Internships that pay.

College debt with less pain

This weekend the New York Times had a big story about college debt. The average grad has about $25K in loans, but if you graduate and have a job that helps jumpstart your career then those loans are a lot easier to swallow.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/business/student-loans-weighing-down-a-generation-with-heavy-debt.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

If on the other hand you have to look for a minimum wage job to get by, then the road to becoming debt free is going to take a lot longer.

So…..getting an internship is key to finding a career.

InternBound has tons of paid internships posted in three different hubs in the West — the Bay Area, SoCal and Seattle the Pacific Northwest. And, employers are still looking and still need interns and they are paying.

We want to help you find an internship that will get you a job when you graduate. That’s why looking for an internship and applying are free at InternBound. 

Keep in mind when your resume shows you had an internship in college it tells an employer you have applied skills and talent.

An internship is the road to a good job when you graduate. Make it happen.

Don’t Double My Rate

President Obama is rallying students over the possible doubling of student loan interest rates. If you are a student with a college loan, and who isn’t, your interest is around 6.9%. That seems high enough considering interest rates on loans for cars and homes is anywhere between 3.5% and 4.5%. So if Congress doesn’t act by July 1 that 6.9% rate could be 13.8%. Hey that like paying a loan shark.

But what can you do about it? There is a movement a foot “Don’t double my rate” that could make a difference. Start calling out the legislators and making sure they hear you.

Remember there are millions of you who can vote and this is a presidential election year. A lot of seats are up for grabs in the House and the Senate. Make sure these lawmakers know where you stand, and how you plan to vote if they don’t do the right thing. You can vote for the lawmaker who helped preserve the current rates and you can boot the other ones. Let them know that’s what you are going to do.

Find out who your legislators are. Send them an email and make sure they know how you feel. And have all you friends email them too. Go on their Facebook page, send them a tweet. Hit them hard with a clear message.

After all its not their money, but it sure is yours. Don’t let them take it. Don’t let them double you rate.

Underpaid or jobless

A recent study coming out of Northeastern University and a Washington think tank are citing some tough facts. One in two college grads are either underpaid or unemployed. The study says 1.5 million grads with B.A.s who are under 25 fall into this group.

Students who go into health care, science or education (although this last area looks questionable in California) are finding work. But the truth is, there are less and less jobs to go around if you have a liberal arts degree.

That’s why it’s critical to find an internship (and more than one) while you are in school. Do it as a undergrad or a grad.  It’s your ticket to breaking through and finding employment when you graduate. It may even be with the company where you interned.

To help you find those gigs, InternBound is going to keep posting  opportunities. And, here is something important you need to know. In today’s economy, many of these internships are also considered entry level positions. So even if you are graduating in May or June, companies will still take you on as an intern. Just look for the ones that pay. We got them on our website.

Power up

PG&E in the Bay Area and NorCal needs an army of interns this summer. We posted 28 jobs today. They run the gambit from customer communications to mobile connect to environmental and, of course, there is always a position for an engineer.

There are so many we can’t list them all here, but the jobs are located in San Jose, Walnut Creek, San Francisco and Sacramento.

Go to the Silicon Valley Hub then go to the “organizations” box and scroll down to PG&E and the appropriate location.

Happy Hunting!

Intern at Dreamworks

If you are into movies and want to be part of one of the premier movie studios, then check out Dreamworks Productions for a summer internship.

The studio has 6 internships in the Bay Area most are for comp science majors who are upperclassmen or in a MS program. The jobs begin June 14 in Redwood City. They are full time and paid. We just posted them.

Go to the Silicon Valley Hub and choose Dreamworks (Redwood City).

In the LA Hub we just posted 12 Dreamworks internships, and they are looking for a wide range of students —from an editorial intern to R&D intern to IT intern and a lot more. These are all in Glendale, and they also start on June 14.

Definitely worth a look if you are into film and animation.

Get some green on a greener planet

So you’re good with numbers and you are all about getting a degree in business. But, hey, the company you want to work for needs to be environmentally friendly. Making the world a greener and healthier place is your thing. Well, if you are looking for that combination up in Washington, then Pacific Northwest National Laboratory could be the intern match for you.

The company has 2 business internships at its headquarters in Richland, WA. Both are paid. One is about working with business contracts  https://internbound.com/internship/2773/

The other is in finance and accounting https://internbound.com/internship/2774/

You have to do a bit of clicking thru, but follow the instructions at the top of the postings and it could be the paid summer internship you are looking for.

And……maybe your job when you graduate.

An internship experience thru rotation

Internships can open doors, but what kind are the best? Who should you work for? Is the culture cool or is it your parents company?

One way to know is to apply for an Internship Program. It’s different from a standard internship because you rotate through different departments like marketing, communications, finance, HR.

In the Silicon Valley/Bay Area hub there are more than 150 different companies to check out. In the LA hub there are about 65 programs. In the Seattle hub (its are baby hub) has about 32 programs. But here is the important thing, if the company is headquartered in a different state they will help get you to HQ. Often they pay for your housing and other survival needs.

These listings are located in a separate tab in the big orange bar so take a look. You may find an internship and a future employer. It doesn’t any get better than that.

To infinity and beyond

As a kid you wanted to build rocket ships. Well this may be your shot at working for a private spaceship company.  SpaceX has an internship/co-op in Hawthorne (in the LA hub) and you can intern there in the fall. That means you have time to make it happen, and it pays.

This is the company founded by Elon Musk, former PayPal founder and founder of Tesla Motors in the Bay Area (We have internships posted there too.) This guy is at the forefront of technology. SpaceX is the first private rocket ship company to successfully launch a spaceship into space. Musk has also signed up with NASA to fly those rockets into space and beyond.

Musk wants to colonized other planets and knowing this guy it could happen.

Here’s the link check it out:

https://internbound.com/internship/3741/

In the Cloud

Want to do an engineering internship in the cloud? How about in San Francisco at Dropbox. The software lets you drop big files like photos into a virtual storage box. Then you email whoever you want to retrieve them. This keeps your email from clogging up.

The company is looking for a software engineer intern. A comp sci major who wants to show off his or her chops.

It’s in the Silicon Valley hub, But here’s the link:

https://internbound.com/internship/3126/

They are offering lots of summer perks from white water rafting to Giant games.

Direct TV wants you

We all know the only way to watch movies, TV or any kind of streaming media, short of the Big Screen, is on a mobile device. That’s a good reason to check out the college internship program at Direct TV, especially if you are up in the Seattle area.  Go to the Seattle hub. https://internbound.com/internship/3057/

This employer is offering a lot more than just opportunities in communications or business. In fact, the odds are good they are looking for you if your major is criminal justice, law, journalism, graphics design or just about any other major.

Check it out. This is a kick-ass opportunity.