Working at Legal Aid Society has made for an exciting and enlightening summer.  Legal Aid provides non-profit legal work for the disadvantaged inLouisville,KY(JeffersonCounty) and 14 surrounding counties.  This includes work in such fields of law as foreclosure, divorce, and state benefits.  Growing up in Southern Indiana, I thought of Louisville as some kind of far off metropolis, and getting to move home and work downtown has felt like the realization of a childhood dream.  My internship helps to pull back the curtain on both the Louisville metro area and the mysterious workings of the American legal system.  As a result, my job helps to expand my interest regarding a career in law, and open my eyes to the importance of the legal system in our lives.

During my time here, I have met both lawyers and law students, and my conversations with them serve as an important resource regarding my decision to pursue a career in law.  Our Executive Director, Wabash College Alumnus Jeff Been, serves as an example of Wabash’s ability to prepare men for the workplace.  His career advice and his help acclimating to my new position at Legal Aid prove to be some of the most valuable assets of my internship.

Certain information cannot be found in books, the classroom, or on the internet, and the Small Business Internship Program enables me to learn through workplace experience.  From my close vantage point, I observe the ins and outs of the legal profession.    It did not take long to learn that far more aspects of the legal profession exist than what appears on Law and Order.  An entire office mechanism made of lawyers, paralegals, and administrative assistants, works to assist the wheels of Justice.  During one of my visits to deliver legal documents at the Hall of Justice in Louisville, I saw for myself the expansive size of this judicial apparatus working within the American legal system.  Without the Small Business Internship Fund I might never have learned about this necessary aspect of our society.

However, my experiences have not centered solely on law.  The internship teaches me a great amount about working in an office setting.  This allows me to apply some of my knowledge acquired at Wabash, such as proficiency with Microsoft Excel, towards my work here at Legal Aid.  Just yesterday, I assisted in writing a press release for our upcoming legal clinics during the months of August and July.  I felt proud knowing that my work went to some of the local newspapers and television stations. These kinds of lessons show me that while it is very important to work both well and diligently, it is also important to enjoy the moment.  Also, events, such as our ice cream social, have done a great deal to add to a feeling of enjoyment and camaraderie in the office.

Starting the second half of my internship I have a much better understanding of a career path following my graduation from Wabash.  I know that the rest of my time here at Legal Aid Society will prove to be just as fruitful as my first month.  Monday I will be shadowing a member of our team to eviction court, and I hope to learn a great deal from the experience.  My work at Legal Aid Society pushes me towards pursuing a career in law, as I am about to start my fourth and final year at Wabash College.

Jeremy McDonald ’13 – When I first accepted this internship through the Small Business Internship Fund, I thought I had a fair idea of what I would be doing.  One of my good friends from Wabash, Ryan Lutz, had recommended that I apply, and upon learning that I had been offered the position, proceeded to give me advice.  Shortly after arriving and being thrust into the world of DESHO Productions, however, I realized that as helpful as his pointers may have been, there were things that they couldn’t have possibly prepared me for.

DESHO’s president, Aisha Davis, has a favorite phrase: “Manage or be managed.”  As I have become immersed more deeply in this internship, I have realized just how appropriate that motto is.  As event planners, we are expected to overcome any obstacles that could possibly arise and threaten a show from running smoothly.  Performers not turning in the relevant forms, performers not showing up on time, meeting deadlines for press and ad releases, and so the list of potential hang-ups goes on and on, with the threat of being overwhelmed ever present.  But it has been helpful to keep Ms. Davis’ phrase in mind, to remind myself that it is my duty to manage whatever situation may arise, and not allow its difficulties to manage me.  In any case, my ability to think on my feet has improved significantly in the short time that I have been working at DESHO.

My primary responsibilities have included running Live! on Woodrow Wilson Plaza, an annual summer concert series that is free and open to the public, and takes place in the shadow of the Ronald Reagan Building and the EPA.  I, along with the other interns, must make sure that the artists arrive on time, set up with the sound crew, and start both the sound check and the show on time.  Once the show starts, I then have to take periodic decibel readings and head counts, as well as record general observations about the audience’s reaction.  At the end of the show, I then must supervise the breakdown of the stage and pay the performers.

