Tag Archives: internship

Work-Life Balance: Stop Burning the Midnight Oil!

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Monday: Wake up! Class! Work! Class! Internship! Club meeting! Band Practice! Gym! Class! Bed!

Tuesday: Repeat!

Image extracted from: Life Skills Enrichment

Does this sound like your life? If it does, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Students frequently schedule themselves into a corner, filling every hour of the day with an activity. Whether you’re working to pay for school, at an internship to beef up your resume, in class for your degree, or a club that you joined because you really love to play co-ed full contact rugby, it’s easy to overwhelm yourself with the responsibilities that come with being active and involved.

Being able to maintain a healthy work-life balance is a great way to show employers that you can handle a heavy workload, and can prioritize and manage your time. If you find yourself with a regular free  block of time, certainly consider adding in an internship or professional activity to increase your skills and experience. You’ll be thankful you spent those hours working on a project instead of catching up on Glee.

However, there are real dangers to overextending yourself, too. Chronic stress and sleep deprivation have detrimental effects on both mental and physical health, including:

  • Decreased Performance and Alertness
  • Memory and Cognitive Impairment
  • High Blood Pressure
  • Exacerbated Pain and Headaches
  • Digestive Problems
  • Depression
  • Stress on Personal Relationships
  • Poor Quality of Life

The work-life balance is crucial to maintaining your happiness and health. If you find yourself unhappy, unable to enjoy activities you usually do, chronically exhausted, eating too much or too little, short-tempered, or generally unlike your normal self, take a moment to examine all the events you have going on.  While maintaining your commitments and upholding your responsibilities is important, your health is more important.

There’s nothing wrong with dropping an activity to take care of yourself. While dropping school, work, or an internship may not be an option, you may want to examine extracurricular activities and see if that time would be better spent elsewhere. Here are some tips to keep in mind for living a healthier, more productive life:

  • Eat a balanced diet, and eat enough.
  • Drink 8 glasses of water, every day.
  • Set aside unstructured time for yourself and your friends; vegging out on the couch can be relaxing and rejuvenating.
  • Exercise releases endorphins and keeps your body running smoothly. If a full workout session isn’t an option, try going for long walks, doing yoga or tai-chi, or biking instead of driving to places. You’ll feel better overall.
  • Most importantly, get enough sleep!

You are the most important aspect of your life. Sometimes it’s a struggle, but the work-life balance is essential to keeping yourself happy and healthy.

Internships: Academic Credit for College Students

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One of the Most Overlooked Internship Opportunities

Image extracted from: GASC Technology Center Website

When it comes to internships, the vague term “academic credit” can cause a great amount of confusion. Most of the time, students have no idea how to go about receiving college credits for their internships, which hinders them from fully benefiting from their hard work and devotion. Something as trivial as obtaining course credit for internships generates a complete state of puzzlement and perplexity, which in return leaves college students itching for the answers to so many of their internship-related matters. We are going to look at the internship for academic credit process for a local university so that the level of confusion most of you are experiencing is completely wiped away once you are done reading this post.

The Most Common Type of Process

A university that has a process similar to many other colleges is the University of Pittsburgh. The University of Pittsburgh, like many other colleges, has numerous departments and schools. Obviously, we cannot thoroughly look at the internship processes for every single one of these schools, so we will focus solely on The College of Business Administration.

The first thing that needs to be done is that the student who is looking to gain academic credit has to designate a faculty sponsor, which is simply a professor or adviser that they can report back to. This will be the student’s mentor throughout the whole process. The internship the student is looking to gain academic credit for has to be at least 10 hours a week for a period of no less than 10 weeks.

Pass the Class, Get the Credit…It’s that Easy

Along with the actual job, the student has to enroll in an internship class that is relevant to the type of internship. For example, if a student had a marketing position, then they would take the marketing based internship class. The class can either be 1 credit, 2 credits, or 3 credits, depending on how many credits the student wants to earn for their internship. However, this is not really a “class”. It is more of a time to meet with the faculty sponsor so he or she can stay up to date on the student’s internship. The faculty sponsor will assign the student “homework”, which can be anything from writing a one page paper describing the typical day at the company the student is interning for to a 5-minute presentation to get other students aware of the internship position. Midterm and final performance appraisals filled out by the employer also hold weight when calculating the student’s grade at the end of the internship period. Just like any other class, if the student passes, they receive the credits. So get out there, apply, and remember to visit the REGIONAL INTERNSHIP CENTER website for all of your internship needs!

