In this tight employment market, it’s increasingly important for students to lay a foundation of experience with internships. Successful interns are often the first considered for entry-level employment after graduation. And because they’ve had first-hand experience with the company’s culture, they’re already considered part of the team, says Jill Clevenger, college relations director at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL, Baltimore, MD).

“We go back to the interns’ supervisors and tell them, ‘If you want to hire a new graduate and are happy with your intern, this is your opportunity to bring in a known entity,’” Clevenger says. “We’ve had increasing success with that philosophy over the years.”

Kim Demko.

Convergys (Cincinnati, OH), the billing and customer care provider, feels just the same way. The company intends to hire almost all of its forty-three interns from last summer, says Kim Demko, senior manager of human resources.

In fact, internships are such a good entrée to employment that many IT students who have gone on to grad school continue to apply for and benefit from them.

Work that means something
Long gone are the days when summer interns were given nothing but busy work. Companies today are intent on utilizing their skills and intelligence. One intern got to analyze data on how a submarine travels for Johns Hopkins APL. Another tested payroll software for the Vanguard Group (Valley Forge, PA), the investment management company.

“All our projects are pretty meaty,” says Craig Davies, recruiting manager for Guidant Corp (St. Paul, MN), a maker of cardiovascular medical products. “We’re trying to utilize all the resources we can, and interns are a good way of doing that. We give them a lot of accountability. People in the internship program get to do stuff that needs to be done.”

A foot in the door
With all these good things going for internships and co-ops, it’s not surprising that competition for the posts is almost as intense as for full-time jobs. Clevenger of APL says she received more than 2,000 applications for sixty 2002 internships. Demko had 1,000 resumes for the forty-three Convergys openings. Other companies hire only a few interns: General Dynamics Network Systems (Needham, MA) had ten last summer; Guidant brought in five.

“When you’re speaking with recruiters, don’t do the canned spiel,” says IT-MBA student Bashemai Canty. “Ask about their stock and recent acquisitions to get the conversation rolling and let them know you have an interest. Be very positive. It’s all about networking.”

Bashemai Canty got to document procedures for General Dynamics’ Access database.

Bashemai Canty: database at General Dynamics Network Systems
Bashemai Canty was able to apply her class work and expand her IT skills during her internship last summer with General Dynamics Network Systems (Needham, MA). Canty is attending the McCallum Graduate School of Business at Bentley College (Waltham, MA), working toward an information age MBA, which combines IT with traditional business and marketing studies.

Canty got her undergrad degree at Babson College (Babson Park, MA) in marketing and economics in 1998. She was working in corporate sales in Boston, and decided to pursue the MBA when that job petered out.

The professional experience and MBA track made her a good fit for the internship at General Dynamics. The company had recently acquired GTE Government Systems and was particularly interested in people who combined IT with business.

Canty’s summer was spent documenting procedures for General Dynamics’ Access database. “They use Access in self-developed applications,” she says. “They were making changes to databases they currently have, so I got to make some suggestions on linkage between databases, and on documenting them to make it smoother.”

She also started the company’s Virtual Private Office program during her internship. The program uses Lotus software to let people share documents on the Internet.

General Dynamics is “a great name to have on the resume,” says Canty. In fact, she’s thinking of sending that resume right back to General Dynamics when she completes her MBA in May 2003. “There’s a lot of opportunity at General Dynamics, and getting the security clearance I need to work here would be a good step,” she says.

Bernadette Carter worked for CSX, creating a user manual for its EZ Track program.

Bernadette Carter: Fast Track at CSX
CSX Corp (Jacksonville, FL) runs the largest railroad in the eastern half of the U.S. Bernadette Carter landed her internship there through the Inroads intern program for talented minority students. After her first year of college, Inroads helped her find the summer job with CSX.

Her first assignment last summer was to work on EZ Track, a marketing program that keeps track of CSX initiatives with various corporations. “They had me create a user manual for it and install it in PCs in the marketing department,” Carter says.

