Category Archives: Employers

Celebrate Hoosier Interns on Indiana Intern Day!

Join Work and Learn Indiana and the Indiana Commission for Higher Education as we celebrate Indiana’s interns on social media for the fifth annual Indiana Intern Day on July 27, 2023!

Modeled after National Intern Day, the movement honors interns and the employers that provide meaningful internship opportunities.

Make sure your organization pledges to participate by filling out the online pledge form. After completing the form, you’ll receive a free digital content kit with graphics, sample social media posts and other ways to get involved.

Indiana Intern Day isn’t just for employers. Educational institutions and intermediaries can also pledge to participate and recognize their students with internships in their communities. They will also receive their own content kit with relevant materials to promote Indiana Intern Day. Make the pledge today!

Celebrate Indiana’s Interns on Indiana Intern Day!

When Work and Learn Indiana and the Commission for Higher Education created Indiana Intern Day, we wanted to lead a social media movement celebrating the excellence of Indiana’s interns. Modeled after WayUp’s National Intern Day, the campaign occurs each July, starting with its inception in 2019. In today’s highly competitive labor market, it’s more important than ever to recognize talent. Interns make up a valuable part of Indiana’s talent pipeline!

2022 Indiana Intern Day will take place on July 28. Show you’re committed to recognizing Indiana’s interns! Participate by making the pledge to celebrate Hoosier interns and internship programs. After filling out the online pledge form, participants will immediately receive a digital content kit with sample social media posts, graphics, and more.

Both employers and educators can make the pledge! Educators, celebrate your students with internships and your employer partners offering internship programs. We know educators play a vital …

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Welcome Sally Saydshoev!

Indiana INTERNnet is pleased to welcome our new Assistant Director of Educator Engagement, Sally Saydshoev. She spent the past 7 years working in higher education and most recently as the director of career services at Indiana University East.

Sally is eager to meet the many educators across the state of Indiana including those in the K-12 school systems. She served with the Business Education Committee in Wayne County, Forward Wayne County Workforce Coalition, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for Career Development Professionals of Indiana (CDPI). Sally has enjoyed her time working with students and is now excited for this next adventure to assist educators, employers and students developing a relationship towards talent retention and workforce development across the state.

Background & Story

Sally grew up in Sharpsville, Indiana and spent most of her life living in the Hoosier state. After high school, Sally went on to …

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Welcome Ashley Williams!

Indiana INTERNnet is pleased to welcome Ashley Williams to our team as the assistant director of employer engagement. She is responsible for developing employer relationships across the state to help build high-quality work-and-learn programs. Furthermore, she plans to strengthen talent pipelines and skill up our Hoosier workforce.

Ashley was born and raised in Kokomo and currently resides in Mooresville (Go Pioneers)! She obtained her master’s degree in leadership development with a focus in organizational leadership from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. Additionally, she earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from Ball State University and interned with Kelly Services.

Ashley brings 10-years of employer relations management to the department. Moreover, her professional experiences combine career and workforce services in the postsecondary and social services sectors. Her first job was detasseling corn in the fields of Tipton county at 14-years old.

In her spare time, Ashley coaches youth recreation volleyball, softball, and basketball. …

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Celebrate Indiana Intern Day 2021!

Indiana INTERNnet and the Indiana Commission for Higher Education will celebrate Hoosier interns on social media for the third annual Indiana Intern Day on July 29, 2021!

The occasion is modeled after National Intern Day – a movement to honor interns and the employers that provide meaningful internship opportunities.

Ensure your company or school makes the pledge to join us by filling out the online pledge form. You’ll immediately receive a digital content kit with sample social media posts, graphics and ways to celebrate interns.

Employers, we know that during the time of COVID-19, your internships may look a little different. But we believe that it’s more important than ever to highlight their impact. Whether you have a virtual intern, or had to take a break from hosting interns, you can still participate. Our digital content kit includes opportunities to recognize virtual interns too. If you don’t currently have an …

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Not All Internships Are Created Equal

More students are interning than ever before, and more employers are recognizing that internships help develop their talent pipelines. The logic seems simple: if employers want to hire and students want to be hired, then aren’t students who complete internships more likely to land a job than those who don’t?