RIC Success Stories – Alma Roberts

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This blog series are posts written by former RIC interns. They will write about how their internship helped shape them professionally and where they are now. The first post is written by Alma Roberts, who interned with the RIC from September 2008 through August 2009.

It was my first time in a professional field in the U.S. I had emigrated from Mexico about a year prior, and had no experience in the professional environment in America, not to even mention in Pittsburgh.

Having a degree in Tourism, experience with event planning for National and International Conferences in Mexico, and fluency in three different languages — I thought I was going to have it easy trying to find a job. I was completely wrong! After months and months of filling job applications and countless interviews, I still had no success in landing a full-time job.


RIC Holiday Party

Finally, I decided to give an internship a try, after a friend of mine suggested the idea. I thought to myself: “This will give me the great opportunity to see how they work here in the U.S.” And so, my resume was sent to Regina Anderson, Director of the Regional Internship Center (RIC).

I can honestly say that it was a stroke of amazing good fortune that I was chosen to come on board as an intern with Regina and with Trisha Ross, Program Manager for the RIC. The internship made me realize that I was not quite ready for a full-time job, at least not here in the U.S. First, I needed to get used to the idea of me writing, thinking and speaking in a different language in a professional environment. Second, I needed to learn all of the technicalities of being a professional in the U.S., having come from a different professional culture.

Regina and Trisha always did their best to make me feel useful, capable and supported. Every time I had a question, they would take their time and explain it to me. They gave me the authority to make decisions when I needed to. They would cherish my ideas, and allow me to take control over them. They would challenge me with new projects, and help me discover new skills that I wasn’t aware I possessed. Something very important to me was that they helped me improve my English by providing me with constant feedback.

Speed Networking at Cal U

The work environment with the RIC and the staff from CORO helped me discover a healthy way to co-exist and support each other. I was so impressed with how easy and fast things get done with that kind of mentality.

They also introduced me to great people in the city, and great organizations. They always helped me with the goal of pursuing the job that filled my criteria. And after a year of working at the RIC, I was able to find a full-time job at the City of Pittsburgh’s (Citiparks) Office of Special Events.

Pirates Game: RIC Summer Program Event

Now I’m putting everything I learned from my internship into practice. My experience at the RIC has helped me establish strong work relationships with my new co-workers. They see me as a teammate and they value my opinion. I have confidence in my skills and it shows in my performance.

This and (I hope!) many future achievements should be credited to my great experience with the RIC, and to the amazing, hardworking ladies behind this organization.

WYEP Music Taste Test: RIC Summer Program event


 

My Internship Experience at the RIC

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The End of the Road…Or Is This the Beginning?

From the beginning of May to the end of November, the Regional Internship Center served not only as my first internship experience, but an internship experience that I will never forget.  Before I started here with the RIC, the word “internship” never really sparked anything significant in my mind.  I thought of it as something that students were forced to get so that their resumes would be more appealing to employers when applying for full time jobs.  But once I landed an internship with an organization that specialized in internships, that feeling was quickly changed.  And with this internship opportunity came the exposure to a sector that I knew little to nothing about – the wonderful world of nonprofits!

A Sure Thing from Day One

From the start of my first day at the RIC, a program of Coro Pittsburgh, I knew that I would very much enjoy my time working for them.  From the small yet extremely friendly staff to the unique environment provided to work in, there was no doubt in my mind that this internship was the one for me.  This internship was unique in the fact that it let me challenge myself and explore beyond my usual boundaries.  I was given the opportunities to break out of my comfort zone and do things that I was not used to doing.  I was finally given the chance to interact with others in a professional way.  Whether I was dealing with employers, internship seekers, or even both, everything I did taught me something that was previously foreign to me.

This internship also showed me the importance of building and maintaining close relationships with the organizations you come into contact with, which says a lot about the Coro organization as a whole.  Not only do they show support for every program under the Coro name, but they provide continuous support for the organizations they believe in, and that is something rarely seen in today’s world.

Ready or Not, Here I Come!

