I have a small company, so HR crap like this is sometimes a group effort. I've been trying to get a summer intern or co-op here for some much needed help (relevant to engineering, not trained monkey work), but deadlines keep sneaking up on me and I don't have much experience otherwise in laying the ground work for a student to take a few months and work for your company.

When is a good time to put in ads for these positions at say, NC State? Is end of March too late? I've done both summer internships and co-op but I can't remember the time line of all that stuff, but I seem to remember that positions were up as early as February. I ended up getting my positions later than that anyway, but still.

Any experience in the behind the scenes of getting an intern? We have had interns previously (before I worked here) so our company has experience in the legality and paper work there. However, I'm more interested in stuff like providing housing/housing information, is it better to try and line up a place for them for a few months, etc. My company is in a tiny town so options here are limited, but I've been considering simply renting out my guest room for the summer and whatnot. Plus, this tiny town would be incredibly boring for an intern and they could want to be out near Charlotte instead.

I got up with the NCSU co-op office already and am in their system, and all I need to do there is post jobs. I have a meeting on Monday with the decision makers and want to get some ideas on what we need to discuss, so any input would be appreciated.

3/21/2012 4:35:57 PM

the co-op process is pretty involved iirc. you can post an internship listing on the ncsu epack website pretty easily, they will look over it and approve it within a day. i'd recommend throwing it up there now, it takes less than 10 mins.

you can mention in the notes that you'll provide some assistance for housing (assuming you plan to give them money for housing)

http://ncsu.edu/career/employers/Interviewing/internshipjobs.php

3/21/2012 4:49:04 PM

What type of engineering students are you looking for? When I was in school our department admin (for the MAE dept) would send mass emails out when companies were looking for interns, you could try calling whoever the NCSU dept admin is for whatever you are looking for.

3/21/2012 4:52:06 PM

We still have to discuss stuff like what field of intern and if we need an intern so I'll have to hold off on posting anything up there for now.

Good point on calling the admins, I guess. I know the CHE department very well and have a contact in WPS as well...which are my own personal wants for an intern . I do know they'd send out mass emails if I wanted them to do so. I don't know if other departments would take well to a cold call "hey advertise for me", would they?

3/21/2012 5:38:00 PM

Quote :

"What type of engineering students are you looking for? When I was in school our department admin (for the MAE dept) would send mass emails out when companies were looking for interns, you could try calling whoever the NCSU dept admin is for whatever you are looking for."

This.

The only thing I have to add is to know who to ask. It might be the debt. admin but it might be someone else. Call about it if you need to.

3/21/2012 6:42:58 PM

I agree with the mass email idea. You could have a booth at the career fair or post the job to epack, but sending an email with an intern/coop opportunity to the department administrator or dean would be the easiest and most effective.

Just make sure you clearly explain what you are looking for and make it sound professional.

3/21/2012 7:22:01 PM

When I worked for a company that hired summer interns, they never offered housing to the guys. I guess they figured they were getting paid enough that they should be able to handle finding short-term housing on their own. Do you feel the pay being offered would be enough that these guys could afford their own room rental?

3/21/2012 7:36:10 PM

I would hope the pay is enough and am going in with the notion that we won't get any good interest if the pay isn't enough to handle rent. Its one of the perks of an engineering student. When I interned at a large company in Richmond I got a packet of potential places to look at, and later learned I could rent a place that a fulltime employee owned along with other co-ops. All other places I worked either offered on campus quarters or nothing.

My "thinking about it too much" problem is that this is a tiny town with, as far as I know, limited apartment availability and the job would be a 30-40 minute commute from Charlotte. Granted, that was the commute I had as an intern... Not an ideal as far as I'm concerned, and I don't know if we would get more than one intern to pair up and split rent. I figure if we are allowed to hire help, I can research some local options and present that as an option. Some of the employees are UNCC grads and probably know of some good options...

Anyone know of apartment complexes in Charlotte that other companies refer for interns?

[Edited on March 21, 2012 at 8:00 PM. Reason : pay]

3/21/2012 7:59:08 PM

lol yeah I wouldn't worry about a 30 minute commute. I had an internship one summer where I commuted from Raleigh to Salisbury four days a week. Now THAT sucked.

3/21/2012 8:27:32 PM