Her second job was to design “use cases” for Fast Track, a Web-based program for customers. The technical design was already done and she had to come up with scenarios to test the program in action.

“My scenarios told them what the users would do, how they would do it and how the system should respond to it. From that, the people at CSX will be able to do the programming. I’m just sad that I won’t see it to the end,” she says.

Carter was impressed with the company’s support for minorities. “As soon as we got there they introduced us to the diversity council, which is extremely active. It helps schools in the community and puts on programs on different cultures. They really branch out,” Carter says.

She loved her “real-world experience” at CSX. “I like programming, but I love the design aspect even more. In the classroom you can only learn so much.”

Christopher T. Shea: desktop at Mayo
Christopher T. Shea has cerebral palsy and hearing loss. The Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN) offered a work environment that met his needs during his internship. Now he’s employed full time in its communication technology services department.

Shea attended Saint Cloud State University (Saint Cloud, MN) and graduated in December 2001 with a BS in network modeling and simulation. His mother works at Mayo, so he was able to get one of the summer jobs that the clinic reserves for employees’ children. He started in the summer of 1999 as a desktop service advisor, and continued to work vacations and summers until he graduated. One of his jobs was to help secure Mayo’s IT network.

“In the healthcare industry security is really important,” he says. “If someone could break in and get patient information it could be misused in many different ways.”

Now Shea is working full time in desktop service. “Basically, it’s helping employees who call to ask about problems with their computers.”

Shea has a slight speech slur and other motor control difficulties. Mayo made assistive modifications to his work environment, such as increasing the volume control on his phone. The general facility is already architecturally accessible because of its patients.

“Moving around within the department is easy,” Shea says. “They have nice facilities and have adapted them to people like me.”

Mayo also gives him free bus passes, and his co-workers assist him when necessary.

“I can say that Mayo has done a great job of hiring people who are minorities. I’ve been more than impressed with the way they’ve handled things,” says Shea.

Ed Jennings: computer work for Interior and the FAA
Ed Jennings was the first student from the InterAmerican University-Arcibo (Arcibo, PR) to land an IT internship with the U.S. Department of Interior (Washington, DC), and later with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

“A dean of the university asked if I was interested. At first I wasn’t, but he kept after me and said, ‘You’re great with your English.’ He finally motivated me to fill out the application, and I was accepted.”

He worked four summer internships in the U.S. as a computer specialist. When he completed his BSCS in 1999 he moved into a full-time job at the FAA. He had attended an aviation-focused high school before he discovered his love for computers, and is glad he found a way to put his two interests together.

Two of Jennings’ internships were with the FAA, one at the William J. Hughes Technical Center (Atlantic City, NJ) and the other at the Free Flight Program Office (Washington, DC). At the tech center he did database work using Access on the voice switching control system. In the program office he did analytical work, familiarizing himself with new tools that will be implemented in the national air space system.

As a full-time employee, Jennings’ responsibilities have increased. Now he’s the database admin at the Free Flight Program Office.

“I analyze scripts and keep the data on a continuous flow. We have various data sources, so it’s hard to have all the data available exactly when senior staff will need it. And we always have to make sure everything is up to date.”

Clearly, he got his job because of his internships. “For me, all of them were great,” he says. “Students should take advantage of them to the max.”

Eric Bellamy did five internships with Fannie Mae while he was in college.

Eric Bellamy learned IT at Fannie Mae
Fannie Mae (Washington, DC) is a private financial services company that works with the banks that provide mortgages for homebuyers. When Eric Bellamy was in high school in Washington, DC, Fannie Mae adopted the school and offered college scholarships, mentors and prep classes to top students.

Bellamy seized that opportunity. He graduated from Towson State University (Baltimore, MD) in 1996 with a degree in finance, and did five internships with Fannie Mae while he was in college.

He actually discovered IT through his internships. His first two focused on finance, but the third put him into the world of computers. “I basically conducted Sun workstation installations for various departments,” he recalls.

