• Current sophomore undergraduate student or higher pursuing an Associates, Bachelors or Masters degree from an accredited technical school, college or university.  
• A 2.5 (on a 4.0 scale) or better cumulative GPA.
• Prior work experience, community involvement or participation in extra-curricular activities.
• Working knowledge of MS Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook).
• Must display an ability to communicate a clear understanding of their subject matter and offer informed suggestions to improve processes; respect individual differences and utilize the diverse thinking and contributions of all team members/employees.
• Familiarity with AutoCAD, Electrical Circuits, and HVAC Controls preferred
• Must have a valid Driver's License
  

TO APPLY:

Visit Position ID 9252794 in UMBCworks.  Submit a resume and unofficial transcript.

Turn Your Internship Into Your Job

Click for full photo gallery: How To Turn Your Internship Into Your Job

Every summer New Yorkers hear a steady thwack of rubber slapping pavement as flip-flop-wearing interns pour out of subways and into offices across the city. There, the very best ones change into real shoes, put their heads down and land a real full-time job offer three months later.

Internships are a great opportunity to test out a company and determine whether you’d want to work there full-time. The most successful interns view their short-term opportunities as more than just a summer gig. “They treat an internship as a 10- to 12-week job interview,” says Alex Taylor, a senior vice president and human resources manager at Bank of America.

How do you pull that off? First, act the part. Adhere to your company’s dress code and office hours. Model your wardrobe after those of senior-level colleagues. Never wear flip-flops, show cleavage or wear anything that’s ripped or torn. Treat everyone you meet with respect and professionalism, and don’t badmouth co-workers. Leave your personal life at home.

In Pictures: How To Turn Your Internship Into Your Job

Within the first week of starting your internship, make an appointment with your manager to establish goals. Discuss projects you’d like to tackle and specific skills you hope to gain over the summer. Always have a positive attitude about the work, however menial it may seem. “Not every task you’re going to do is something you’ll enjoy, but have the attitude that these are building blocks to your career,” says Tom Musbach, a former producer at Yahoo. “Once you show you can be trusted with small tasks, managers will give you more responsibility.”

Don’t be shy about asking questions, especially if you need clarification on an assignment. Carry a notebook with you at all times. “While it’s important to treat your internship as a job interview, it’s also important to make it a learning experience coupled with self-exploration,” says Holly Stroupe Vestal, a human resources consultant for Bank of America’s Banking Center Channel, who was hired full time after her own internship. “Don’t be afraid to ask questions. It’s a great way to show your level of engagement and connect the dots. It also will help you obtain a rounded, realistic preview of a prospective employer and job, so you can make an educated decision about your career options down the road.”

Be assertive. Don’t overextend yourself, but raise your hand when a manager asks for help. Don’t just stick to your department, either; volunteer to work in other areas of the company so you get an overview of as many as possible. Prove that you can meet the responsibilities of holding a full-time job.

To avoid spinning your wheels and wasting time, make sure you’re on the same page as your manager. After you’ve met with him or her to discuss a particular project, take the time to carefully think through the problem before racing ahead on the work. “Then go back to your manager the following morning and check your understanding of the challenge and how to best approach it,” says Chris Bierly, the head of North American associate consultant recruiting at Bain & Co. “It’s important to get out of the blocks fast, but first you want to make sure you’re holding the baton.”

Use your internship as an opportunity to network with senior leaders and your fellow interns. They are all vital contacts who can serve as references, recommend you for a job, and alert you to positions at other companies. Most businesses host intern events throughout the summer to encourage networking. Attend all of them. If the company has a softball team, join it. Talk to your colleagues to find out all you can about the company and what they like and don’t like about working there.

Throughout the summer, keep a record of the new skills you’ve acquired and the assignments you’ve completed. “They’ll be great building blocks for your résumé,” says Musbach. Save any complimentary e-mails or notes, too, to get ideas for potential references.

Before the summer ends, get your colleagues’ contact information and send thank-you notes. Network with them throughout the year by sending casual e-mails asking them about their work. If you performed well over the summer, they’ll think of you when a job opens up. As Chris Bierly observes, “Applying for a job is a mutual courtship.”

In Pictures: How To Turn Your Internship Into Your Job

This story is an update of a piece written by Helen Coster.

---

This article is available online at:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2012/05/21/turn-your-internship-into-your-job/

The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, a scholarly publisher in Lanham, MD, is looking for five candidates who are interested in exploring a career in publishing with its Lexington Books, University Press of America, and University Presses imprints. The responsibilities as an editorial intern will include a variety of tasks that will give you excellent exposure to the business of book publishing from stem to stern. The internship offers valuable hands-on experience working with editors and authors, as you participate in the various stages of a book’s life from inception to production. Your tasks will include:
 

 • researching and learning how editors identify potential projects
 • processing new proposals and learning to evaluate and comment on them,
 • preparing and sending out contract packages,
 • communicating with authors as needed,
 • contacting scholars for book endorsements and peer review,
 • drafting marketing copy.

The ideal candidate would have strong organizational skills, proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite, and verbal and written communication skills.

Candidates must be able to receive academic credit or fulfill a graduation requirement to be accepted in this internship.

This internship offers a flexible schedule, and will last between 12 and 16 weeks depending on candidate’s availability.

If you are interested in applying for this internship, please send a resume and cover letter to Erin E. Walpole via email or post using the below contact information:

Erin E. Walpole
Acquisitions Editor for History and Slavic Studies
Lexington Books
4501 Forbes Blvd., Suite 200
Lanham, MD 20706

EWalpole@rowman.com

Do you have an interest in Entrepreneurship?

Are you ready to intern within a Start-up this Fall?

If yes, apply to the Shattuck Family Internship Program for Entrepreneurship Innovation and Social Change.