My position as the Program Relations Intern made it easy for me to benefit from my internship because the opportunities it offered and the doors it opened were countless.  Never did I think that an internship would open up my eyes to the various organizations, industries, and sectors in the Pittsburgh area, but one did, and I was lucky enough for it to be my first internship ever.  Thanks to everyone at Coro, especially those at the RIC who have taught me so much, I am more than ready for whatever the future brings – the road to success and happiness has only just begun!

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end” – Semisonic

My Pittsburgh Magazine Internship

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As I’m writing this, I have exactly one week left at Pittsburgh magazine. I can’t believe that my first semester in Pittsburgh has gone by so quickly. Looking back at the last few months, I realize that interning at the magazine has been very different from what I originally expected. Here, I’ve listed a few of my expectations and compared them to what actually happened:

Image extracetd from: atoww.com

Expectation: Being an intern at a magazine would mainly consist of photocopying and coffee-making.

Reality: I haven’t made a single photocopy or pot of coffee during the 14 weeks that I’ve interned. Having to do “grunt work” is a common misconception about internships, and though it may have been like that in the past, internships are now viewed as opportunities to receive valuable experience. Any tedious work that I’ve done always had a purpose—it helped someone or made someone’s life easier, so it was worth it.

Expectation: Working for Pittsburgh magazine would be a little bit like the movie The Devil Wears Prada.

 

Reality: While I can’t speak for big fashion magazines, I found my internship at Pittsburgh magazine to be absolutely nothing like the film in which Anne Hathaway starred. The editors are friendly and helpful, and the office environment is relaxed and conducive to being creative. We also don’t have a Chanel-stocked fashion closet, though I wish we did!

Expectation: I would spend close to 75 percent of the time fact-checking and only about 25 percent writing.

Reality: The figures were probably closer to being the other way around. I fact-checked a lot in the beginning of my internship in order to get a feel for the system and to become familiar with the style of Pittsburgh magazine articles. As time went on, I received an increasing number of opportunities to write for different parts of the magazine, such as e-newsletters, the website and Pittsburgh Weddings magazine. Now, I have a variety of articles to add to my portfolio.

Expectation: My internship at Pittsburgh magazine would solidify my goal of being a magazine editor someday.

Reality: Well, this one came true!

Thank you so much to everyone at Pittsburgh magazine for the opportunity to intern at your publication, and thank you to the Regional Internship Center for letting me share my experience with future interns!

You are an INTERN, not a BARRISTA

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Young professionals! An important question!

Okay, so, you’ve scoured online postings, department bulletin boards, asked all your friends, and you’ve found the perfect internship in Pittsburgh. You dazzled them in the interview and you’ve been asked to start on Monday. You’re even receiving credit! Your ducks are in a row and you’re eager to get started on what is undoubtedly a fabulous resource learning opportunities. So:

Do you want your internship experience to look something like this:

Coffee Mug: Fill This, Intern

Or are you looking for work experience more like this?

Happy Office Workers

You’re probably thinking, “Well that’s obvious! Of course I don’t want to be just a coffee monkey for the next six months. I’ll take high fives and fist bumps, please.”

Hold up there, kid, it’s not so easy. The unfortunate truth is that some employers DO see interns as an extra hand to make copies, run errands, and open the mail. I have never held an internship where basic office administrative tasks WEREN’T part of the description. And that in and of itself isn’t a bad thing: knowing all the little daily tasks that have to occur so an organization keeps functioning is essential to understanding the priorities and culture of that particular organization.

However, there’s no reason an internship has to be nothing but filing. Your employer may not realize what a resource you are and the skills you bring to that workplace. How do you make it clear that you have a wealth of talents to offer?

You are the key to your professional development!

You TELL them! Take every opportunity to suggest new ideas or different ways to look at the problems/projects in your workplace. After all, you’re interested in this organization and its work, its mission, its vision. You should have some ideas about ideal projects you’d like to do at the organization, or ways you’d like to contribute to its cause. Offer to help with a current project: conduct research, make phone calls, write a section of a report. If you’re tech-savvy, look through the website and suggest ways to improve it, and then offer to make the changes yourself. You could create a small project for you to take the lead on. If all else fails, just ask! An eager and inquisitive employee can be hard to find, and your boss will appreciate your enthusiasm and willingness to help.

In the end, your internship isn’t you passively accepting work that’s given to you. It’s a product of your effort: what you get out of it depends on what you put in. And you want to improve more than just your coffee-making skills, don’t you?