During his fourth internship he maintained a database for Fannie Mae retirees, and his last internship was in corporate IS, preparing monthly financial statements for the CIO, president and VPs. “That internship was both technical and financial,” Bellamy explains.

Bellamy has been at Fannie Mae full time since graduation, and now he’s a business analyst in the company’s credit policy area.

He’s working on a new simulation model that determines the fees Fannie Mae charges. “A lot of variables are entered into the model, and it’s simulated over time to generate a guarantee fee,” Bellamy says. “It’s been developed, and we’re testing it to see how we can improve it.”

Jenny Ching spent ten weeks at Vanguard testing a PeopleSoft app for payroll.

Jenny Ching works in database at Vanguard
Jenny Ching came to the U.S. from Malaysia with her family in 1988. She graduated from Temple University in December 2001 with a BA in MIS.

“I have five brothers and a sister and I come from an old-fashioned Chinese background where girls aren’t meant to be in college. I never thought of the importance of education until I came to this country,” Ching says.

“After six years of struggle I finally earned my degree with highest honors. I still can’t believe that I did it!”

After high school Ching worked as an IT technician, doing hardware repairs in hospital environments. Then she went to Temple, but didn’t take time for an internship until early 2001. The internship at Vanguard (Malvern, PA) led to a job offer just before she graduated.

It was a ten-week internship in the corporate systems integration group, testing a PeopleSoft app for payroll and labor information. In her full-time job, she’s now an IS engineer for investor services in Vanguard’s decision support group. She works on a database that helps businesses manage information about their clients. If they have trouble with the format, they call Ching for help.

“Throughout the internship, I liked the work environment and the crew, especially the diversity and stability,” she says. “My interest was in the database environment, so I’m happy with my position now. I can explore what I learned in college.

“Vanguard is a good company to work for. Not only do they have great benefits, but my experience during the past six months has been excellent. I’m still learning, and this is a constantly changing environment.”

Kelly Hyland was assigned to Guidant’s real time manufacturing integration system.

Kelly Hyland: pacemaker test reports at Guidant
Kelly Hyland comes from a family of computer scientists. Her brother Michael works for Guidant, and he not only helped her land an IT internship there, but shared his cubicle with her when she arrived.

Hyland is a junior at the University of Wisconsin (Madison, WI), and she expects to graduate in 2004 with a BSCS. For her internship this past summer she was assigned to Guidant’s real time manufacturing integration system. She worked on the Report Launcher, which provides a graphical representation of electrical tests on the company’s pacemakers. Hyland uses software that tests how each pacemaker reacts to voltage.

“They have big machines on the manufacturing floor and they test each device separately. The information is stored in a database so people can type in what they want to search for,” she says.

Hyland learned to write the test reports in SQL; her brother helped her learn the language.

Remembering that crash course, she advises other students to find out what their responsibilities will be before they start their internships, so they can prepare themselves. “I didn’t know what I was doing when I first came here. I was really confused the first few days, but I learned a lot. I talked to other people and learned lots of valuable skills that way.”

Marnia Ware likes her co-op hours, working on Web and PM at the Department of State.

Marnia Ware: Web and PM at State
Marnia Ware sees Uncle Sam in her future, especially since her ongoing series of co-ops with the U.S. Department of State. “Both my parents worked for the government, and State is a good place to be,” she says.

Ware finished her BSCS in 2001 at the University of Maryland’s University College (Adelphi, MD). Now she’s working on a graduate degree in computer systems management focusing on software development at Bowie State University (Bowie, MD). She’s looking forward to learning more packages like Oracle and touching up her Java skills as well.

She found the co-op at her school’s career center and started it during her junior year. Her first job with State was on the helpdesk, where she learned to troubleshoot e-mail and word processing dilemmas. “I was new. I had the education but no work experience, so this introduced me to the hands-on side of computers.”