A whole host of other tasks must be accomplished before Live! even occurs, however.  I have to send out the contracts, sound tech, security, and W-9 tax documents to the artists, and ensure that they return them to us in a timely manner.  Then, as part of our promotional campaign to bring greater exposure to Live!, I must constantly update our social media sites, including our Facebook and Twitter pages and our blog.  Beyond these duties, I have also been directed to draft press releases and artist bios that we send to media outlets to increase awareness of the series.  In accomplishing these tasks, I have found that the enormous amount of writing I have done in the past three years at Wabash has served me well.

Now, I suppose that up to this point I have emphasized the rigorousness of the job, but there are undeniable perks as well.  I was lucky enough to see the Empress of Soul, Gladys Knight, in person as she kicked Live! off on June 6^th.  She has been far from the only talented artist to grace our stage, however, as we have had a diverse array of performers, from flamenco dancers to alternative rockers, showcase their gifts.  It certainly has been a refreshing and entertaining experience to see the many ways in which people choose to express their artistic abilities.

I have also been lucky to have the aid of a fellow Wabash man, Reggie Steele.  He has been invaluable in helping me to acclimatize and learn how to perform all the tasks I have been entrusted with.  I was also extremely fortunate with my housing situation, as my pledge brother Jason Farbstein has graciously allowed me to live with his family this summer for free.  One of the selling points of Wabash is its networking capabilities, and I have had the good fortune to be a beneficiary of them this summer.  So to close, I would like to extend a thank you to both Wabash Career Services and Ms. Davis for the opportunity they have given me.  Now, back to work, as we have a huge salsa-themed 4^th of July celebration to prepare for!

Andrew Dettmer '15 and Eric Eversole '94

Andrew Dettmer ’15 – This summer I have learned something important; while many of us may complain about the amenities that Crawfordsville has to offer, at least it is not the center of the sun that D.C.  could be.  Seriously, with a temperature of 99 degrees and 65% humidity, why on Earth did we think this was a good place to build our nation’s Capitol?

In all seriousness though, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to spend this summer in Washington, D.C. working for the Military Voter Protection Project (MVP Project) headed and founded by Eric Eversole ‘94.  I would like to thank him, and the Small Business Internship Fund for giving me this wonderful opportunity.  I truly appreciate it.

After seeing overseas military voters being unable to vote time and time again and the Justice Department failing to do enough solve the situation, Eric left the Justice Department to start the MVP Project as a non-for-profit to do what he saw the government fail to do.  Now, as MVP expands, it has moved from strictly a watchdog function into also working to actively increase the amount of military members who vote in the elections.

Working for Eric has provided an experience I’m not sure that I could have received elsewhere.  Working for a non-for-profit comes with its own unique set of challenges, and working for one that deals with such complex issues such as federal, state, and local laws, military policy, and politics means that every action the organization takes must be carefully thought out.  So no only have I learned about all of these complicated issues, but Eric has also given me advice on the paths open to me as someone who is interested in the field of law.

I, along with Jim Youn ’14, am handling the social media for MVP Project.  To many, social media may seem relatively easy or something that is a matter of just getting people to find your page and keep them there.  Well, how do you do that?  How do you generate consistent content for each page? How do you attract more followers or get your tweets trending on twitter?  There is a science behind all of that.  It was not too long ago that I really didn’t think that creating a Facebook was worth my time; now I’m sitting in meetings and listening to experts talk about how to best approach the various aspects of it.

While Mark Zuckerberg may have originally created Facebook in order for college kids to create networks of friends, it is now an important, integral, and necessary part of any business wanting to create a real presence and way for people to connect with the company.  While Facebook may not be around forever, social media is here to stay, and business has begun to realize its importance to their advertising and marketing.

Yet like all internships, what I learn in the office is just part of the experience.  Thanks to Hayden Wetzel ‘72 I got to spend two evenings cooking with a family from Azerbaijan, and see the look in their eyes as they had their first s’more.  That’s something that I never thought would be an eye-opening experience for me, but it made me realize all the simple pleasures in life that we as Americans sometimes forget to appreciate.

