One internship no longer enough for some students

Sophomore Dan McCulley has landed an internship with UBS Wealth Management this summer in… Sophomore Dan McCulley has landed an internship with UBS Wealth Management this summer in Altoona.

Although he is not exactly sure what sorts of tasks he will be required to perform, he speculates that it will mostly be research and grunt work. Whatever he does, though, he is excited about the opportunity.

“I want an investment banking internship next summer, so I just want experience now that will prepare me and make me a good candidate for the internship next summer,” McCulley said.

The finance major hopes to get an internship in the fall. If he likes it, he plans on doing one in the spring and next summer, too.

Many departments at Pitt strongly recommend that students participate in at least one internship during their undergraduate careers, but some recommend that students complete multiple ones.

In the College of Business Administration, the Office of Leadership Development suggests that students complete three internships, which range across three different levels of experience, according to Kate McConnell, the director of the office. McConnell said that it is vital that students complete many because businesses expect them to have a lot of work skills and knowledge when they graduate.

In a level one internship, a student learns skills about how to act in a business such as how to address people in meetings. Students are usually not paid at this level, according to McConnell.

McCulley’s summer internship is at level one. Although he is not getting paid, McCulley will receive one credit for his work, and the experience gained will be beneficial in the future.

Level two, McConnell said, offers an internship in a student’s major field such as marketing or financing. There is a 50 percent chance that these internships will pay the intern money.

Level three is an internship for hire, and the companies that students intern for at this level offer many of them jobs after the August of their junior year. While interning, the students will do the work that a first year associate at a company would perform, and the students receive anywhere from 8 to 25 dollars an hour.

Now, business students do not have to technically participate in any internships to graduate, but they may not end up having the future that they wanted.

“If students do not do internships before graduation, they have a harder time getting jobs then those who did do internships, or they get jobs that they don’t like,” McConnell said. “Also, they usually make 10,000 to 20,000 less [dollars] than those who have interned.”

Internships are also not required to graduate in psychology, but completing them will make them more marketable for graduate school education and careers, according to Mindy Wolfe, academic advisor and Supervised Field Placement coordinator in the psychology department.

The Psychology Supervised Field Placement is a primary way to gain experience as an undergraduate psychology major. The application process for students who meet the requirements will research and identify a specific site the department offers, meet with the contact person at that site, have both parties complete a learning agreement and register the student for the field placement.

Wolfe said that many students are completing more than one internship during their schooling.

“In the past, this was not the case, but students are beginning to complete internships earlier in their academic careers and work at several sites to either explore different areas of psychology, or receive more exposure to one area of psychology,” Wolfe said.

Since last fall, the computer science department has required the completion of an internship, a research project or cooperative learning experience with its implementation of Capstone. It affects those who have entered Pitt then or after that time period.

Matt Wolfson, the program administrator in the department, said that even though the average is still one internship per student, he thinks more students would begin completing more internships because of Capstone.

Adam Havkin, who says he wants an internship so he can be prepared for the real world, has gone online to the computer science Web site and looked at the different available internships and decided to apply for a few.

In one instance, he spoke with someone from UPMC who is in charge of its computer program.

After the phone interview, Havkin does not think that he will get the internship because he is only a freshman and does not have a lot of experience, but these factors have not hindered him.

“I want to get an internship as soon as I can,” Havkin, who is hoping to do one or two during his undergraduate career, said. “There was a slight chance I might’ve gotten this one, so I applied.”

The internships, where students usually do computer programming or Web design, according to Wolfson, can be worth one to six credits, depending upon how many hours the student works. Also, some internships may offer money while others do not.

US Steel and Union Switch and Signal Inc., a Pittsburgh-based railroad supply company, are two businesses that offer internships often.

Wolfson said that experience gained through internships is a beneficial aspect because when trying to get a job, it will set someone apart from those who have no experience.

“It shows ‘Yes, I can show up to work every day on time, I can interact with people and I can follow directions and orders,'” Wolfson said.