a.k.a.
“Jeanette’s Guide to Getting an
Internship”
Jeanette Dabrowski
11 February 2011
 Jumping
off point: list of employers at GMU
Job & Internship Fair
 Visit company websites
 When possible, call company directly
 Visit Volgenau School of IT & Engineering's
Undergraduate Jobs page
 Search using HireMason
 Generic job search websites: Indeed, Simply
Hired, CareerInfoNet's Employer Locator, and
others
 Write
resume and cover letter(s) - see
“Moving On” guide
 Have resume reviewed by Career Services
 Ask family friends, former teachers, etc. to
be references
 Get business cards from Vistaprint?
 Consider
Career Services workshops
 Find on-campus interviewing opportunities
through HireMason (has a required workshop)
 Research/practice behavioral interviewing
 Before the interview: know what the
company does and how you might fit in
 Create list of questions to ask interviewer
 Dress as professionally as you can afford
 Research
companies BEFORE you go to the
job fair
 What to bring:




Professional-looking, stiff folder
Working pen
Lots of copies of resume
Business cards if you have them
 Dress
professionally (no jeans or backpacks)
 Stay


organized!
List of contacts
Spreadsheet of companies researched/applied to
 If
at all possible, get the name of a real
person
 Be persistent (follow-up and stay in contact)
 This is a marathon, not a sprint – don’t give
up!

I applied for 26 different positions at 24 separate
companies, and wrote a total of 20 custom cover
letters
HPTi: Summer 2010
 High
Performance Technologies, Inc. (HPTi) is
a contractor for the federal government


~400 employees
Two locations: Reston, VA and Arlington, VA
(Ballston)
 Worked
as a developer on a budget tracking
tool for a government agency
 Project used an agile software development
model
 Total of 11 Virginia interns in Summer 2010,
mix of IT and Computer Science majors
Will follow a single
project from
conception to
deployment
 CS/SWE 421 will be
applicable
 Internship will be
helpful for SWE 437
 Will work in team
environment

What I expected
Focused mainly on
maintenance and
testing
 CS/SWE 421 was
completely true!
 Not very helpful for
SWE 437 – did mostly
system tests
 Worked on team with
four coworkers

What actually happened
 Everything
in CS/SWE 421 is true
 PowerPoint is important (COMM 320 was
helpful)
 Be social!


Attend happy hours
Go out to lunch with coworkers