Year: 2011

How to Land an Internship with a Sports Team

Landing an internship with a sports team is a dream for many college students. Unfortunately, since demand for these internships is high, getting your foot in the door can be tough. Here are eight tips to help you get ahead of the pack and land a fantastic sports internship.

1. Get a Relevant Degree.

Your interest in sports probably won’t be enough to get you picked for a sports internship. A degree in communications, marketing, business management, or accounting will show that you have the skills necessary for a sports internship. While it is possible to land an internship with a degree in an unrelated field, such as history or education, you’ll need to have the right contacts or be able to do work that others won’t want to do.

2. Do Some Research.

There are several ways you can find out about sports internships. Research your favorite coaches, analysts, and agents to see how they got started, what companies they worked for, and if they have any suggestions. Depending on what type of sport(s) you are interested in, internship schedules can vary widely. Many sports internship programs are done on a seasonal basis rather than by semester, so it’s a good idea to start researching well in advance of when you actually plan on having an internship.

3. Stay Local.

If you have little experience working with sports teams, you may want to look for an internship with a local team before trying to get something more high-profile. You could even do an internship while still in high school or over the summer. Any internship is a great opportunity to gain experience and build relationships. Besides, you never know what contacts you might make.

4. Don’t Be Picky.

Many people who have jobs with professional sports teams started at the bottom and worked their way up. If the only job you can find involves picking up towels or cleaning the locker room, you should take it anyway. You will still have the opportunity to make contacts with players, coaches, managers, and operations staff. And if you have a good attitude, it’s likely that you will move up quickly.

5. Get the Details.

It’s not enough to look on a company’s website. Call up the companies that interest you and ask to personally speak with the internship coordinator. Make sure you get all the information, including application deadlines, location, hours, requirements, and salary or credit options. Put together a list of the internships that interest you with the internship details, names and numbers of contacts, and deadlines.

6. Stand Out.

Write a resume and cover letter that will help you stand out from the pack. You may want to include a photo or email a video in which you explain your credentials. Give specific examples of how you would be able to help the team and what you would be willing to do (social marketing, research, answering phones, making spreadsheets, etc.). You could even do some research that would be of value to the sports team, such as organizing data or coming up with a proposal for social networking strategies.

7. Attend Sports Conferences.

Sports businesses have several conferences and conventions throughout the year that offer great opportunities for networking. Dress professionally and bring copies of your resume – you never know who you might meet. Sometimes these types of conventions even offer student discounts. You could also organize a group trip with your school’s career services center.

8. Be Persistent.

Even if you’re the perfect candidate for an internship, it may simply be the wrong time. If you don’t land an internship with your dream team, don’t give up! Contact them on a regular basis (but not so much that it’s annoying).You may also want to send your resume out to more than one person in an agency, including agents, operations managers, marketing directors, and public relations directors. You could even send notes with interesting articles or statistics that they may find useful, or offer to do online research for them from home. It’s also important to remember that if one opportunity doesn’t work out, a better one might be right around the corner.

This is a guest post by Lindsey Weber.  Lindsey is a Counselor for high school students and has been practicing for 9 years.

Advice for your first day: Don’t be a robot

This is a guest post by Jonathan Lau. An avid blogger (www.jonchiehlau.com) and world traveler, Jonathan is a senior at UC San Diego, where he is training to become a licensed people watcher (anthropology major). When not doing all the above, Jonathan works for Silicon Valley startup Wednesdays.com.

This post has been on draft for a while and recently, I have been inspired to complete it after being asked by a friend for a ride to an interview. For many, the beginning of school is marked by first time jobs and most people including me were incredibly nervous and unsure about how
to act on our first day.

I searched on Google on what to do for my first day and saw that it was a topic that has been thoroughly explored. However, no matter how much you read, it is always the same few things
that show up:

• Dress appropriately

• Arrive early

• Ask Questions

• Do your homework on the company

• Be positive/upbeat/have a good attitude

Following that advice you will be alright, you might even do very well! However, after working a few internships, that first day advice seems to be missing something. Perhaps, it is because I am anthropology major and was taught the value of personal connections, because to me those points of advice miss that very important aspect of being human. It is my opinion that the first day of work should be about laying the foundation for not only a professional connection, but a friendship as well in order to create a lasting relationship.

There are three things that I would recommend someone to do on their first day:

1) Be a chatterbox

As soon as you are shown to your desk/cubicle/place of work, immediately talk to the people around you. Remember how eager you were to make friends on your first day of college by striking up conversations with everybody? Capture that same mindset and use it to develop friendships on your first day of work. Revealing things about yourself through conversation, even something as simple as what you did that weekend, helps your coworkers find common ground with you and allows for the beginning of a relationship.

