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JNL Internships Policy

Overview

Internships can be a very valuable part of graduate studies, providing the Student with real-world experiences that cannot be gained elsewhere, work experience for the Student's resume/curriculum vitae, and extra income. Internships can also augment the Group's experience and positively benefit its exposure both inside and outside UND.

Policy

Regarding internships, the guidelines below should be followed by Each Student in the Group:

1. All Students are encouraged to pursue and take part in at least one internship while a Group Member. JNL is happy to advise and assist any Student on pursuing and selecting internships.
2. It is in the Group's long-term best interests (a) to not let competition for internships hurt the Group dynamics and (b) that any Student accepting an internship take the job seriously. Both are necessary so Students get the maximum benefit from internship experiences, as well as so that the experience reflects well on the Student and on the Group, JNL, and UND from the employers' perspectives. Although future performance does not necessarily correlate with past performance, employers are more likely to hire from groups which are known to reliably provide quality personnel.
3. When JNL becomes aware of internship opportunities, the policy is to broadcast them to the entire group. In addition to that, some Students may have been individually working on making connections of their own, which is encouraged.
4. There is not much harm in having one or two Students applying to a given place with a particular group, but it may not look good if every Student applies. The process should be somewhat self-selective based upon Student seniority, expertise, interests, and geographic preferences (if any).
5. Students should communicate with each other regarding their preferences and try to be considerate. Examples of this include a senior Student who might want to graduate soon and get a real job: s/he should probably take priority for a given internship over someone who is several years from graduating and will have opportunities in coming Summers. Similarly, if a Student has a strong geographic preference for personal or other reasons, we should try to be considerate of that.
6. A Student should only apply for opportunities that, as far as s/he knows at the time of application, s/he would seriously consider taking if given an offer. Doing otherwise is unprofessional and wastes the time of the industrial people you contact. For example, a Student should not go down the following path: with an offer from Company A s/he will probably accept, s/he applies to Company B just to see what happens.
7. Once a Student makes a decision to accept one offer and reject any others, s/he should clearly indicate this decision to JNL and to the rest of the group. Doing so allows JNL to potentially redistribute summer stipends to other students, as well as to better plan for summer research though knowing how many students will be working / researching.
8. If a Student rejects an offer, then it would be good Group citizenship to let others in the Group know about the opportunity in case they might be interested. In fact, the most appropriate thing for a Student to do when accepting an offer from Company A, and rejecting an offer from Company B, is to tell Company B that s/he really appreciates the opportunity, but s/he has decided to go with another internship (and if asked, do say where from), and (if appropriate, with your explicit knowledge) there could be another student in the Group interested in the position with Company B.

History

• Draft: JNL, June 2, 2006
• Update: JNL, with input from Michael Dickens, June 9, 2006
• Update: JNL, with input from Michael Dickens, July 27, 2006