Well, I have approximately 6 weeks left here in this great city, and I’m sure I will have more rewarding experiences and memorable moments before I leave to head back to Wabash.  It’s been an incredible summer, and I can’t be thankful enough for the opportunity I have had.

Alex Amerling ’14 – I am working at Mercury Marine, the worlds #1 producer of Inboard and Outboard marine engines, and absolutely love it. I am currently working in the PD&E (Product Development and Engineering) department as well as working on the water at our testing facility. At my desk, I have been working on improving safety within the department and the company as a whole. For starters, I got to paint all the yellow poles in the plant with a fresh coat of safety yellow, not the most exciting, but these jobs must be done. I am also going through the safety orientation used for all new hires, analyzing it, and making corrections when necessary. In the future I am going to be doing some product testing, taking parts off the production line, testing for a particular color, in order to assure the quality of product being produced is consistent.

When I work at the testing facility my day is never the same. As the only intern there, (a plant consisting of about 25 engineers, 15 technicians and 1 me!), I have been tasked with doing everything from fabricating testing mounts for salt water testing to shoveling away the dead fish that wash up on the boat landing. No matter what, everyday is interesting, and I get the beautiful sunshine on my back. I am also learning some important skills, like how to weld, use a butane torch, and other really cool things. It’s the perfect combination of desk work and working with my hands, it makes time fly by.

I’ve grown up around Mercury Marine (it’s in my hometown) so being able to work here for the summers in the Engineering Department is an opportunity I am too lucky to get. Also, fingers crossed, I am hopefully going to get to use my physics background and do some Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) testing on the water, this means I get to be out on the water all day. Getting to test boat engines is a once in a lifetime opportunity, here in Wisconsin, life is good.

David Chew ’13 – Benefitting from the Wabash College Alumni connection and the opportunities Career Services provide, I have taken full advantage of The Small Business Internship Fund Program.  This has given me the chance to work at a small business and receive a better understanding about what it takes to run a business.  I currently work at Liquor Mart, which is partly owned by Wabash College Alumnus Bob Charles ’59.

I actually met Bob Charles today at Liquor Mart.  He is credited for the co-development of the McDonald’s Happy Meal and the invention of the two-lane drive-through.  Not to mention how he founded the Imagine Foundation, which helps over 2,000 people with developmental delays or cognitive disabilities.  It is rare that one is able to meet a man of his caliber.  While we were conversing, he stressed that I learn as much as I can from this experience and that this is a program put in place for students like me wanting to follow in his footsteps.

Throughout my internship in retail management at Liquor Mart, I have been rotated throughout different departments of the store.  The different departments help the establishment run smoothly as a whole.  I have been working for five weeks now.  During my employment, I have experienced the positions of I have learned a substantial amount thanks to the SBIF.  I have experienced what it takes to keep a business running and learned how Liquor Mart maintains their status as one of the best Liquor Stores in the nation.  Without the SBIF, this opportunity would not be possible for me.  I am also enjoying Boulder Colorado and the beautiful Rocky Mountains which I have never been able to lay my eyes upon.  That is another plus to the SBIF, it allows you to step out of your comfort zone, for me that was Indiana, and experience life in a totally new way.web order management, beer department management, and now beginning my training as a manager.

The first week of my two week interval, I usually spend time learning how to do the job, then the second week I experience the position first hand.  I have noticed the importance of every position in the business, whether it involves communicating with customers or negotiating with sales representatives.  They are all an important asset to the success of the business.

