A "practical experience" component is required of all undergraduate majors in ITK. A well-conceived and managed intern program can be very successful in enhancing your corporate image on campus. When interns return to campus they talk about their experiences in classes and to other students giving your firm additional publicity. In fact, since a substantial number of students accept their first position upon graduation with the company they interned with, participation in the intern program provides an advantage in recruiting graduates.
An intern program should be designed to be an important part of the company's recruiting strategy. The recruitment of interns should be treated as the first step in recruiting permanent employees. The student should be given a meaningful work experience so that the company may evaluate the student's potential but also so that the student will receive a worthwhile experience. Companies augment the internship in a variety of ways. Companies may pay the cost of tuition for the internship course that the students register for at Illinois State University. For their top interns, many companies offer a scholarship to the student and/or commit to a job offer after graduation for students entering their senior year.
The university also has a stake in the internship since the student earns academic credit for the experience. The university seeks to assure that the student's assignment itself is worthwhile and also that the student learns more about the profession in general and gains an enhanced appreciation for the field that will help them in their remaining course work.
Students are not assigned an internship. Students interview for an internship position just as they will interview for employment after graduation.
An important characteristic of an internship is that it introduces the student to the type of work environment and the type of work assignments that will be encountered after graduation. This allows the student to confirm the appropriateness of their major and to profit more from courses taken after the internship. Thus the experience should not be "just a part-time job." While the skills of the student are certainly more limited than those of a graduate, the internship must expose the student to the information technology field beyond tasks that the student can reasonably be expected to do on their own. This is commonly accomplished by having the intern work on group projects and work on multiple projects over the term of the internship. At the least, the intern must be supervised by an information technology professional.
We ask students to look for something developmental. The student may be assigned to help maintain, update or develop new software or the student may want to look for a position developing or updating a computer network. We leave the definition of developmental broad on purpose; we are open to all areas of Information technology.
While it is rare to deny approval to a position brought by a student, we will NOT approve a position in retail sales. We will also NOT approve a position in which the student acts a receptionist or clerk for a technology department or company.
