Purdue News

February 11, 2000 Looking for a good employee? Hire an intern WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Internships used to be optional for college students and employers. No more. Eighty percent of undergraduates in Purdue University's Krannert School of Management do three- to eight-month paid internships. More and more, these internships lead directly to the dream of college graduates and their parents: the first job. Employers have taken notice and are lining up to sign up interns. Fifty companies, ranging from Arthur Andersen to General Electric to Walt Disney, will be at the ballrooms of the Purdue Memorial Union to meet 1,000 students in an internship-career fair from 10 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. Monday, Feb. 21. Interviews will take place on Tuesday. "In the past, we had a career fair in the fall and an internship fair in the spring," said Kay Henry, Krannert School of Management undergraduate career services center coordinator. "Now we combine internship and career fairs because so many times corporations are looking at interns in terms of future permanent hires." At the accounting-consulting firm of Crowe, Chizek and Co., which has two offices in Indianapolis, the organization's professionals and consultants themselves do the on-campus interviews of prospective interns. "We are very conscious of providing a valuable learning experience for our interns," said Michelle Dobski, the campus recruiting administrator at Crowe Chizek's home office in South Bend. "Our goal is a positive relationship for both sides. Often, our interns join the firm after graduation." What's good for the company is good for students, too, according to Henry, because they get to actually work in an area they think they're interested in. So they can see if marketing is really their cup of tea or if they would be happier in human resources or management. Upon returning to class after internships, students tend to be more focused and motivated. The Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute's recently published Survey of Current Practices shows how the profile of internships has risen in the public-policy discussion on statewide development of employees ready to contribute to an increasingly knowledge-based economy. "Develop a statewide policy on internships, including a plan for increasing the number of internships available to Indiana college students," the report recommended. "Since there are significant benefits inherent in internships for both employers and interns, and since employers have expressed great interest in providing more internships, the state should not have to commit substantial resources to providing incentives for participation." The Krannert School doesn't require internships, but they are highly recommended, Henry said. Most students do internships in the summer between their junior and senior years, although some take spring semester to intern and stay on through the summer. Some students stay on part time with their internship companies after they've headed back to the classroom. Employers often wonder what they should offer interns monetarily. It ranges from $6 or $7 an hour for sophomores up to $25 an hour for upper-class students, particularly in the computer and systems area. For seniors, Henry asks employers to consider three-quarters of a starting wage, "because you're looking at that point at essentially a finished product." One of those almost-finished products is Jamie O'Reardon, from Chester, N.J., who is leading the seven-student group, ranging from sophomores to seniors like him, that's in charge of putting together all the details, from breakfast bagels to corporate contacts, of the internship-career fair. O'Reardon, who has done internships at Abbott Laboratories in Chicago and Deloitte and Touche in New York, is officially chairman of the Internship-Career Committee of the School of Management Council. The committee started planning for the internship-career fair last March and making preparations in earnest fall semester. "Internships are a great way to test out companies," O'Reardon said, theorizing that the employer-employee scales are more in balance than in the past. "It's amazing what a good economy does for the buyer." To view a list of job placements of May 1999 School of Management graduates, point your browser to http://www3.mgmt.purdue.edu/undergraduate/ career/jobtypes.htm. The 1999 graduates' starting salaries averaged more than $36,000. The Krannert School of Management offers bachelor's degrees in accounting, economics, management and industrial management. In 1999, U.S. News and World Report ranked the Krannert School's undergraduate program 14th nationally; third in production management and fourth in quantitative analysis. The Krannert Graduate School of Management offers master of science degrees in management, human resource management, industrial management, and accounting; four combination distance learning and in-residence executive MBAs; and the doctorate. According to U.S. News and World Report in 1999, the Krannert Graduate School ranked 20th nationally among business schools overall, third in operations management and 10th in quantitative analysis. Computerworld tapped Krannert seventh in "techno-MBAs." The Economist magazine ranked the Krannert School No. 1 in the world in helping its students in career services. Sources: Kay Henry, (765) 494-1668; henry@mgmt.purdue.edu Jamie O'Reardon (765) 496-1628; oreardon@hotmail.com Michelle Dobski, (219) 236-8646, ext. 7807; mdobski@crowechizek.com Writer: Mike Lillich, (765) 494-2077; mlillich@purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu To the Purdue News and Photos Page