Jared Valentine ’14– Going into the summer after my sophomore year at Wabash College, I was looking for an internship program that would allow me to pick up where I left off at the end of the previous summer.  Having worked in sales and business development in the summer of 2011 after completing the Business Immersion Program, I was determined to land an internship that would be focused in an area of business that I am very interested in and have not worked too intently in thus far in my career. With a heavy focus on product development and marketing, I am currently learning how to work in a field that I do not have a terrible amount of experience in, but enjoy.  Since participating in the Marketing Immersion Program during my freshman year at Wabash, I have always had an interest in looking into marketing and this internship is giving me that opportunity at last.  However, this program is giving me insight into much more than just marketing, for example: it is allowing me to witness the long, enduring process that is product development; it is presenting me with the opportunity to studying a wide variety of business strategies; it is giving me the chance to advance my communication, professional, and interviewing skills through meetings with an array of financial professionals and prospective consumers.  I have had all of these insights and I am only in the third week.

Brian Mantel '93, Jared Valentine '14

Since it is as if I am consulting on a product launch, I do not need to be at an office or with my boss every day.  Instead, I am working from the comfort of my own bedroom in rural Jay County, Indiana.  With an office located in Naperville, IL (the greater Chicago area), I am required to make semi-frequent trips to the area to meet with my boss, Brian Mantel, as well as to other places so to meet with professionals of the financial field and consumers for research and other business purposes.  While working from home has its disadvantages in the communication department since Mr. Mantel and I meet via phone on occasion and rely on email the majority of the time, there are definite advantages such as flexible lunch breaks and morning pajamas.  In all seriousness, it does force one to be responsible and make sure that they are staying focused on the task at hand and meeting deadlines for projects and other work.  In this way, it’s a burden which ultimately leads to better time management and a stronger will to avoid distractions from friends, entertainment, and younger siblings who are on summer vacation.

I am only three weeks into this internship program and am already working on multiple projects and learning more and more every day for current and future work.  So far in this internship I have mostly focused on research so to catch up on the current problem that my product is focused on working with and am more recently working on a few different projects in the market research area.  The program is heading in a direction that excites me and is very flexible to my desires of what I want to get out of this summer.  I look forward to what the remainder of the internship and what it has in store for me as my work transfers from research to more hands-on work in marketing, finance, sales, and a other areas of business.  Hopefully this program will help me narrow my interests and allow me to have a better grasp on what it is that I want to do after graduation.

Brody Matthews ‘15 – This year I was one of the few students fortunate enough to join an internship through the small business internship fund. I received this opportunity through Erik Ness and United Perishable Logistics. Since returning to my home state of Colorado I have been able to enjoy my family and social life accompanied with a great work environment. The business I joined is a brokerage firm owned by a produce company known as Martori farms, which is where our primary business comes from.

Working in a small business is a great way of gaining actual knowledge in the field and experience with this type of business. You are forced to gain the required skills very quickly and you begin contributing to the company immediately.

The office has 4 full time employees, Erik, Brandi, Blu and Jordan. Everyone has helped me tremendously with learning the ways of conducting business. My main tasks are to either “book loads” or find trucks and put their information into an email list serve. We are given a list of loads that need to be picked up and delivered in a certain time frame that all have different qualifications. We typically use trucking equipment called a “reefer” which is a refrigerated carrier; this may change depending on the shipper’s preference. We will then deliver these products to our own local Wal-Mart’s and Sam’s Clubs!

Over the little time that I have worked with UPL, I have gained the skills of negotiating and have begun to learn the importance of organization. It is our job to make sure that all the parties involved know what’s going on and that the final delivery goes smooth. There are many different factors that weigh into loading a truck and making sure he delivers on time. Everything is always in a constant state of change and there is no guarantee. It has been fascinating to witness and become a part of what is a very fast paced and evolving business. There is no easy way to find trucks and nothing goes as planned, so it’s hard to get a step ahead. The drivers we search for are in low supply and high demand, so the competition makes negotiating that much harder.

It has been great being home and working this internship at the same time. It has been a difficult task in itself balancing my new work life with the social life I had been accustomed. I am looking forward to finishing out the summer on a strong note and heading back to Wabash.

Adam Andrews '12, Tyler Hardcastle '15, Andrew Shelton '03, J.J. Peller '13

J.J. Peller ’13 – Thanks to the Small Business Internship Fund program, I have a great opportunity this summer to work and learn at Paramount Molded Products, Inc. in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  Paramount was acquired less than a year ago by Wabash College ’03 alum Andrew Shelton.  Paramount is a plastic mold injection company that produces molded products for clients in many different industries.

