Internships: Know What You’re Walking Into
Like many other students in many other universities across the country, I have been participating in internships. Actually, two.
Last semester, I interned over at the New Horizons Women’s Shelter, a relatively small local nonprofit. It was an administrative intern, and as such, my primary activities were organizing information, making copies, filing, and data entry.
I participated in the internship to help with volunteering hours required for a class.
My second internship was during the summer, and was with the La Crosse Historical Society to learn more about archival management. I learned about the care and upkeep of artifacts, how to investigate online, and I even wrote a few ‘Things that Matter’ articles for the La Crosse Tribune. Both of these internships were for the express purpose of exposing myself of different job environments.
I also originally created a resume and cover letter for the Historical Society as a part of a writing class. As I became more interested in the internship, I decided that I might as well actually apply.
Internships are intended for students to experience and learn in a working environment. With that being said, there are more than a few companies out there that would exploit students as unpaid labor. In order to save money, some companies would have interns work as if they were a paid employee, without providing actual job experience or a good learning environment.
Of course, Viterbo Students have the added benefit of finding internships through Career Services, and the people there can help you investigate ones that you’ve found on your own.
The Department of Labor has a six-factor test that need to be met for an unpaid internship to be legal and legitimate:
The internship is similar to training that would be given in an educational environment
The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern
The intern doesn’t displace regular employees and works under close supervision of existing staff
The employer doesn’t gain any immediate advantage from the intern’s activities—and on occasion the employer’s operations may be impeded by the intern’s activities
The intern isn’t guaranteed a job at the end of the program
The employer and the intern each understand that the internship is unpaid.
For example, as I was learning at the Historical Society and not handling other responsibilities such as interacting with donors or setting up exhibits, I wasn’t fulfilling the role of a possible paid employee.
I also knew that I wasn’t going to get a job out of it since the La Crosse Historical Society is relatively small, and therefore, a paid internship wouldn’t really be on the table.
If my supervisor, Ms. Vach, had to leave me alone for a serious length of time, I wouldn’t be allowed to work on the artifacts. Instead, I would be doing online research or working on articles for the La Crosse Tribune.
While these rules are mainly for unpaid internships, paid internships operate along similar guidelines.
The main piece of advice that I’ve found when it comes to questionable internships is: it’s okay to trust your gut. If something seems off, it’s probably off. For example, if they don’t have you fill out an application or ask for a resume at an interview, you should be worried.
If that happens, it’s more than likely you’ll find yourself in a telemarketer position or one that only gives you exposure to general administrative duties.
When it comes to getting the most out of your internship experience, I recommend just talking to the people who work there.
If it’s people who enjoy what they do, they won’t have a problem with you asking questions. By talking to my supervisor, I learned a lot more about the preservation process of artifacts, as well as how the Historical Society was helping her through graduate school.
Even if I don’t end up in a career with archival management, I still consider it to be a great learning experience.
I hope this information was helpful for anyone looking to gain internship experience.