Can you
please place me in an internship?
We do not “place” students in internships. But we do post every good opportunity that we
learn of and students can compete for these positions. We also support student pursuit of
internships in a variety of ways and students can also apply for internships on
their own. You can get assistance and advice regarding resumes and
cover letters, interviewing techniques, the search etc. via our Career
Development Center, which is located behind the Mass Pass Office in the campus
center. Alyssa Snizek, Associate
Director of the CDC will be in attendance at the February 23rd
workshop and can elaborate more on their services. CDC will also host a job and internship fair
in April and watch for networking events and other information sessions
throughout the year.
Who's
hiring for accounting internships?
Many different types of companies hire accounting interns. There is a great demand for accounting
interns at CPA firms in the spring semester as they gear up for tax
season. The big 4 accounting firms and
the large regional firms also hire summer interns but the applications for
those positions must usually be completed in late fall to early winter. To learn who is hiring, you must learn some
search strategies, network with family and friends, take advantage of
networking opportunities at UMD etc. If
you are interested in public accounting, there are lists of firms you can work
with such as the one that the Massachusetts Society of CPAs publishes. You can also contact the human resources
department of companies or agencies that interest you and inquire about doing
an internship. You may also want to meet
with a career counselor at our UMD Career Development Center and discuss search
strategies. Keep in mind that possibilities
for accounting internships do go beyond public accounting and you could find
great opportunities as an internal auditor intern, staff accountant at a bank,
inter in the business office of a school department, and so on. You should also monitor Careerlink and our
CCB internship blog to see what local opportunities appear during the next few
months.
How can I
get internships in Boston, MA?
We don’t have a lot of postings that come to us from the
Boston area. There are so many schools
in Boston that the companies near Boston reach out to those programs. However, many organizations in and around
Boston recruit interns. Many of them
post the opportunities on their own employment portals and an aggregator portal
like Indeed.com will pick these up. So
it is important to learn how to do great searches on Indeed.com and when you
see a good yield on your searches, set up that search as a daily email
alert. Respond quickly to every posting
that is of interest with a good solid resume and whatever else is
required. If you need help with your
resume, please visit the Career Development Center. Please know that landing an internship in
Boston is not impossible but it will probably take a lot of hustle and
persistence. Your resume will be in with
many others. Knowing someone in the
company always helps.
I am looking for
internships for this summer are there any available that CCB might be aware of?
As soon as we know of anything, we post it on our Internship
Blog which you can find at: http://www.businessinternships.blogspot.com/
Sign up for the daily email alerts so that as soon as you
see something of interest you can apply.
Will I be
able to receive credit for my internship?
Yes but if it is something you land on your own, you will
need to submit details to the Internship Director, Professor Griffin, to see if
it can be approved for credit and then you will be required to complete the
internship course (3 credits that cover a business elective) which is 100%
online via myCourses and is offered in the Fall, Spring, and Summer. You must
work at least 135 hours in an approved internship while successfully passing
the course.
Is it
possible to work in an internship over the Summer and use it for credit in the
Fall semester?
The college policy is that to get credit you must complete
the online internship course concurrent with the experience. You can’t do the internship in the summer and
take the course in the fall. And if you
do take the course in the summer, it carries the same tuition and fees as any
other 3 credit summer course. For
information on summer internship courses, visit the enrollment center or read
about the summer University Extension program on the UMD web site. I believe
the cost is around $1,100 to $1,200 per course.
How to get
an internship with the Celtics as an Accounting major with minor in Finance?
Send a resume to the human resources department at the
Celtics and propose the internship. Make
sure you write a good cover letter and mention that your college will support
this with a 3 credit course (if that’s something you want). Keep in mind that the Celtics usually do not
pay interns. We have had interns work for the Celtics in unpaid marketing and
outreach positions. Like any sports
internships, the Celtics ones have required long hours, no pay, and some time
lots of grunt work. That doesn’t mean an
accounting internship would be the same.
Do I need a certain GPA to be qualify for an internship
program?
To get into the internship course you should have at least a
2.5 GPA and 60 credits earned.
List of
specific things that I should do to succeed in an internship position?
This is a good question and the answer can be a complex
one. The simple answer is to be a good
worker and keep trying to learn new things.
Here are some more things you can do to increase your odds of success:
Knowing what is expected
of you as an intern is important to the success of the experience.