DEADLINE TO APPLY:  Friday, July 27^th

Credentials can be e-mailed to:    

Christine Routzahn, Director of Professional Practice

The Shriver Center, UMBC, routzahn@umbc.edu, 410-455-2493

By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN

After interviewing a college student in June, Tory Johnson thought she had found the qualified and enthusiastic intern she craved for her small recruiting firm. Then she received the candidate's thank-you note, laced with words like "hiya" and "thanx," along with three exclamation points and a smiley-face emoticon.

"That email just ruined it for me," says Ms. Johnson, president of New York-based Women For Hire Inc. "This looks like a text message."

Hiring managers like Ms. Johnson say an increasing number of job hunters are just too casual when it comes to communicating about career opportunities in cyberspace and on mobile devices. Thank yous on paper aren't necessary, but some applicants are writing emails that contain shorthand language and decorative symbols, while others are sending hasty and poorly thought-out messages to and from mobile devices. Job hunters are also using social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace to try to befriend less-than-willing interviewers.

These incidents typically involve college students and recent graduates, and recruiters say such faux pas can be instant candidacy killers because they hint at immaturity and questionable judgment.

The trend may reflect a cultural divide between younger and older workers, says David Holtzman, author of "Privacy Lost: How Technology Is Endangering Your Privacy." "It's driven by the communication technology that each generation has grown up with," he adds. Workers in their 20s and younger are accustomed to online and cellphone messaging, and the abbreviated lingua franca that makes for quick exchanges, he says. "It's just natural for them. They don't realize that it's perceived to be disrespectful."

Travis Hawk, a May graduate of Drake University, says he prefers sending text messages to making phone calls and almost fell victim to his text-lingo behavior in emails to recruiters during his recent job search. "I had to focus on not doing it," says the 23-year-old, who just got an entry-level sales position at Principal Financial Services Group. Now an intern at the Des Moines, Iowa, firm, he says his penchant for using abbreviations such as "r" for "are" is sometimes hard to manage. "Occasionally, on accident, I throw one in an email at work," he admits.

Other job hunters, however, don't see any need for restraint. Consider, for example, that smiley faces, hearts and other icons appear in about one of every 10 thank-you emails sent to hiring managers at KPMG LLP, says Blane Ruschak, the New York accounting firm's national director of university relations and recruiting.

But KPMG's staffing specialists, who hire about 2,700 college graduates and 2,300 interns annually, aren't amused. "We don't feel emoticons have a place in any formal communications," says Mr. Ruschak. "It's not professional." And seeing them makes KPMG's hiring managers wonder whether that sort of unprofessional communication will follow the applicant to the workplace. Graduates who commit the offense may lose out on a job if "there are other candidates similar to them that didn't," he adds.

On-the-Fly Mentality

Some job hunters are earning the rebuke of recruiters by taking thank yous to another extreme -- by sending them hastily from their mobile phones. The move suggests an on-the-fly mentality, as if the applicants haven't taken time to think about why they want the job or why they are saying thanks, says Wendi Friedman Tush, president of Lexicomm Group, a boutique communications firm in New York. "It always says 'From my Blackberry,' " she says. Candidates "should sit down at their computer in a thoughtful way and do it, not while they're on their way somewhere," she says.

Executive recruiter Hal Reiter recently received such a thank you from a chief financial officer candidate sent by BlackBerry just minutes after the interview. "You don't even have time to digest the meeting and you're getting a thank-you note," says Mr. Reiter, chairman and chief executive of Herbert Mines Associates, a New York-based search firm.

This year, hiring manager Cathy Chin received a thank you on her cellphone from a candidate for an entry-level job at ReThink Rewards Inc., a marketing firm based in Toronto. While she says her cell number is on her business card, which she gave to the candidate, all prior correspondence had been through her office phone and email. "It's infringing a bit on your personal space," she says, adding that the candidate wasn't hired partly for this reason.

Interviewer as 'Friend'

And a candidate for an assistant account-executive job recently sent a "friend" invite to Ms. Friedman Tush on her personal Facebook page following an interview. Her company doesn't have a page on the social-networking site. "I'm not his friend. I'm not even his employer. I was somebody who interviewed him," she says. "They are called social-networking sites for a reason."

Job hunters may be more inclined to use their cellphones and text lingo when thanking interviewers because the medium is gaining acceptance in a growing number of workplaces. "I definitely text my managers if I am running late," says Jennifer Nedeau, 23, a project manager at New Media Strategies Inc., a marketing firm in Arlington, Va. "I know I'm not bothering them with a phone call, but they're still getting the message."

Are there ever exceptions to sending a thank you through a mobile phone or social-networking site? Perhaps if someone is applying to a company that sells or relies heavily on the technology, say hiring managers. But Ms. Johnson points out that it may be less effective than email since recruiters can't forward these types of messages to colleagues as easily.

The younger set sees the world of interview and workplace language evolving. Chris Brubaker, a junior at Iowa State University, predicts that "textspeak" will soon become accepted in the workplace. "Text messages are much more short and to the point," says the 20-year-old. "General communication is becoming more electronic."

Indeed, employers themselves are blurring the lines to some extent by using mobile and Web technology for recruiting, including posting job ads on social-networking sites like MySpace. Ms. Chin's firm has a Facebook page that lists information about job openings and its work environment. For this reason, Ms. Chin says she doesn't mind getting thank-you messages through the site's email system. The effort can even help a candidate stand out. "It puts a face to the name because it shows your profile picture," she explains.

Still, Ms. Chin says there's no excuse for using shorthand in messages to recruiters. "A thank-you note -- even if it's on Facebook or email -- should be written like a proper letter," she says. "If I'm going to give you a job, do I really want you communicating to our clients in this fashion? No."