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 FairGMU Job & Internship Fair  Visit company websites  When possible, call company directly  Visit Volgenau School of IT & Engineering's Undergraduate Jobs page Undergraduate Jobs  Search using HireMasonHireMason  Generic job search websites: Indeed, Simply Hired, CareerInfoNet's Employer Locator, and othersIndeedSimply HiredCareerInfoNet's Employer Locator

 Write resume and cover letter(s) - see “Moving On” guide “Moving On”  Have resume reviewed by Career Services  Ask family friends, former teachers, etc. to be references  Get business cards from Vistaprint?Vistaprint

 Consider Career Services workshopsworkshops  Find on-campus interviewing opportunities through HireMason (has a required workshop)HireMason  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

What I expectedWhat actually happened  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  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

 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