·
Review of a written
job description
o
Reveals duties, tasks, and knowledge, skills,
abilities needed
·
Agree on a work
schedule
o
Meeting of the minds on schedule is a critical
success factor from the start
·
Understand supervisor's
expectations
o
Beyond the job description — what else do you need to know to carry out your responsibilities
o
Skills necessary (can differ depending on the
type of internship)
§
Common basic skill requirements
·
Proficient in MS Office
o
Knowledgeable of Excel functions i.e. Pivot
Tables, VLookups, and Sumif functions
·
Detail-oriented
and organized
·
Resourceful, responsible, team player, high energy,
and good communication skills
·
Analytical
capabilities
·
Attention to
detail
·
Must be able to handle multiple projects (multi-tasking)
and priorities concurrently
·
Be familiar with policies, procedures and
etiquette
o
Read the policy manual or company handbook
o
Understand etiquette
and be observant of it in action
on the job
o
Learn by
watching other respected staff do their work and emulate good traits
o
No one expects the intern to know everything
o
Ask questions and take advantage of the chance to learn something
new everyday
·
Review of list of projects to be worked on
during the course of the semester
o
Put the
list in MS Excel
o
Put timelines
on each project
·
Participate in technical training (formal and informal on the job work)
o
Take every opportunity to participate in formal sessions such as informational meetings,
seminars, workshops
o
Get in on mini-training sessions such as a 15
minute meeting with a supervisor to review on targeted subject
·
Learn lessons in persistence, problem-solving,
exhibit a positive-attitude, networking skills, planning, and prioritization
o
Being persistent is a learned trait and one that employers look want
o
Positive
thinking is an appealing attribute in the business world 
it's the mind set of
entrepreneurs
it's the mind set of
entrepreneurs
§
Positive thinking leads to confidence which
reinforces positive thinking in a cycle of successful behaviors
o
Networking
within the internship leads to good things in the future and many internship
providers expect you will network
o
Plan each day; to-do lists and other time
management techniques help assure results
o
Prioritize —company goals lead to initiatives
—know the top goals and the top
initiatives and attack the highest
priorities first
I would
like to know how best to find local internships. Also, it would be helpful to
have pointers on who we should be trying to contact in organizations.
We receive requests for interns from local companies. In the CCB we currently (for the last 6 or 7 years)
post them on our blog: http://www.businessinternships.blogspot.com/ More and more, the Career Development Center
is posting opportunities on Careerlink. Every
UMD student has access to Careerllink (the same username and password you use
to log onto your email). You may also
find local internships on Indeed.com by search within a 30 mile radius of North
Dartmouth. You can do that in the
advanced search capabilities of Indeed.com.
If you contact a company on your own (not from these other sources
mentioned above), start by trying to get the name of a person in the company
and its best to get the name of a manager in the area you are interested
in. Who is the head of accounting? Who is the head auditor? VP of Marketing? Chief Technology Officer? Etc. etc.
Or you can contact the head of the human resource function. Write both a cover letter and a resume. Follow up in a week or so to see if they have
any questions.
Can any job
that has to do with my major be considered as an internship if so where can I
get it approved?
Not any job can be an internship. We look for certain attributes. There needs to be evidence of excellent
learning experiences facilitated by supervisors/mentors that plan the
internship and support it with resources.
The main priority — provide the student with a professional learning
experience – not selling shoes, pumping gas, painting houses, making cold calls
all day, or working from your dorm room.
There should be formal training and on-the-job learning experiences. We ask that you submit the following
information if you are looking to have the internship approved for credit:
Description of the company
including the mission, location, sales and market coverage. Please include your
web URL (if you have it):
Primary duties and
responsibilities:
What will the student learn
from this experience (list 4 or 5 learning objectives)?
Job Title:
Academic preparation of the
student required (graduate, senior, junior, courses taken, GPA, etc.):
Skills required:
Hours of work:
Start and end dates:
Primary supervisor and contact
information:
For more details on how to get an internship approved and
how our program works, please visit: http://www.umassd.edu/charlton/internship/
Also, you may find our document that explains best practices
for internship provider which can be downloaded from: http://www.umassd.edu/media/umassdartmouth/charlton/otherformsandpdfs/Best_Practices_for_Internship_Providers.pdf