It’s actually quite a bit more complicated – with devastating results for some young people.

The reason: Not all internships are created equal. In addition to needing strong structure and supervision to achieve maximum learning and productivity, paid internships lead to better post-graduation results than unpaid internships. Why should getting paid matter? Isn’t it about the real-world experience?

Data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers student survey shows otherwise. While overall, students who intern are more likely to have a job after graduation than students who don’t, this difference is fully related to whether the internship is paid. …

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Employer Survey: Summer 2021 Internship Outlook

As more people get vaccinated and we start to see light at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, Indiana INTERNnet (IIN) surveyed employers to understand their plans for hosting interns this summer. IIN last surveyed employers in November 2020. You may view those results here. IIN distributed the survey to all registered employers on its web site;127 employers responded.

Of those surveyed, 65% (83 employers) indicated that they typically hired summer interns prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (summer 2019), and 56% (50 employers) said they hired summer interns during the COVID-19 pandemic (summer 2020).

With their current knowledge of events surrounding COVID-19, 93% (54 employers) of those who hired summer interns in 2020 plan on hiring interns again this summer. Of that 93% that still plan on hiring, 34 employers (63%) said they still plan on hiring interns without changes to plans. Twenty employers (37%) said they plan on hiring summer 2021 interns, but with changes to plans.

Those changes are (employers were able to select any/all changes):

Changing in-house …

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Support the Biggest Day of the Year or Support the Entire Year: The Choice is Yours!

The IMPACT Awards is our biggest day of the year as we come together to recognize internship excellence among Hoosier students, employers and educators. But did you know that the IMPACT Awards is also Indiana INTERNnet’s single largest fundraiser of the year? In 2020, 400-plus attendees gathered for one of the state’s last face-to-face events before the term “social distancing” entered our collective vocabulary.

This year, with our virtual format and free admission, sponsorships are more important than ever to support our work in matching students and employers at IndianaINTERN.net. There are many ways to sponsor the IMPACT Awards, with investment levels starting as low as $950. All guarantee visibility prior to, during and after the event.

You also can individually recognize internship excellence by sending your favorite intern, employee or educator a gift box filled with goodies from Hoosier companies. Snag a bag of gummy bears, pretzels or fudge. …

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Employer Survey: The Impact COVID-19 has on 2021 Internships

Over the spring and summer, Indiana INTERNnet  surveyed employers to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their summer 2020 internships. You may view March’s executive summary here, April’s here and July’s here. As we end 2020, Indiana INTERNnet wanted to better understand employers’ plans to host interns in 2021. 

Indiana INTERNnet distributed the survey to all registered employers on its web site. Also, Indiana colleges/universities and economic development organizations shared it with their employer networks. A total of 154 responses were received from November 4 to November 18. 

Of those surveyed, 56% (86 employers) indicated that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, they typically hired spring interns. Nine percent (14 employers) indicated that they were unsure if their company typically hired interns.  

With their current knowledge of events surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, 64% (64 employers) of the 100 employers who either typically hire spring interns or were unsure, said they still plan on hiring spring interns. Of that 64% who still plan on hiring, 34 employers said they still plan on hiring interns without changes to plans. Thirty employers said they plan on hiring spring 2021 interns, but with changes to plans. 

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Micro-Internships Bring New Changes to IndianaINTERN.net

In order to combat the spread of COVID-19, many Indiana colleges and universities moved to eliminating fall and spring breaks while extending winter breaks. While a longer break can provide a much-needed period of relaxation for students, it also can be the perfect time to explore micro-internships.

Micro-internships are short-term, project-based experiences that provide individuals opportunities to increase their skills, explore new career paths and build their networks. They’re an excellent opportunity for employers to hire students specifically for the purpose of completing a singular project. It’s important to note, however, that micro-internships are not eligible for the EARN Indiana program.

Unlike traditional internships, micro-internships take place over a range of hours as opposed to a set timeframe. They typically last from 10 to 80 hours of work with most projects due within a week to a month after assignment. Their short timeframes make micro-internships a great fit for this …

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Employers: Confused about virtual career fair platforms? Here’s a guide to each one.

