Hey guys, I dont normally post much on here but I read posts everyday. I was wanting to reach out to my fellow Hokies to see if you guys could help me out.
My son is a 4th generation VT student. I have really enjoyed hanging out with my son and his friends and fellow alumni on campus this year. Its been a blast tailgating and going to events with them.
Anyway, one of my sons friends reached out to me to see if I could help him find a summer internship. He was/is an ME major but he's taking a break from that this semester. He decided to get into technical/creative writing. He is looking for some kind of internship related to communications/creative/technical writing.
I don't really know where to begin to help out with this one. He is a junior at VT and a super smart kid. All of my contacts are engineers.
If there was anywhere that might could help me help him out with an internship it would be TKP.
If anyone has any ideas or contacts, respond to the post and I will send you my contact info.
Go Hokies!
Comments
I apologize in advance if this advice is a bit unsolicited... we haven't posted internships yet, but I feel obligated to say
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Thanks Bar, I totally agree with you. He is trying to network but doesn't exactly know where to start. I am trying to help him out with that. I appreciate any info you or anyone has.
He wants to be an engineer but he had a bad semester that kicked his butt. He took too many credits of hard math heavy classes and tanked his GPA. He doesn't have the financial backing to take 5+ yrs to get through engineering. He trying to figure it out and he's hit the panic button.
I am trying to mentor him through it but he has lost confidence and doesn't know what to do.
Ahh got it. The financial pressure is hard, especially for a kid.
Re: networking, I recommend the book the 2-hour job search. I know it sounds gimmicky AF, but it's super practical, has templates, etc.
Next, he should work with his academic advisor. Shout out to Linda Vick - I had the realization that I hated mechanical engineering my junior year and had no idea what to do. She explained to me that there are plenty of engineering students who never do engineering, but instead find other careers.
He should also talk to career services at VT - free resume reviews, practice interviews, career advice, etc.
There's a lot of cool jobs out there that would love to have someone that thinks like an engineer. Things are going to be hard with the rise of AI, but there will also be many new opportunities.
Oh man, I totally get that. I had 4 years to get my degree. Hard stop. I took a couple of brutal semesters and I didn't handle them well (thus, tanking my GPA) (I even had to get waivers signed to take more than the allowed number of credit hours in my junior year---it was rough). It's not a fun place to be in.
If, as you say, he's super smart and half-way charming he should be able to find some sort of internship, so long as he's not picky. I agree with most of what Bar has said above.
Every single job I've gotten after college was via networking (networking is undefeated). One of the keys to good networking is to ask people what they do. Showing genuine interest in them makes them feel heard and appreciated while also subconsciously making them feel a small obligation to help reciprocally in some small way. People want to be heard and listened to. If your son's friend makes it his mission to listen to as many people as he can, and asks good questions about what they do he will find someone who will want to help him out and vouch for him. That gets his foot through the door. The rest is kinda up to him from there.
So true especially the bolded parts. Networking worked while I was in restaurant work for few years after graduating; then-when I lost my job a month before my daughter was born and was unemployed/temp work for 6 months- I got hired on at predecessor company to my current employer as a temp doing the most menial job- stacking docs in manila folders when they were ready to be microfiched (yes I'm that old and also 'thermal fax old" lol).
After mastering that menial task, I started asking the other folks in my area "hey. what are you doing? then 'how do you do that?' then 'Can I try it?' Moved up through three levels in that department; then went to customer service where learned all about servicing mortgages; then was told (not asked) to go talk to the sales area which was expanding as the big refi boom was about to kick off in 1997-98. despite having absolutely ZERO sales experience, I did very well for the next 9 years. As my divorce was becoming final and I had a (voluntarily) hefty child support bill to pay , I needed a steady income- not one where commissions fluctuated from month to month. I mentioned to some of my former bosses that while I wasn't 'unhappy in sales' , it wasn't what I wanted to do the rest of my life. and since they knew my work ethic and skill set, could they please watch out for positions I would be good for. That's how I ended up being in the data/IT world where I was a liaison between business folks who didn't understand the capabilities and limitations of computers AND the IT folks who knew IT but not about how the data was used by the business people. I've been in that general area for the latter half of my 33 years with the company.
Every single position I have been 'hired for' was because someone ASKED for me specifically to come do it. And it's all from building a reputation as someone who knows the history, has done most every job in the mortgage lifecycle, and can apply that knowledge to be THE expert in the data around the mortgage area. Not afraid to ask WHY or WHAT it's being used for, nor do I ever identify a problem without proposing an educated guess as to how to handle it.
https://intern.usajobs.gov/search/results/?wt=15328&s=salary&sd=desc&p=1
Government Internships overall above.
Here is one in the Public Information Office at the Supreme Court
Its time sensitive though
https://intern.usajobs.gov/job/857763500
Know you said he was taking a break from ME but here is an ME internship.
https://intern.usajobs.gov/job/858388800
Unfortunately the internships are pretty limited this year for the government since we are still in a hiring freeze.
Here is the Hokies office that helps with internships
https://www.vt.edu/content/career_vt_edu/en/experience/Internships/find-...
For technical writing, have him look into the national labs. They always hire a lot of summer students and it's a great pipeline to get into
It is - and I work at one. Unfortunately, the application deadline for the program at my lab (NIST) was a month ago. But, check out these national labs under DOE: https://www.usa.gov/agencies/national-laboratories
Not sure if they have internships, but With an engineering background and desire for technical writing, definitely look into the patent office. I knew several people that did enjoy it. There would also be options on the other side submitting patents I would think.
Park Authority in Fairfax County has a number of internships every summer some are paid and some aren't. I didnt see any writing specific, but sending an email and resume to the main internship email address is worth it to see if MarComm is hiring anyone for the summer if it is geographically convenient.
Here
I have no idea of anything they have listed here is of interest to them, but I just saw this on my VT alumni feed:
Calling current undergraduate and graduate level students to Explore Henrico County's Internship Program: gain professional experience, earn pay or academic credit
https://lnkd.in/eKRc2Fx2
https://henrico.gov/services/internship/
As an ME student, he should be focused on details and minutia. Grant and technical writing for researchers could be a good start.