet and mobile applications.

While the BP internship is his first, Silva had worked full time at Best Buy (Richfield, MN) in Houston, TX since he was a high school senior. As the store's former Geek Squad manager, he oversaw more than twenty IT and sales professionals.

At BP, Silva has been intrigued by the trading side of the energy business. It's a role he would consider in the future, and to prepare, he's spent time job-shadowing the traders at BP.

Bezhou Feng hones analytical skills as a Comcast intern
As an intern at Comcast (Philadelphia, PA), Bezhou Feng worked with the advanced applications engineering team to write code and fix defects in the Xfinity TV remote application for Android smartphones.

Feng will graduate from the University of Pennsylvania (Penn, Philadelphia, PA) in 2012 with a major in bioengineering and a minor in computer science.

He began his studies at Penn as a biomedical engineering major. However, as he took high-level biomedical classes, he found that "My best times were spent during the programming portions of my classes, as when we had to create a program that would analyze an ECG signal for heart defects." With a fair amount of programming experience behind him, he decided to explore the computer science field.

During his internship, Feng honed his analytical skills. He explains that he fixed, rather than wrote, code. Debugging, he explains, requires you to "go through someone else's code to try and decipher the logic. If a bug does appear, it's because a situation has arisen that the original programmer never expected, guaranteeing that the bug's root cause will be somewhat cryptic."

Feng took advantage of Comcast's weekly professional development training sessions, and social and community service events designed specifically for interns.

Although this was Feng's first internship, he has also worked for two small startups devoted to semantic searching of social networking data.

After graduating from college, Feng would like to work in industry as a programmer. Eventually he'd like to pursue a PhD and conduct research related to brain-computer interfaces, which he says, "is a good intersection of my interests in biology and computer science."

Nicole Chisholm notes that Comcast works with a variety of programs, like the Emma Bowen Foundation and the Philadelphia Diversity Law Group, to support inclusion in the workplace.

"These partnerships further our strong investment in the community as well as provide us with a pipeline of highly talented students," she says. "Comcast values the diverse perspectives all interns bring to the table, and we believe it makes for a more enriching experience for them to meet other students of different backgrounds and interests."

PhD candidate Troy Nunnally worked on electronic apps as a 3M intern
Limited resources and ingenuity are the traits that led Troy Nunnally to a career in electronic applications.

For example, when he was ten, Nunnally and his twin brother built a go-kart out of items they salvaged from trashcans, using only rope, metal weights, a hammer, nails and duct tape. In high school, he invented a lamp that turns on when the phone rings, overcoming his parents' objections to "playing" with electricity.

Nunnally is a PhD candidate in computer engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA), where he also received his bachelors and masters. He expects to complete his doctorate in 2013.

Nunnally was a 2011 intern in the software, electronics and mechanical systems (SEMS) research group at 3M Company (St. Paul, MN). He created new applications, like the company's 3D technology interfaces. He also analyzed various mesh designs for touch displays.

3M is a 100-year-old company with $27 billion in sales and operations in more than sixty-five countries. The science-based company employs about 80‚000 people worldwide and produces over 55,000 products from healthcare and highway safety to office products, abrasives and adhesives.

In SEMS, Nunnally worked with a visual scientist, a physicist, a computer scientist and an industrial design professional. "I like this cross-discipline culture," he says.

Prior to working with SEMS, Nunnally interned at 3M Process Instruments and Control Systems, where he helped develop manufacturing equipment for Post-it tabs and Petri dish film. In 2005, he interned at Caterpillar (Peoria, IL), where he remanufactured truck engines.

In the future, Nunnally would like to conduct research and create new technologies in either industry or academia. He hopes to receive his PhD from Georgia Tech in three years. And he'd like to nail down at least one patent within the next five years.

When not inventing, Nunnally likes to play sports, and was once an all-American division II ballplayer. He also loves to work on cars, and is currently refurbishing a 1986 Corvette.