2) Be a great listener

In a conversation, it is important to take as much as you give, meaning that simply chatting away about yourself will get you labeled as annoying, conversely if all you do is listen it will kill the conversation. The key to being a great listener is not just to passively listen, but also actively ask questions and give affirmations as well. If you listen well, I think you will be pleasantly surprised to find how much people will tell you about themselves. A receptive ear is always welcome and the sooner you demonstrate you have one, the more quickly you will be able to
gain people’s trust and develop a relationship.

3) Keep it real

Genuine people are greatly appreciated and fakes can be spotted a mile away. Therefore if you do not have a genuine interest in being friends with your coworkers, your execution of the first two points I listed will fail. Stay honest and be yourself as you interact with your coworkers and
you will be making friends with them in no time.

In closing, remember to use you heart as well as your brain and I wish you a fantastic first day,
Jonathan.

Summer Camp Internship, For The Win

This is a guest post by Ashli Blow, a student at The University of Memphis. Ashli studies broadcast news journalism and marketing management and she hopes to study trends in social media used in journalism.

When I told my friends about getting an internship at a summer camp there were plenty of turned heads, wide-eyed stares, and jaws dropped.

Considering that I am a double major in broadcast journalism and marketing management, I understand why my friends and family were confused.

“Well,” I said telling my Dad about the opportunity, “ I would be the camp accountant. I’ve taken two honors accounting classes, and I’m great at excel.”

With no words there was the turned head, wide-eyed stare, and dropped jaw that I kept getting. At one point I was convinced myself that it was a ludicrous career move and I had no business being in charge of cash flows as a journalism business major.

However, after many hugs and an epic goodbye party thrown by my best friends, I was on a plane to New Hampshire far away from my blues city home, Memphis.

Did I tear up going far away on that plane? Yeah, I did. It took until I started making Miss America winner arm gestures and wailing like a 14-year-old girl’s first break up when a kind gentleman about my age began talking to me.

“So where are you going?” he asked.

“ I’m going to an internship in New Hampshire,” I said as I took off my headphones. I was listening to Faith Evan’s featuring Puff Daddy “I’ll be Missing You” because I get kind of ridiculous and dramatic sometimes.

“Oh, I’m going to my internship too! It’s in D.C. though ,” he said.

Then it dawned on me. This may be the best decision I had made in my college career. Plenty of people my age leave their hometown to be interns. So what accounting wasn’t my major? I was making contacts outside of my state and working basically a dream internship.

And I was right; Camp Wicosuta was completely another world with a great internship program better than I imagined. I got plenty of experience with excel and business communications, but at the same time I also got plenty of practice with friendship bracelets.

So what’s the lesson here? Well at Camp Wicosuta we taught confidence, competence, and community. Those three c’s helped our campers grow; however they are great to take with you to any internship as well.

Have confidence in gaining competence in the community you’re working in. Even if you’re not sure it’s the right field for your career, you should give it a try anyways. I did, and it’s the best first move in getting toward my career goal.

Brittany’s Life Changing Winter Break: Brain Injury Rehabilitation Externship

This is a guest post from Brittany Jaso who is a student at Cornell University majoring in psychology. Writing this two line bio was the most stressful thing she’s done in a long time.

There are a lot of wonderful things about winter break — sleeping a ridiculous amount of hours, eating wonderful home cooked meals, and participating in the holiday traditions to name a few. However, at some point you can only watch so much TV and with three long weeks looming after the holidays it’s easy to get a little stir crazy or even just bored.

At least, that’s how I felt. This is the exact reason I decided to take advantage of our alumni network and participate in something we refer to at school as an “externship.” An externship is a mini-internship that can last anywhere from a 1 hour interview with a professional in a potential field of interest, to a 5-day shadowing. I opted for the latter, and found myself shadowing all sorts of doctors at the St. Lawrence Rehabilitation Center in New Jersey. It was probably the most beneficial experience I have had so far in my life. It’s one thing to dream of being a doctor; it’s a whole other thing to witness the hardships and emotional drain that the profession demands.

Being a psychology major, I spent a large majority of my time in a lockdown wing of the hospital called the BIR- Brain Injury Rehabilitation. These people had experienced strokes, car crashes, and other life changing accidents that left them mentally and physically disabled. They had to learn a new way of living. I can say, I’ve never met such happy and optimistic people. Simple tasks we take for granted such as using a toaster became an accomplishment some patients had to work on for weeks. It gives you a new perspective on life and makes you appreciate the things we can do independently.