Right now, virtual career fairs can be confusing to employers. Schools use multiple platforms to host their fairs and it’s overwhelming trying to master ones you’ve never used before! To help remove the guesswork for you, we recently attended several career fairs and share our experiences to help illustrate what you can expect from each platform. Don’t see one included here? Let us know in the comments!

Careernomics

Registration/before the fair
Careernomics is a virtual career fair platform Purdue used for its Krannert School of Management Virtual Career Fair hosted by Purdue’s School of Management Employers Forum (SMEF). When registering for Purdue’s career fair, I went through Purdue’s site, then received a confirmation email from Careernomics with login details for the event. Careernomics prepares a short corporate profile of your organization, which you can review as well as share any edits or attachments (such as pictures or videos) you’d …

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Student Survey: COVID-19 and Fall Internships

Recently, Indiana INTERNnet shared the results of an employer survey about fall internships. Now we have results to share from a student survey as well. Because COVID-19 changed many schools’ academic schedules, Indiana INTERNnet wanted to understand how students may have likewise changed their internship plans. The student survey also collected information about completed summer internships. The survey was sent to all of the active students on IndianaINTERN.net (8,301 students) and received 382 responses (4.6% response rate).

Of those surveyed, 17% (66 students) had completed a summer internship. The 83% (316 students) who hadn’t completed a summer internship selected the reason(s) they hadn’t: 1) working a part- or full-time job instead (120 students); 2) not being able to find an internship (84 students); 3) taking summer classes instead (67 students). Sixty-three students said they hadn’t planned to complete a summer internship in the first place, and 60 students said they …

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Employer Survey: The Impact COVID-19 has on Fall 2020 Internships

During both March and April, Indiana INTERNnet surveyed employers to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their summer 2020 internships. You may view March’s executive summary here and April’s here. With fall internship season fast approaching, Indiana INTERNnet wanted to gauge employers’ feelings toward hiring fall 2020 interns. Also, now that summer internship season is concluding, we wanted to understand Hoosier employers’ experiences with hiring summer 2020 interns.

The survey was distributed to all employers registered on IndianaINTERN.net. In addition, it was shared with employer networks by Indiana colleges/universities and economic development organizations. A total of 121 responses were received.

Of those surveyed, 68% (82 employers) indicated that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, they typically hired fall interns. Five percent (6 employers) indicated that they were unsure if their company typically hired interns.

Forty-one percent (34 employers) of the 82 employers that typically hire fall interns prior to COVID-19 said they …

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Join Us in Celebrating Indiana Intern Day 2020

Join Indiana INTERNnet and the Indiana Commission for Higher Education in celebrating Indiana’s interns on social media for Indiana Intern Day on July 30, 2020! The occasion is modeled after National Intern Day – a movement to honor interns and the employers that provide meaningful internship opportunities.

Make sure your company or school makes the pledge by filling out the online pledge form. We’ll send you a digital content kit with sample social media posts, graphics and ways to celebrate interns.

Employers, we know that during the time of COVID-19 internships may look a little different. But we believe that it’s more important than ever to highlight the impact of internships. Whether you have a virtual intern, or if you had to take a break from hosting interns, you can still participate. When we send you our digital content kit, we’ll include ways to recognize virtual interns too. If you don’t currently …

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Employers: What Your Intern Wishes You Knew

Whether you’ve hosted interns for years or weeks, chances are you’re still not a mind-reader. You care about making this internship the best possible experience for everyone involved, but your intern may not know how to communicate their goals to you just yet. To make things easier, here’s a list of ten things your intern probably wishes you knew:

1. I’m here to work

If I wanted to be paid to do nothing, I would get a job as a house sitter. I’m here to gain experience in my field of interest, and I’d rather be busy than bored.

2. That said, I know my limits

And you probably do, too. I don’t expect every task you assign me to be incredibly important or challenging, because I understand there are some things I’m just not qualified to do. I’ll learn from the small things, too.

3. I’m always observing

Because …

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