As summer is right around the corner, college students begin listing out prospective companies for their internship programs to gain practical knowledge and experience relating to their course of study.
Indeed.com, a job aggregation website listed out some of the summer jobs available with the companies across the country - H&R Block, Hewlett-Packard , Adidas ,Nordstrom , Intel , UTC Aerospace, AmeriCorps program, Lowe's and Vail Resorts,
Almost all these internship programs do not pay that well at just $8 to $15 an hour and they don't necessarily need a college degree. Some of them are corporate internships for students who specialise in finance or business. Although most of them are available only till Labor Day, Vail frequently recruits them back for the winter season.
"Students hired into these programs represent our pipeline of talent-our future managers and executives," said UTC spokesman Andrew Martin. UTC is looking out for students pursuing college degrees in engineering or astrophysics.They require a score of at least a 3.0 grade point average and 30 credits. Students will get paid around $20 an hour.
At Hewlett-Packard , college students who have finished their freshman year or are still studying courses in engineering, computer science, information technology, finance or business administration, have the benefit of gaining a permanent employment. Most of the internships will be based in California, Texas and Colorado.
Sam Mahr, a Viterbo University Graduate, is in his second week of his paid internship at Gundersen Health System.
"Its a great learning experience," Mahr said. "It's a great opportunity to work here as well as learning more about research, survey writing, as well as looking at certain characteristics of research."
While most of the students prefer a paid internship, unpaid internships also satisfy the requirements of a summer job. The only fact to be remembered while choosing an unpaid internship program is that it does not get converted into a job offer once an individual completes it, as stated by the government. Tim Tritch, Associate Director of Career Services, UW-La Crosse said that not all students are that fortunate as Mahr.
"We know, in many cases student have done unpaid internships that have had an amazing experience, gotten that professional oriented experience that's going to allow them to advance in a career or field," Tritch said.
Someimes unpaid interns believe that they're being used for their work; forcing them to even file lawsuits. Recently, a group of 3,000 Hearst Corporation interns said that they did similar kind of work as the full time employees so they were entitled to the same benefits under state and federal labor laws. Last month, a New York judge ordered that the interns could not sue Hearst and could file individual complaints.
