Internship Guidelines and Procedures Manual - Cal Poly Pomona

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your resume. Here are some factors to consider in finding an internship that is right for you: STAY WITHIN THE DISCIPLINE Your internship must involve practical application of communication skills as the primary activity. Legitimate situations include application of skills and knowledge you have learned in communication courses, such as communication theory, organizational communication, intercultural communication, public speaking, desktop publishing, public relations, and reporting. Only internships that are centrally focused on communication activities or services will be approved. For instance, a proposed internship in which a student will receive training as a retail sales representative falls outside these parameters and would not be approved. The Communication Department looks upon the internship as a mentoring experience. In other words, (1) your immediate supervisor should have significantly greater experience and expertise than you do relative to the job functions you will be asked to perform, and (2) your immediate supervisor should be willing and capable of teaching and coaching you. SPONSOR’S HISTORY WITH INTERNS Has the particular sponsor had an ongoing internship program or will this be its first experience with an intern? If the institution has accepted interns in the past, its supervisors probably have a better understanding of how to utilize an intern – to the mutual satisfaction of everyone –– than do supervisors of an organization that accepts you as its first intern. If it is the community affairs department of KNBC you’re interviewing with, they’ve been there and done that a hundred times. But if it is “Spaced-Out TechnoCom, Inc.,” a new seven-person website designer, you have less assurance of internship continuity. So always ask about the sponsor’s experience with internships. TO PAY OR NOT TO PAY Most internship sponsors do not, but it never hurts to ask. Frequently, the institutional response will be “your experience is your reward” or some similar platitude. Just keep in mind that interning for fun (gaining experience) and profit (being paid, too) is the way to go. Some organizations offer no wages but will provide travel expenses for interns who commute. Once again, ask the question and do not be hesitant about letting them know your skills are valuable. If they want to know what the going rate is for interns, tell them $9 to $12 an hour, as advised by the COM Department. 4
UNIONIZED OR OPEN SHOP? Whether a particular organization is unionized or not can have a significant bearing on the type of work you would be permitted to do as an intern. If the internship sponsor is unionized, you probably will not be doing any technical hands-on work, because the union contract prohibits non-members from operating equipment. So if you want hands-on experience operating a studio camera, do not apply at KNBC; instead, consider some non-unionized institutions –– ITAC at Cal Poly, municipal cable-access, or various other corporations. PROJECT PARTICIPATION Ask if you will be permitted to take part in a project. Examples include creating a new employee newsletter, designing and executing an audience-response survey, designing multimedia materials for an annual report, planning /executing a special event for a new product launch, creating a press kit, or putting out a feature section in a publication. If the answer is no, then the likelihood is high that your internship duties will include much routine “grunt work.” Try to avoid this type of internship. If you secure an internship that allows you to work on specific projects –– ideally from start to finish –– then you will walk away from the internship with some tangible work products that you can add to your professional portfolio. Subsequently, when you interview for that first career position, you’ll have meaningful experiences to discuss with your interviewers. Keep in mind that the most frequent complaint the Communication Department gets from interns is that they were not allowed to work on any sort of project. Insist that you be allowed to work on a project; if they say no, keep looking. WHERE TO LOOK You might want to start with the Communication Department, which maintains an internship bulletin board in Building 1, Room 313. The bulletin board carries current fliers and internship announcements from local, regional, and national organizations. Professional organizations such as the L. A. chapter of the Public Relations Society of America and the California Newspaper Publishers Association occasionally send internship directories to the Department that you may consult. Additionally, the Communication Department has a list of internships recently completed by Cal Poly Communication students. In some cases, a final internship report may be available for your reference. See Lyn Hughes, in 1-313, or Dr. Richard Kallan, the internship coordinator, in 1-310, to use the directories. You can also track down internship opportunities using the following Internet websites: Public relations www.prsala.org/ (Public Relations Society of America) www. monstertrak.com Search net for “public relations internships.” 5
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