Internships...best place to start?

OK, so I have just found this site and boy have my eyes been opened to the REAL world of IT. I was throwing around the idea of trying to find an internship somewhere but after reading this site for 2.5 days, I'm convinced I NEED an internship to really get anywhere after college.

So my question to you guys is how or where should I go to look for an internship opportunity? I am currently enrolled in my second semester at WGU in Network Design & Management. I have virtually no experience in this field besides school and messing around at home.

Any help advice or anything else you want to add will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

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Turgon

AintRite wrote: »

OK, so I have just found this site and boy have my eyes been opened to the REAL world of IT. I was throwing around the idea of trying to find an internship somewhere but after reading this site for 2.5 days, I'm convinced I NEED an internship to really get anywhere after college.

So my question to you guys is how or where should I go to look for an internship opportunity? I am currently enrolled in my second semester at WGU in Network Design & Management. I have virtually no experience in this field besides school and messing around at home.

Any help advice or anything else you want to add will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Get the yellow pages out for your local area and list all the companies in the computer section. Then shoot them all a letter. Ask for some parttime hours, they may even pay you a little.

MentholMoose

I did an internship myself but I don't remember where I found it. I know a lot of internships are done through college career centers and career fairs. I don't know what WGU offers in that area, though. Internships get posted on job sites so you can search those. I like indeed:
Job Search | one search. all jobs. Indeed.com

Also register on LinkedIn and look for opportunities there. Larger companies usually have someone in charge of their intern program, so you can try to get in touch with them.

Xcluziv

AintRite wrote: »

OK, so I have just found this site and boy have my eyes been opened to the REAL world of IT. I was throwing around the idea of trying to find an internship somewhere but after reading this site for 2.5 days, I'm convinced I NEED an internship to really get anywhere after college.

So my question to you guys is how or where should I go to look for an internship opportunity? I am currently enrolled in my second semester at WGU in Network Design & Management. I have virtually no experience in this field besides school and messing around at home.

Any help advice or anything else you want to add will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

I know that I got placed at my first internship with a company through INROADS. Great organization to train you and find you an internship at some good companies

. Check the website to see if they have an office near you

jdchilders

Xcluziv wrote: »

I know that I got placed at my first internship with a company through INROADS. Great organization to train you and find you an internship at some good companies . Check the website to see if they have an office near you

I've heard INROADS is a good place- had a friend that worked there and helped students.

I got my internship through my University when i was working on my bachelors. Got an internship with a fortunte 500 at 15/hr working as little or as much as i wanted (up to 60 hours- with overtime, and double overtime).

My suggestion is hit the websites of the bigger companies around, and look at they're employment opportunities, many of them post they're available internships, and almost all of them have a place to apply to be "generally considered", in your cover letter just let them know your avidly looking for internships. Probably wouldnt hurt to call/talk to the company/HR dept. if you cant find a place to apply.

Good luck.

size15shoe

I started as a volunteer in a hospital, but I started calling it an internship, then my "boss" started calling it an internship, and before you know it, Im going to be getting an open helpdesk position here next month..

Sometimes when you dont have a door open, you have to make a door and walk thru it. I went from a volunteer who didnt know alot, to a soon to be full time help desk/desktop support. If I can flip it (and trust me, im no genius lol) then I KNOW you can. Do whatever it takes to get to where you wanna go. You may want to try my route, if $$$ isnt an immediate issue for you.

Good Luck!

CodeBlox

You could look into the temp contracts. Or perhaps a staffing agency talking to a recruiter.

AintRite

Wow, thanks for all the great feedback and suggestions. I am a member of LinkedIn already so that is a plus.It really doesn't matter to me if I get paid for an internship or not, as I have read all over this site is that experience is the key especially coming straight out of college.

I'm going to check out all the sites provided above by you guys and see if I can find anything. Then I think I'm going to contact all the hospitals around me (there are like 3-4) and HP has a big office about 5 minutes away from me. Oh I forgot also Intel has a big office about 10 minutes away also.

While we are on the subject of job/intern hunting, how critical is having a bad criminal record. I was pretty crazy in my younger days (18-20s) I'm in my mid 30s now.lol All was due to drinking and fighting. I had been working as a Tile Setter for the last 14 years and if you don't have a felony you really aren't accepted in construction, so I'm just wondering how much trouble I have made for myself trying to find a job when that time comes.