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The Black Women of Achievement present A Knight to Remember THE EBONY MAN SHOWCASE 2 0 0 4 @ 6:30pm & enjoy a night of ances men of & around free at the door. Internships prepare students Richard Guerra, the Career Center’s assistant director, said internships can teach lessons not found in class By Steven Neuman News Reporter Summer internships are a lot like marriages. According to Career Center Assistant Director Richard Guerra, they may require making commit ments, drawing up preliminary con tracts and realizing that the process is a partnership. "Students forget that it's not just, 'what are you going to give me,' or 'what can you give to me,' but 'this is what I'd like, and this is what I'm of fering you,'" Guerra said. Summer internships offer students professional experience in the job market before graduation. Assistant Director of Undergraduate Career Ser vices James Chang said internships are an asset when it comes to getting a job after graduation. "The emphasis for all students is ex perience," said Chang, who runs the Lundquist College of Business career center. "Half the things that happen in an office only happen in an office. You won't get that experience in school." Career Center Students Informa tion Specialist Tina Haynes said de partments are a prime resource for UNIVERSITY OF OREGON o It’s Here Now! 2004 Summer Session Registration Book Your Summer in Oregon Summer Session starts June 21. Pick up your free summer catalog today in the Summer Session office, 333 Oregon Hall, at the UO Bookstore, or read it online. You can speed your way toward graduation by taking required courses during summer. Check Out Our Website! http://uosummer.uoregon.edu Tim Bobosky Photographer Career Center Assistant Director Richard Guerra discusses resume strategies with junior biology major June Wang. students looking for internships. "The first place I would suggest stu dents go is within their own profes sional schools or departments," she said. "Both the business and journal ism and communication schools have their own internship coordina tors, but if you can't get to a internship coordinator then I suggest you find a academic advisor or even a peer coor dinator." Guerra also recommends that stu dents talk with their professors. "They'll have professional contacts and networks that students can use," Guerra said. "The other thing is for students to go an do informational interviews with companies, business es and organizations that they are in terested in working for to find out if there are any opportunities to help them get in the door." Guerra said students need to keep in mind that internships are not only about what companies can do for stu dents, but about what students can contribute to the businesses as well. "A student needs to be clear about what they want to do and have a good way to articulate that to someone," Guerra said. "It's not enough to go in and say 'I'm a journalism major, and I want to be a reporter.' We always en courage students to get more specific, be able to talk about what kind of learning experience that they want to gain from it, but also talk about the skills they posses already." Individual department Web sites often have excellent resources for finding summer internships, Haynes said. Chang said registering on the Ca reer Center's Web site has some of the best opportunities, but acknowledged that one of most important factors is a student's initiative. "For summer internships there are a lot of people looking to get into a few positions," he said. "Take the ini tiative to see someone in the compa ny, to stand out, and don't be too wishy-washy about what you want." He also recommended the Campus Interview Program because the em ployers who participate haven't just expressed interest, they've committed to hiring. However, Chang said he draws a line between using actual business Web sites to find company contacts and using online job search Web sites like Monster.com. "Sites like that don't really work for internships," he said. "Especially for summer internships they're not going to be very good because even for real jobs companies that post there are looking for specific skills." Internships are generally divided into two categories, paid and unpaid, each with their own benefits and PART 2 OF 2 j££ ence, it's almost going to be like a real job," Guerra said. "They're going to be expecting very high quality work from you, typically it's going to be some sort of competitive process where they select from a pool of talent." He added quality work is expected in unpaid positions as well. He said students in unpaid internships may be able to personalize their experience by working with an on-site supervisor who will help them focus on what they want to do or leam. * Although whether an internship is paid tends to be the defining factor for most students, Chang said in the end it should be about the learning process. "The name internship means noth ing," he said. "We've all heard the hor ror stories about people who get an internship and they spend the whole time making copies and answering the phone. There are also those peo ple who do a volunteer position and take away these amazing skills and get the most experience. The value of ex perience is multi-fold." In some cases the best defense to bad job experiences is a strong at tempt to communicate. "The best way to combat bad in ternships is to make your priorities clear," said Guerra. "The number one thing that goes wrong is students not doing their research on the organiza tion and the internship itself and rely ing on somebody's word for what they're going to be doing." Tuesday: How to find local summer jobs Today: Tips for success in summer internships I f it's go ing to be a paid experi Contact die business/science/ technology reporter at stevenneuman@dailyemerald.com. r 17M A campus tradition—over 100 years of publication. Oregon Daily Emerald P.O. Box 3159, Eugene OR 97403 The Oregon Daily Emerald is pub lished daily Monday through Friday during the school year by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc., at the University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon.The Emerald operates inde pendently of the University with of fices in Suite 300 of the Erb Memorial Union. The Emerald is private prop erty. The unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law. NEWSROOM — (541)346-5511 Editor in chief: Brad Schmidt Managing editor: Jan Tobias Montry Freelance editor: Jennifer Sudick News editors: Jennifer Marie Bear, Ayisha Vahya Senior news re porters: Chelsea Duncan, Jared Paben News reporters: Moriah Balingit, Lisa Catto, Parker Howell, Steven Neuman Pulse editor: Aaron Shakra Senior Pulse reporter: Ryan Nyburg Pulse reporter: Natasha Chilingerian Pulse columnists: Helen Schumacher, Carl Sundberg Sports editor: Hank Hager Senior sports reporter: Mindi Rice Sports reporters: Jon Roetman, Alex Tam Editorial editor: Travis Willse Columnists: Peter Hockaday, David Jagernauth, Marissa Jones, Chuck Slothower Illustrators: Steve Baggs, Eric Layton Design editor: Tanyia Johnson Senior designer: Sean Hanson Designers: Killian Mcllroy, Kira Park Photo editor: Danielle Hickey Senior photographer: Lauren Wi nter Photographer: Tim Bobosky Part-time photographers: Adam Amato, Erik R. Bishoff Copy chiets: Kim Chapman, Rebekah Hearn Copy editors: Tarah Campi, Stefanie Contreras, Jeannie Evers, Alicia Gesner, Paul J. Thompson Online editor: Erik R. Bishoff Webmaster: Eric Lay ton BUSINESS — 346-5512 General manager: Judy Riedl Business manager: Kathy Carbone Receptionist: Rebecca Critchett Distribution: Caron Alarab, Megan Anderson, John Long, Matt O’Brien, Mike Schapira, Ben Turner ADVERTISING — DISPLAY 346-3712 CLASSIFIED 346-4343 Director: Melissa Gust Sales manager: Michelle Chan Sales representatives: Army Feth, Patrick Gilligan, Megan Hamlin, Kim Humphries, Alex Hurliman, Tyler Mack, Shannon Rogers, Katherine Vague Assistant: Thomas Redditt Classified advertising associates: Liz Carson, Liz Conant, Sabrina Gowette, Keri Spangler PRODUCTION — 346-4381 Manager: Michele Ross Production coordinator: Tara Sloan Designers: Jen Cramlet, Kristen Dicharry, Matt Graff, Andy Holland, Marissa Jones, Jonah Schrogin
