Derek Moody is an intern for Grant Thornton. He's been given quite a lot of responsibilities--none of which entail fetching lattes. (Mike Burley for RedEye)
Derek Moody came to Chicago prepared to make coffee.
A student at Brigham Young University in Utah, Moody moved to Chicago in May to intern at Grant Thornton, an accounting firm in the Loop. Moody had never had an internship before, so he came to Chicago ready to do anything and everything, including run errands and other expected "intern" tasks. But Moody, 24, said he has yet to ask his co-workers how they like their coffee. Instead, he said he verifies that clients' accounting records are accurate and sits in on important meetings.
"I've done some copying, but most weeks I'm given my own tasks," said Moody, who is renting an apartment in Logan Square. "I've actually been given quite a lot to do."
Call it the Revenge of the Intern. For years, "intern" has characterized the doe-eyed, ambitious twentysomethings willing to do anything to get the job done--from Monica Lewinsky to the gophers Diddy employed to satisfy his every cheesecake-loving whim.
But not this class--the summer 2009 internship class has, well, class. Thanks to the tanking economy, this year's crop no longer has the time to fetch salads for bosses because it is filling the void left by employee layoffs, hiring freezes and cutbacks.
Still, they're paying a price. Interns who talked to RedEye said they are gaining experience to prepare them for the workforce, but increased intern responsibilities typically don't come with increased pay or perks or even more respect. Yet businesses are relying more and more on cheap talent, HR professionals told RedEye, instead of paying for experienced or more trained workers.
"It's really interns who are considered hot property," said Brandi Blades, vice president of marketing at Brill Street, an intern staffing company in River North. "I think the recession has raised the bar on internships. ... Interns have a very significant role in the organization."
At the same time, Blades said she doesn't think interns are facing resentment from office workers who have watched their companies lay off colleagues and rely on interns more. In fact, she said, "most employees want to root for the underdogs. Even though times are tough, I don't see why anyone wouldn't want to see an intern come in and succeed and knock their socks off."
At Brill, Blades said she works closely with an intern, who checks in with clients and participates in meetings. Blades said she feels comfortable throwing various tasks at her intern, but warned, "You have to have that mentorship and training in place."
Rohit Dhake of Naperville wasn't quite sure what to expect two months ago when he started his summer internship at Navigant Consulting, a Chicago-based firm that advises corporations.
Dhake, 21, said he had an internship at an insurance firm last summer in what he described as "more of a training program" with not much client interaction. He had also heard from his friends that some employers were giving out "fake projects that are similar to the work that associates do."
That wasn't the case at Navigant, Dhake said, where he was valuing intangible assets for clients until his internship ended earlier this month. In layman's terms, he was consulting with clients about their finances and completing tasks typically reserved for first-year associates.
Dhake was one of about a dozen Chicago summer interns at Navigant, which announced earlier this year it was implementing staff reductions, a salary freeze and limits on discretionary spending to lower its expenses for 2009.
"I definitely found they were willing to trust me with a lot of work," said Dhake, a University of Illinois student. "They don't really see this as a cheap labor ... I think they see this as a recruiting process."
The recruiting and hiring process has become a cutthroat business, HR professionals say, because there are fewer internship opportunities and more applicants, including recent college graduates.
A study released in March by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found employers planned to cut their internship opportunities this summer by nearly 21 percent compared to last year.
Boeing spokeswoman Loretta Morgan said the Chicago-based company had fewer intern positions this summer "due to the recession and changing business requirements." There are 890 interns at 20 Boeing locations this year. The Chicago office has seven summer interns, up from five in 2008, Morgan said.
Like many companies, Boeing tends to hire its interns. Boeing's average hire rate over the past five years is slightly more than 50 percent, Morgan said.
The NACE survey found that more than one-third of the new college graduates employers said they hired last year came from internship programs.
Because internships are considered invaluable experience, HR professionals are seeing interns do whatever it takes to secure and keep one. Some students have even paid thousands of dollars for their internship. The University of Dreams, which places students in internships while also offering group activities and weekly career seminars, charges $6,999 for its eight-week summer program in Chicago. The program offers internship opportunities in event planning and sports, among other fields, and includes housing at Loyola's downtown campus and a meal plan.
Paying for an internship is not the only unconventional method to finding summer work. Marshall D. McIntosh, of the Beverly area, said he snagged his internship with Chicago-based entertainer Nikki Lynette after Lynette tweeted on Twitter that she needed an intern.
Since May, McIntosh has been passing out fliers at Lynette's shows and helping organize her college tour. McIntosh, who wants to be an entertainment manager, said he's grateful he gets to see "a superstar behind the scenes," adding that he sometimes gets to advise Lynette on her show wardrobe.
McIntosh said he receives a stipend but wouldn't disclose the amount. He works at Borders during the day for additional income.
McIntosh, 22, isn't alone in relying on alternative means to make an internship work, said Toby Coffey, director of permanent placement services for Chicago for financial recruiting service Robert Half.
"You live with your extended family, you work a bar job at night," Coffey said. "On the flip side, they're getting a very valuable experience. ... These interns are immediately getting exposure to things they would have not had in a better economic landscape."
Star search
A report in Us Weekly that Kanye West was quietly interning for the Gap raised eyebrows this summer, but a spokesman for the Chicago native later denied the report to People magazine. An internship may not have been in the stars for Kanye, but the celebrities below each did his or her share of grunt work. Test your skills: Can you match the star with the internship? See where you stand on the corporate food chain--answers are below.
The Stars
A. Ryan Adams
B. Sean Avery
C. Lauren Conrad
D. Bill Gates
E. Tom Hanks
F. John Krasinski
G. Mary-Kate Olsen
H. Brooke Shields
The Dirty Work
1. Helping with Vogue photo shoots
2. Intern at the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland
3. Mail sorter (for a day) at BlackBook Magazine
4. Working for celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz
5. Page in the U.S. House of Representatives
6. Working with wild cats at the San Diego Zoo
7. Running errands on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien"
8. Organizing runway shows for Teen Vogue
Answer Key
B-1, E-2, A-3, G-4, D-5, H-6, F-7, C-8
How did you score?
Scene-stealer: 6-8. You're the intern supreme, the go-to guy/gal. The team looks to you because you're smart, confident and contribute often.
Copy-maker: 3-5. You're not quite ready to be trusted with the big tasks but you can be relied on for faxing, filing, mailing and typing.
Coffee-maker: 0-2. You don't have the chops, kid. Diddy called--he needs that cheesecake, stat.
How many jobs?
The good news: Illinois is one of the best states in the country to find an internship. The bad news: The number of internships offered in Illinois is on the decline.
Collegerecruiter.com tracks the number of internships posted to its site and determines which states offer the most internships. California, New York, Texas, Florida and Washington, D.C., lead the pack for July, but Illinois is not far behind.
592 « The number of internships listed in Illinois in July
677 « The number of internships listed in Illinois in June
Getting paid
The competition for internships may be greater, but at least the paycheck is too. A 2009 survey of employers by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found employers were expected to pay college interns this summer an average hourly wage of $17.13, a 4.9 percent increase from last year. Here's the average hourly wage breakdown by field.
$15.93
Business
$16
Communications
$17.20
Computer sciences
$18.26
Engineering
$16.60
Sciences
1 Comment
Shari Weiss said:
Disagree with one point: interning=cheap labor. If you're doing tasks normally done by a paid staffer, and you're not getting paid (or you are underpaid), that is cheap labor. Doesn't matter if there's a chance they are recruiting you for full-time. Not criticizing internships--they are necessary evil and are they way they are for a reason.
Leave a Comment?
What your comment will look like:
said: