What is an Internship?

The Internship Program at Southern Polytechnic State University is a short-term work experience in a professional environment where students have the opportunity to gain meaningful skills related to their academic program of study.

Advantages for Employers include:

• Allow employers to identify talented candidates who can accomplish critical tasks for busy professionals
• Opportunity to identify students who could possible excel in their academic areas before graduation
• Creates an established relationship before graduation that may result in possible cost saving efforts for entry level hires.

Getting Started

The process for employers who want to participate in our Internship Program is...

• Create your company profile (along with a statement that you are an AA/EEO employer) and contact information in our CAREER LINK jobs database.  
• Once you have completed that information, we will need to activate your account.
  • NOTE: Please allow 24-48 hours for processing during business hours.
• Then you can add your job description to the CAREER LINK database.
• Once your Internship job announcement is posted, we will e-mail you resumes of candidates who meet your requirements.
• Contact the students you have selected for interviewing
• Interview referred students.
• Notify the student directly in writing regarding any offer of internship employment. A copy of this letter must be forwarded to this office.  Please remember that Job assignments must be related to the student’s major field of study.

Referral and Interview Process

Once the job description has been received and posted employers will receive resumes of qualified candidates from the Career and Counseling Center.  Employers are encouraged to contact students directly for interviewing.  Once a hiring decision is made employers should contact the student in writing with an offer letter and forward a copy of the offer letter to the Coordinator of the Internship Program.

Helpful Hints

When developing an internship assignment we suggest the following guidelines:

• Determine the work objectives
• Determine the length of the internship assignment
• Identify staff to work with the student (i.e. assigned supervisor)  During the work assignment the student will most frequently interact with his or her immediate supervisor.  The supervisor is in a position to strongly influence the student’s perception of the working world.  Supervising a student requires special skill sets because the supervisor and student often develop a mentoring relationship that emphasizes the need for encouragement and immediate constructive feedback during the student’s work assignment.

Employer Orientation Check List

The following is a suggested list for supervisors.  You may wish to utilize some or all of these in your initial orientation with internship students.

Intern Salary Survey (2005-2007)