I spent three days working with, discussing, and observing speech therapists, physical therapists, occupational therapists (they work on helping the patients be able to function in a household setting), pediatricians, physicians, and clinical psychologists. I learned so much in that short period of time. I never understood the complexity and flexibility that was required from all of the different doctors. No two patients had the same needs. The speech therapist worked with one patient on memory; 30 minutes later she was helping another man deal with his inability to read because his entire left field of vision was destroyed due to a stroke. It demanded a lot of collaboration between all of the doctors to make sure the patient was being treated for every aspect of their life. They all had one goal, make sure the patient could eventually leave the hospital and be confident in their ability to live on their own.

Even though I only spent three days in my externship, I learned so much and had such a better understanding of the hospital environment. It gave me a new perspective and helped me to understand that yes, I think I can work in that profession!

Not every school may have such a formal set-up like organizing an externship program every year but that does not mean you can’t set it up on your own! Here are a few tips to help you stave off winter break boredom and find a great externship.
• Look up alumni living near you in a profession you may be interested in; odds are they’d love to help!
• Keep it short. A lot of scheduling and planning goes into this on the host’s end; make it easier for them.
• Come prepared with questions. There is nothing more gratifying for your host than being able to answer questions and see your excitement about what they do.
• Be polite! Thank you notes for everyone you worked with are mandatory!
• Lastly, ENJOY! Have fun, share the experience with others, and get off the couch for a few days during winter break!

Intern With NBA Stars: Blake Griffin & Andre Iguodala

Wouldn’t it be great to intern side-by-side with a star athlete or have a star athlete interning for your company? How about one of the top NBA players like Blake Griffin, former NBA rookie of the year and reigning NBA slam-dunk champion, or how about the 76ers guard Andre Iguodala? Well, due to the NBA lockout, this is YOUR chance.

With the NBA lockout still in full effect and no glimpse of a 2011-2012 season, more and more NBA players are quickly finding interesting work, and it happens to be as interns. Last week, Iguodala told Yahoo Sports that he held a week long externship (an internship consisting of job shadowing for a short period of time) with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Always having an interest in finance, Iguodala spent his week visiting the New York Stock Exchange while shadowing one of the company’s venture capitalists. Think he’s trying to uncover the top investment strategies in case the NBA locked out forever? I wouldn’t blame him…

On the less serious side, Blake Griffin recently held an internship with FunnyOrDie.com and had an intern salary of $0.00… rough huh? Check out this video of his first day on the team as a star intern.

The Power of a Summer Internship: From Bio to Radio

Summer internships tend to be used as a resume builder, a stepping stone, and something to do for extra cash while waiting for the fall semester to roll around. Rarely do we think of them as able to change someone’s entire career path, and maybe this is causing us to miss out.

Adam O’Neal is a biology major at University of California, Irvine and was trying to decide which facet of biology interested him most to further his education, neuro or genetic, when he stumbled upon an internship program in radio. Thinking this internship would make him stand out amongst the vast sea of medical school applicants; he applied. 12 weeks later he had not only completed the program but found his career path had taken a 180 with his sights now focused on radio.

Wait, bio to radio? How could a summer internship have the power to alter a career path so drastically? It’s biologically impossible!

The cultural norm of viewing an internship as a resume builder, or stepping stone, limits a student in their search for an internship and solidifies their predetermined career path. On top of experience and skills gained, constantly stepping out of a comfort zone and into an entirely new industry is the essence of what an internship is supposed to do: open a student’s eyes to what could be, a.k.a. career exploration. In this case, the first time Adam heard his work broadcasted on the most popular local radio talk show in the United States, he knew, radio is where he belongs.

Interning with some of the top on-air radio talent has led to Adam pursuing his passion within the industry and now hosts his own radio show at University of California Irvine’s local campus station, KUCI. He calls his show the 2012 Update which airs on Tuesdays at 8 am in Irvine where Adam talks about the upcoming 2012 presidential election and any updates or developments that relate.

The internship program Adam completed is with The Bill Handle Show and consists of working in 12 different facets of radio over a 12 week time frame, giving the intern an elusive and thorough look into the industry.

• Week 1: Getting acquainted with the basics of radio
• Week 2 & 3: Research and Development
• Week 4: The ins and outs of Screening
• Week 5 & 6: Website Development, Editing, Social Media
• Week 7 & 8: Station Imaging
• Week 9: Production, Traffic & Continuity
• Week 10: KFI News Reporting
• Week 11: Sales & Promotions
• Week 12: AM versus FM & Overall Review

The power of a summer internship or any internship for that matter should not be dismissed, but instead embraced as an opportunity to diversify your skill set, add to your experience, and expand your career exploration. You never know, the right internship just might flip your career path on its head, helping to open your eyes to see yourself like never before. And, career path clarity, is bliss.