She started going out as a technician, then moved into security presentations for hundreds of new users. She began another job this past June in State’s business and information resource center, working on Web development and project management.

“Right now I’m trying to get everyone in the business center to use Microsoft 2000 software. It will give them more ability to share information on projects,” she says.

She likes the flexibility of co-op hours and says she enjoys working and studying at the same time. Her advice to students: get involved with a co-op early in your college career.

“I wish someone had told me that you can start a co-op in your freshman year,” she says. “I knew about internships, but I didn’t know about co-ops where you could get job training and go to school at the same time. I think that would be a benefit in the freshman year.”

Roop K. Uppal is a program analyst at Convergys
Roop K. Uppal says her internship at Convergys (Cincinnati, OH) was rewarding because her manager was considerate of her interest in becoming a developer and assigned her work on some of the latest technologies. “I was not treated as just an intern; I was part of the team,” she says.

Uppal came to the U.S. from India with her family six years ago. She discovered her fascination with computers in high school, and her father advised her to pursue the field.

In college she interned with Sun Microsystems (Palo Alto, CA) as well as Convergys. Convergys has a software system to capture information about each billing call, and Uppal worked with a team of senior staff members on the Web-enabled part of the software. She used both Java and C++.

At Sun she worked in a Web services group in the Java software division. The two internships gave her perspective on how things are done at different companies, she says.

In June 2002 she received her BSCS from the University of Cincinnati; she became a program analyst with Convergys in July. She chose Convergys because it would give her the opportunity to try a variety of jobs in a few years.

Her current duties include writing and testing software and communicating with other developers within her group. “The work is different from what I did as an intern. I’m working on a different project. But some of the technologies are the same, and I’ve met most of them in school,” she says.

Tanisha Hall did six internships; she chose APL where she works in biosurveillance.

Tanisha Hall: GUIs and security at APL
Tanisha Hall’s internship with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab led to an exciting job supporting national security.

APL is the R&D arm of Johns Hopkins. It works for the Department of Defense, NASA and other government agencies, doing projects in air defense, undersea systems, biomedicine, defense communications and civilian and military space projects. Some 3,350 engineers, scientists and support staff work at APL.

Hall, a Maryland native, actually did six internships in college and grad school. She liked Johns Hopkins best because “I really had the chance to do work and see it being used,” she says.

“Most of my internships involved designing small projects that I would be able to complete in eight weeks.

One was just the R&D for a project. I knew the project was continuing after I left, but I couldn’t see where my work fit into the bigger picture.”

The internships were with Lockheed Martin Control Systems, Georgia Tech, Lockheed Martin Mission Systems, Lucent Technologies Bell Labs, the Weather Channel and APL.

During the eight-week internship at APL, Hall developed a graphical user interface (GUI) front end for the U.S. Navy’s battle force integration group. She converted a revision control system from a Unix command line interface to a GUI.

“The revision control system gives the users access to any information they want on a particular version of a file,” Hall says. “So if I were updating some code and wanted to see who created the code, who worked on the code and all the revisions made to it, I could see all the information by using the GUI. Before I created it, you would have to go to a command line interface, which isn’t as user-friendly.”

GUIs are Hall’s specialty. She got her BSCS in 1998 from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and her MSCS from Georgia Tech (Atlanta, GA) in 2001.

APL hired Hall full time as a software engineer in July. She works in the IT group of the national security technology department, doing R&D on application development in Java.

Her most recent project is a prototype of a biosurveillance system. It involves taking information from sources like hospitals, drugstores and schools to detect an anomaly that might signal a bioterrorist attack. “My role is automating the data-ingestion process,” she says.

There can be no doubt where Hall’s work fits into the big picture. In fact, that’s a benefit that many former co-ops and interns have noticed. In these jobs you get to know the company, the company gets to know you, and any surprises that follow are usually welcome ones.

D/C

– Heidi Russell Rafferty is a freelance writer in Raeford, NC.