In just a few weeks, I have learned a tremendous amount about the production process, the marketing strategies, and the customer relations that are vital to running the business.  Though I had preconceptions about the amount of hard work that is required to run one’s own business, I now see first hand the realities of it.  Andrew has helped me to begin understanding the thought process necessary for a business owner.  He is constantly thinking about the next several steps he needs to take in order to grow his company.  Andrew often sits and talks with Tyler (Tyler Hardcastle ’15 is also doing an internship with Paramount this summer through the SBIF) and me about what he’s thinking, why he’s thinking that way, and how putting those ideas into action will benefit Paramount.

Guest-blogger Nathan Parcells, CMO and Founder of InternMatch, shares some advice on navigating this internship season.

How to apply to online internships and avoid getting lost in the Black Hole

“A black hole is a region of space-time from which it is impossible to escape.”

-Stephen Hawkins

Black holes in space consist of collapsed stars where neither sound nor light can escape.  In the job world, the term black hole is used, for when applicants send countless resumes to employers and hear nothing in response.

Few things are more frustrating than spending hours crafting and customizing an internship application, only to submit it, and hear nothing back. This problem exists for a number of reasons but the fact is that fewer than 5% of employers follow-up with every applicant they receive and even fewer communicate the real reasons about why they made the choice they did.

While it might seem easy to blame companies for not doing a better job of responding, the reality is that most HR managers receive hundreds of applications every week and are over worked reviewing them – so it’s up to you to stand out. By understanding a bit more about how the online application process works, you can figure out how to navigate this abyss and make sure you emerge on the other side with your ideal internship.

Where do all the resumes go?

As you can probably guess, applications for internships rarely follow the same path.  Some employers ask you to apply directly to their email inbox. Others ask for you to apply using a job website like Taleo or InternMatch so that they can save the applications in a database online and share them with other employees in the office.

Depending on the size of the employer and how they are accepting applications you need to think up the best strategy to make sure you don’t get overlooked when it comes to decision time. For example, if you’re given a contact name or email address, do some research on the individual and customize your application materials to them personally in addition to the role for which you are applying.

Building a better rocket ship.

The other important skill to develop when applying to internships online is to learn how to make your application stand out.

Here are 5 tips to help:

1.) Follow-Up!

The biggest piece of advice we can recommend to avoid getting ignored is to follow-up consistently with an employer after you submit an app. This is an art not a science, but most students are way too hesitant to follow-up with employers even if just to ask what their time frame is on responding or to remind them that you have applied and are excited to get the internship.  For best practices see our guide on how to follow-up with employers.

2.) Remove all typos from your resume.

Another reason you may not hear back from employers is because they tossed out your resume at first sight. Even if you have one typo on your resume, it shows an employer a lack of professionalism and attention to detail. In fact almost 50% of employers stop reading a resume if they see just one typo! So double check your resume with a resume template and guide for extra help.

3.) Be unique.

As an employer who has hired many students I can safely say, my job is a lot easier when a particular student breaks the mold by standing out. Don’t just spam employers with a standard cover letter, take the extra hour to write something. If the employer has a twitter account tweet at them about how excited you are. If they are coming to your school for a career fair, go and introduce yourself to the recruiting staff and start building a relationship. Your hard work will pay off when it comes to decision time.

4.) Don’t use scammy websites to apply for positions!

Top job boards like your Career Center website, Indeed, or InternMatch work hard to make sure every position that is online is up to date and is a high quality position.  If you are finding positions by doing a Google search or on Craigslist, you can find some great opportunities but as a rule of thumb the further you go from trusted sites the more likely you are to be applying to a position that has either already closed or doesn’t exist altogether.

5.) Don’t get discouraged.

Last but not least don’t get discouraged. A lot of employers are getting overwhelmed with applications in the current down economy, so even if you are over qualified for a position you simply might not hear back. If you keep at it and keep improving your application skills such as following-up, being unique, and using top job boards, you are going to start getting interviews and eventually find a position you’re excited about.