Special thanks to Adam O’Neal, Michelle Kube, and @billhandelshow we wish you all the best.

The Game of Games, Robert Scoble on the Future of Facebook and Google via Our Mentorship Lunch Series

Robert Scoble is calling the future of technology the Game of Games. What he describes though is more like a war, with two of the world’s largest tech juggernauts — Google and Facebook, competing for data and ultimate control of the information that makes up our online identity. He sees the next couple years as one in which these two companies use new tools such as social plugins and smart phones, in conjunction with old tools like search and email to understand not only who our friends are, but also the food we eat, music we listen to, politicians we vote for, and even the Gods we worship, and ultimately using this data to earn billions of dollars off the transactions we make online.

This conversation on the future of technology is a result of our mentorship lunch series, in which we flew winner Dimitry Lukashov from NYC to San Francisco after answering the question on Quora, what technology trends will most dramatically change the world in 2015.

While we filmed this conversation just over a week ago, the recent F8 conference lends a sense immediacy to this new direction. Facebook announced more advanced APIs that will further integrate our social graph into the web and help build a more robust “identity platform” based on not only the explicit actions we take on Facebook, but the implicit actions we do on all Facebook connected sites.

The video below is 30 minutes long but entirely worth a watch from start to finish. In the first segment (minutes 0 – 16) Robert shares his thoughts on what the web of 2015 will look like. In the second segment (minutes 16-30) Dimitry and Robert, spitball on topics ranging from education to health and privacy. The implications aren’t relevant just for these two companies, but for business and students across the country. Robert predicted an increased demand for students who are able to understand this new world, which means an increasing value in computer science and statistics grads who can  mold all this data into new products and sales/marketing/business opportunities. He predicted a decline and ultimate failure for twitter (the site has too much noise and not enough data control) and a future where more companies are using the social graph to cater our web and purchasing experiences to the identities we hardly even know we’re sharing — for better or for worse.

Hope you enjoy the session, and feel free to leave comments below!

Summer Internship Photo Contest Winners Announced!

“ You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” – Ansel Adams

An exceptional photo not only captures great imagery, but tells a story that transcends the pixels on the screen. While we had tons of unbelievable photo contest entries, the two photos we selected as our grand and first prize winners, shared the story of how their internships were larger than life and directed their professional future.

Grand Prize Winner, Kunal Ajmera!

Congratulations to Kunal Ajmera of Johns Hopkins University, the winner of tis summer’s Ultimate Internship Photo Contest!  Kunal became interested in medical field and cloning well before going to college. He wrote about Dolly in his personal statement when applying to Johns Hopkins, and spent the early years of his academic career studying the underlying theories and concepts of cloning. His internship at the Center for Sensory Biology provided the opportunity of a lifetime — a chance to complete research that would impact the future of the field and after months of painstaking lab work, he got to see the fruits of his labor and understand the roller coaster of emotions experienced by professional researchers.

My happiness knows no Bounds. By Kunal Ajmera “Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine – Center for Sensory Biology”

Sure it’s not a classic-fun-happy-faces internship photo. Sure it looks like a bicolored sad-makes-no-sense-to-me picture. But it’s actually a picture which pretty much sums up my WHOLE summer internship. I had read all the cool – Dolly, Ian Wilmut, second creation, cloning stuff as far back as when I was in the eighth grade. I mentioned that in my SOP to get into college – that’s the kind of stuff that drew me into pursuing a career in Biotechnology. And it did get pretty boring until I landed this pretty exciting internship. The picture is the result of three whole months of hardcore wet lab. Cloning, animal tissue culture, ligation – all the contents of a today’s sci-fi movie – only real! All the things that I did, I only assumed they were happening, I could never see them actually happening. But taking that picture besotted me with internal calm. The culmination of three months of hard work. The work that I did is part of a bigger project that the lab was undertaking – the role of Fat3 cadherins and Amacrine cells in neuron development. What I was to develop was a transgenic vector containing the gene of interest and then construct a TAG reporter – if it worked, it turns green in the nucleus and red in the cytoplasm and membrane. The picture explains it all, it works ! What I experienced and am even now, is sheer joy knowing no bounds!

First Prize Winner!