Quyen Chen, who manages 3M's university and college programs, says the company "recognizes and leverages the many aspects of diversity to create an environment where all employees can thrive and contribute to 3M's growth and success."

Intern Nick Rotundo: new IT skills at TriQuint
Nick Rotundo remembers his first computer. It was an old Pentium. He was eleven years old and was trying to run a program that kept giving him a cryptic message about a bad software component.

His dad told him to search for solutions on the Internet. "From then on, I learned how to fix computers by trial and error," he says. As he got older, Rotundo continued to experiment with electronics, from building circuits and designing advanced networks, to setting up audio systems.

Troubleshooting comes naturally to Rotundo, who is a junior at the University of Texas at Dallas, majoring in management information systems, with a minor in computer science.

In high school, Rotundo worked at Boxless Solutions, an IT company. He made house calls to repair computers at clients' homes and provided software support for corporate clients.

In the summer of 2011 Rotundo was an IT intern at the Richardson, TX location of TriQuint Semiconductor (Hillsboro, OR), a provider of high-performance RF components for wireless communication. He resolved hardware- and software-related issues, anything from new computer setups to upgrades and small projects.

He worked full time during the summer, and returned to school in the fall. The work experience introduced him to enterprise-level software and other engineering-based software packages that he hadn't used at school. Rotundo expects this experience will give him a leg up on other recent grads whose knowledge is solely academic.

Rotundo is president of the UT Dallas student activities board, where he manages the logistics of putting on musical shows, including hospitality and backline support.

TriQuint occasionally let him take a few hours off in the middle of the day to run an event at school. "A company that supports an employee's needs like this is one that I would like to work for in the future," he says.

Rotundo hopes to pursue a masters in systems engineering, which will bring together his computer and business backgrounds.

Catherine Chandler at TriQuint says that diverse students bring a mix of backgrounds and experience that contribute to an energetic working environment. She adds, "A diverse group of interns can eventually convert to a diverse fulltime workforce."

Isioma Nnodum explored Microsoft as an intern
Isioma Nnodum says it's not the free drinks, discounted car rentals or gym membership that sold him on the innovative environment at Microsoft (Redmond, WA). Those perks are line items in a long list of benefits that make this software giant one of the "coolest" places to work on the planet.

It was the twelve-week "Explore Microsoft" internship that captured his interest. The program exposes students to the three core technology roles at Microsoft: program manager, software developer and software development engineer in test. In the summer of 2011, Nnodum worked with a team to develop a new release of the Microsoft SQL Server, a relational database server product.

In his third year of a five-year program at the Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY), Nnodum expects to graduate in 2014 with a BS in computer engineering and networking and systems.

Nnodum's obsession with computers began as a child when his mom let him play games on a Packard Bell PC. In seventh grade, he asked his teacher to dust off a Dell XPS with a 200 MHz Pentium II processor, which he promptly took apart and put back together. He's been assembling parts and programming software ever since.

The Microsoft internship helped hone Nnodum's approach to solving problems. He also learned the value of asking for help, by simply "walking across the hall or picking up a phone and talking with someone," he notes. As a result, "I have seen my suggestions and opinions develop from assumptions, to propositions, to concrete code, and finally to applause."

Nnodum is the fifth of seven children of Nigerian-born parents who immigrated to the United States in the 1980s to give their children a better education.

In addition to helping countries communicate with each other through technology, Nnodum has another long-term goal: he'd like to have the prominence and ingenuity worthy of a TED conference lecturer. TED is the annual Technology Entertainment and Design conference where celebrity intellectuals offer glimpses of the future; its online videos have captured the attention of professors, students and other inveterate learners.

Nnodum has made a good start. He's worked at a company that continues to tap its employees' potential and help them create groundbreaking approaches to computing.

Stafford Mays, a senior diversity spokesperson at Microsoft, says the company believes that "Diversity leads to creativity and innovation and enriches our products and the lives of our people." He says it's important that each intern class, one of Microsoft's most valuable pools of talent, reflect this belief.

