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Internship Guide for UW Geography Students:Part 2Contacting possible internship sponsors Also see: Online Resources and Information on Internships Internship Guide for UW Geography Students, Part 1
Contacting possible internship sponsors When you've finished your research, you should have a list of possible sponsors and phone numbers or addresses where they can be reached. When you contact them, you need to be politely aggressive, efficient and professional-seeming. Some things to think about before calling: 1. Be prepared for some curves: the internships listed may no longer be offered, or may be offered next fall, etc. Be polite but firm in getting to the right person to tell you which internships are available, now and in the future. 2. Prepare a story about geography. Many internships which Geography majors have actually received don't mention Geography as one of the qualifying majors, though many do say something like "or other qualified majors." So be prepared to succinctly describe course content, skills and interests: for example, if you are in urban geography, you could talk about your ability to analyze residential housing or retailing, suburban land use, etc. 3. Prepare a professional story about yourself. Some elements of this story might be your background and interests in the type of work this organization does; your coursework; your writing, data-gathering, statistical and research skills; and your career goals. 4. Have at least a draft letter of interest and resume ready to go. You should tailor it a bit for each position - ideally, it should be on a computer disk so you can make minor changes and print it out quickly. Many places will want to see such paper from you, or will be impressed if you get it to them as soon as you can. 5. Be persistent and cultivate contacts. Even if things don't work out this quarter, there are more quarters and more internships, and you may discover valuable advice on how to appear more competitive on paper as you go along. Don't be shy about calling people back either--after a decent interval has elapsed since you sent a resume. A polite but firm aggressiveness may be to your advantage. 6. When you do set up your internship,
be sure that all of the arrangements between you and your sponsor are
clear, including the length of the internship, hours per week, pay, supervision
and, most importantly, the specific duties you will be performing.
Menial tasks and answering the phone are not what internships are designed
for - you may do some work like that, but make sure that you also will
be doing work which will give you practical experience in the field of
geography. When people do encounter problems with their internships,
one of the primary reasons is that there are unclear expectations among
the parties. Don't let this happen to you. First, you devise an academic project that is complementary to, and grows out of, both your coursework as a geography major and the substantive activities you are engaged in during your internship. Typical projects might be a paper or series of papers on the industry or public policy issue you are working in as part of some aspect of regional economic development, organizational structure, or some other social or economic pattern. You might study a particular issue you are involved in, or the effects of the application of new ideas or technologies to your sector. Library work is often going to be essential--at least a half hour a week per credit is a good guideline. Also, consider revising or expanding on previous work, either by expanding papers you've already written for geography classes, or, beyond this current quarter, continuing your exploration of your specialization or subfield next quarter in a Geog 499 independent study course. In other words, from the academic side of things, think of the internship in the overall context of your intellectual development as a geographer. Such an attitude will help you use and test material from prior courses, form and test hypotheses, and, generally, make the internship as much a research project as a source of on-the-job-training. It will also help you come up with a plan of study to approach a faculty member with--and, by the way, will interest the faculty member a great deal more than the fact that you simply want credit for work in the "real world". The usual rule is three hours of work equals one credit in Geography 496, so a "typical" internship involving fifteen to twenty hours of work per week yields five academic credits. In very rare cases where a student is working more than 20 hours per week and where additional projects are undertaken, an additional three credits may be available through Geography 499, Special Studies. Geog 496 credits are only available on a CR/NC basis, and they ordinarily do not count towards the Geography major, but may count toward the "related field" requirement." When you do sign up for an internship, all academic work must be completed by the end of the quarter for which you are registered. Then, in order to register for your internship, pick up a Student Internship Application from the Department of Geography's advising office in Smith 303. Besides basic information on you and your sponsor, you are asked to describe specifically what duties you will be performing in the internship. Note that by this point you must have a firm commitment from your sponsoring organization on the nature of your position. After you've completed as much of the application as you can (you may wish to delay actually writing down the nature of your academic project until you are speaking with your faculty supervisor), your next step is to approach a faculty member with some definite ideas on an academic project. This professor, who will be responsible for the supervision of your internship, should be chosen based upon your mutual scholarly interests and the nature of the internship. If you need some help picking an appropriate faculty member, talk to professors or to the academic advisors for suggestions. Just remember: this is academic credit. Simply describing your job or the agency or company you work for is not enough; at the 400 level, analysis is expected. This basically means breaking your experience down and fitting it into a larger context by asking questions about the nature of your work, the economic processes you are a part of, how your industry is developing, what spatial questions you are involved in, etc. This shouldn't be as hard as it might at first seem, since, you should have lots of clues from your coursework about how to go about analyzing particular kinds of social, economic or urban processes. Once you and your faculty supervisor have discussed the nature of your internship and academic project, along with any necessary arrangements for keeping up-to-date on your progress, both of your dated signatures are necessary at the bottom of the completed Student Internship Application. Make two copies of your application: give one copy to your faculty supervisor, keep one copy for yourself, and return the original to the Department of Geography's main office in Smith 408. When you turn in your completed Application at the main office, they will provide you with the entry code for Geography 496. The deadline for turning in completed Applications is the end of Week 2 of the quarter. To avoid late-course-add fees and
extra paperwork with the Registrar, register for your internship credits
by the end of Week 1 of the quarter. You can add the credits as late as
Week 7, but you'll have to fill out some extra forms after Week 2."
Summary: How to get academic credit for an internship 1. Find a position; make specific arrangements with your sponsor. 2. Devise an appropriate academic tie-in, and approach a faculty member with your completed Student Internship Application for their review and signature. 3. Make two copies of your Application. (1) Send original to the Geography main office by the end of Week 2 of the quarter; (2) Give one copy to faculty supervisor; (3) Keep one copy for your records. 4. Give sponsoring supervisor Sponsor's Evaluation two weeks before quarter ends, to be returned by the end of the quarter to the faculty supervisor. 5. (Optional, but necessary for improving
the program): Return completed Student Evaluation Form to Geography
advisor. Is credit necessary or appropriate for all internships? Not always. You don't need to sign
up for credits to take on an internship. Especially in the private sector,
sponsors may not be particular about the connection with the university.
One thing to keep in mind: if you can't think of a project because you
don't know enough about the industry or public policy issue, you might
hold off the academic exploration of a problem until after you've interned
for a quarter--then, perhaps, intern again and get credit that quarter,
or sign up for a 499 independent study course. Duties and responsibilities During the course of your internship,
you are expected to perform whatever duties are assigned to you by your
sponsoring organization, as well as those assignments identified in your
Student Internship Application. What about problems during an internship? In any situation where you are dealing with people, it is possible for misunderstandings and personality conflicts to occur. Part of your learning experience will be to handle these problems in a professional manner as they arise. Don't wait for small issues to mushroom into huge problems; encourage communication and feedback on what is going on. Along with unclear expectations, poor communication is the primary cause for problems in most internships. Hopefully, your maturity and communication skills will avert any major problems; if, however, a situation does arise which you and your sponsoring organization are not able to resolve, contact your faculty supervisor or advisor. If you have any questions that
we haven't answered here, please contact Geography Advising, 543-3246
or 543-7793. Also see: |
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