At WayUp, we are believers that internships are vehicles not only for professional development, but career exploration.  Taylor our First Prize winner, interned for her school athletics department, a position that allowed her to not only explore new career skills, like creating creative ad campaigns, but also to transition from being a spectator at University of Washington sports events, to being a participant in all that goes on to make the events a success.  Not to mention getting to hang out with “Dubs” the school’s Husky mascot, as well as current and former athletes on the team.  Like all good internships, it provided challenge, excitement, and plenty of educational opportunities.

From the Sidelines to the Headlines, Taylor Raquer, “University of Washington Athletics Design Intern”

The BEST part of my internship is getting to be a part of all things athletic. I recently was asked to design a Go Green ad to be placed in our college football game day book. We didn’t have a good photo, so my boss decided to stage an awesome shot where I even got to meet the famous Harry the Husky Mascot! I could hardly contain my excitement throughout the shot.

Later, helping out at a football kick-off celebration I got to strut it on the Husky field, which I had spent 3 years watching from the sideline.

Finally, my dreams really came true when I got to take a picture with the REAL-LIFE Mascot named “Dubs.” He was the sweetest little fellow. The smile didn’t leave my face for the rest of the night.

Notable Mentions: Hootsuite & Dreamworks

 

Finding Internship Housing In A New City

This is a guest post by Sadie Meaher from Tulane University and Uloop, a college housing and classifieds site.

Congratulations, you have just been offered an internship with a great company. The only problem is that you do not live or go to school in that city, so you have no idea what you are going to do about housing. This might seem like a challenge, but you can overcome it! Don’t let this scare you away from an internship experience.

Here are three ways to find internship housing in a new city:

1. Check out dorms at a local university:

This might be a good option, especially if you are doing a summer internship. For example, NYU offers housing to summer interns. Or,if you find a school in the city where you are going to be that only offers their dorms to students, then maybe you should think about doing a summer class. It would be a great way to get some extra hours and you can live in the dorms. However, if you decide to take a class while interning always check with your university to see if you will get credit for that summer class.

2. The internet can be your friend: There are sites out there that help university students find housing. 

Uloop is one such site that allows students to look for apartments, houses, and roommates with other college students as well as sublets from other students. Uloop can be a great tool if you are tired of living in a dorm or want to live with another student. Also, Uloop is a great source for student housing information if you are looking to do an internship during a semester and not just the summer.

3. Reach out to family and friends:

It might be helpful to see if that distant relative would let you stay with them. If not, they might have friends who have rental property that you could rent out during your internship. You never know when your family or friends might be able to help you out, so it is always worth asking. These are just a few ideas to help you start thinking about finding internship housing. And, if you decide you want to apply for an internship in another city, but you are a little unsure as to what cities to target, be sure to check out the most popular cities for internships.

Finding internship housing is not as daunting as you might think. Hopefully these ideas will help take the stress out of finding housing, so you can focus on your internship experience.

Give Recruiters a Glimpse of Who You Are with About.me!

This is a guest post by Laura Gluhanich Community Manager for about.me.

We are really excited to highlight about.me as a resource for students.  Their profile system is perfect for young people — it is quick to setup, looks beautiful, and helps you create a digital footprint that is both professional and fun.  Laura’s post shares tips and tricks on how to use the site.

Give recruiters a glimpse into who you are with a page at about.me

We’ve seen a lot of great student profiles at about.me. But, what are they for and how can they help you get hired?

First, about.me is your corner of the web – it’s a one stop shop for your various networks and websites online as well as providing a visual representation of you. It can be used as a cover letter to your online resume. You have control over the image as well as the content that displays.

This differs from a lot of your other profiles online, where your image is small or non-existent or you are forced to display content unrelated to where you want to be or how you want to present yourself.

Add your about.me url to your resume, your email signature and personal cards, rather than linking to a half dozen social networks, some of which have no connection to your potential job.

Then, focus on making your profile professional and targeting the industries and roles where you are most interested.

  • Be succinct – explain your background and what you want to do next. Make it easy to read and quickly get to where you want to be.
  • Be yourself – add a background and bio that reflects who you are, where you’re from and what motivates you.
  • Be creative – if you have skills, show them off! In design, photography, writing or more. Link to places the display the best of what you do.
  • 
Be careful – get a few friends or advisors to take a look at your page and provide constructive, honest feedback. And update based on what they say!

We have a few offers to help you put your most professional foot forward. First, set up an about.me email address. It presents a more professional address than sk8tr02@example.com. It gives you the opportunity to separate your job-related contacts and messages, preventing any mix-ups.

In addition, get a free set of about.me/Moo cards. These are great to distribute at networking events, ensuring your introductions are memorable. Having business cards to give means you get them in return, providing you with valuable contact information with potential employers.

So, what are you waiting for? Head over to about.me and get started!