Intern Zarena Galloway honed analytical and communication skills at Kraft Foods
It was at a high school technology camp that Zarena Galloway found her career niche. "What really attracted me," she says, is that "Technology is applicable in all industries and is necessary for most processes today."

Little did she know she would wind up at a company known for such edible commodities as Maxwell House coffee, Nabisco cookies or Oscar Mayer weiners.

Galloway, a senior at Indiana University (Bloomington, IN), was a 2011 information systems intern at Kraft Foods (Northfield, IL), a food and beverage company with more than 180 manufacturing and processing facilities worldwide.

Galloway worked in the Kraft Foods Master Data organization, which governs, creates and maintains the company's data on products, customers, materials, vendors and locations. Her project was to use multimedia to create an informative series of courses explaining the Master Data organization to company employees.

Because Galloway needed to interview members of the audience for her presentations, she had to reach out to different areas of the organization. This helped hone her analytical and communication skills.

During the school year, Galloway participates in Indiana U's Serve IT clinic, which helps local social service organizations. She is currently on a team that provides IT consulting, website development and graphic design for the Middle Way House, a battered women's shelter.

After earning her BS in information technology Galloway hopes to pursue an MBA.

She describes the company as forward thinking and innovative: "Kraft Foods is constantly searching for new tools and processes to make itself a leader in the industry."

As a global business, says Tim Mote, associate director of university relations, "We need to reflect the faces of our consumers in our employees, and especially in our leaders." For that reason, the company is committed to recruiting a diverse pool of interns who may convert to fulltime employees in the future.

Margaret Gerhart: from Reach co-op to employee at International Paper
International Paper (IP, Memphis, TN), a global leader in paper and packaging products, capitalizes on its acronym to broadcast its philosophy: "infinite possibilities."

"It's true," says Margaret Gerhart, technical services engineer and former co-op student. "Wherever you want to go, IP will support you, and will help you get there." The company, she adds, recognizes that valuing and encouraging diversity of thought, experience, backgrounds and talents in its employees will translate into a competitive advantage.

Gerhart has been a fulltime employee at IP's Courtland, AL location since the beginning of 2010. She interfaces with machine operators to design efficient equipment maintenance routes. While her job is not strictly IT, she gets involved in many aspects of technical support, including software troubleshooting, to increase the efficiency of IP's mill equipment and maintenance processes.

A graduate of Western Michigan University (WMU) in Kalamazoo, Gerhart received her BS in paper engineering in 2009. As a freshman, she believed she would "save forests from complete destruction." Before long, she realized how committed paper mills are to responsibly sustaining natural resources. "Once I learned about the industry and the science behind it, I realized it was the right fit for me."

During her last semester, Gerhart did a co-op at IP. As a Reach process engineer she updated manufacturing standards and worked with operators, managers, lab technicians, maintenance and other engineers to understand and troubleshoot machine processes.

The "Reach" program at IP offers an integrated core curriculum for new engineers, where they can learn from industry experts about the skills, processes, equipment and tools necessary for success in this industry.

"The engineers we hire into our Reach program are a key part of our succession plans," says Tom Plath, human resources director for manufacturing and global supply chain. "We hire primarily from the undergraduate programs and have found that the talent pool is full of very capable, very qualified candidates."

In 2007 Gerhart held a co-op position in process engineering at Packaging Corporation of America (Lake Forest, IL). Working out of the Tomahawk, WI location, she implemented trials for process improvement in a variety of mill areas.

"To be honest," admits Gerhart, "I can't imagine graduating from college without completing a co-op." She adds that her co-ops "increased my ability to troubleshoot on the fly, communicate and work professionally with a variety of people, as well as manage my time effectively."

Gerhart can envision herself managing an entire paper machine or multiple machines. She could also see herself as the company expert on a process or system.

D/C

Sheryl Rich-Kern is a freelancer in Nashua, NH and a correspondent for NH Public Radio.

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