Frequently Asked Questions

An internship is a position in a business that offers students or recent graduates an opportunity to use skills learned in the classroom and gain others It is a “real-world” experience in a chosen field.

In addition to work experience, internships will make you competitive in your pursuit of a job after graduation. Internships provide essential opportunities for you to build on your professional network. They will help you make career choices and give you an idea of what you want to do — and often what you don’t want to do — with your career.

You should get as many internships as possible. More is better, as they will give you more opportunities to refine and augment your skill set and make yourself more versatile and appealing as a job candidate.

Well, not necessarily. If you have work experience that complements your career aspirations or you have work samples from volunteer work in organizations, you can build a perfectly credible portfolio. 

Precisely and, along the way, learning new ones. Internships are also experiences in which you can learn from your mistakes. This is also a time to practice having a good work ethic. Work hard and carefully. Get to work early and be willing to stay late. Show your eagerness.  Take a professional approach to your work. 

Not really. While shadowing provides great value through observing others, it is no substitute for doing the work yourself, doing work that will become part of a portfolio. So, if you’re just observing, you’re not doing. No doubt you will absorb knowledge from a veteran practitioner, but you need work samples. In your search for an internship, be aware of work of tasks that will yield work samples.

Yes. Employers in our ever-changing industry want to see how technologically savvy you are. Move SKILLS to the top of your resume and list useful computer skills or languages that will boost your usefulness in the digital age. There is no need to state that you’re good with people, have strong oral skills or that you’re a multi-tasker. Nor do you need to list RELEVANT COURSEWORK if you’re, say, a public relations major applying for a PR job. Your employer knows the courses PR majors take. Email me at ck17@txstate.edu and I will send you a sample resume. As for cover letters, they should NOT be generic letters; they should NOT be narratives of your resume. They should be unique to each employer. Let’s discuss.

First, you must make sure that your position meets our internship guidelines detailed on Employer Internship Resouces page. Next, fill out an employer inquiry form also on the Employer Internship Resouces page. Once your posting has been reviewed, and if approved by the internship coordinator, we will post it to our website and you will receive a confirmation email.

If you wish to update your posting, you'll need to send in a new employer inquiry form and job description. If you want your posting to be deleted, you'll need to email us at ck17@txstate.edu requesting that it be deleted.

We do not place students in internship positions. Students will submit their resume and/or company application to the companies they are interested in, just as if searching for a job. You will invite your choice of candidates for interviews and make the final selection. 

The internship does not have to be a paid position but it certainly can be; it is completely at the discretion of the company. Keep in mind, however, that paid internships are typically filled more quickly than non-paid ones. There may also be special (federal labor) legal considerations should an internship be unpaid, so if you don't intend to pay your intern(s) we recommend you consult with your HR and/or legal department to ensure there aren't any issues with you having an unpaid intern doing employee-like activities. Ultimately the decision on whether a pay an intern is completely up to you. An internship is a learning experience, but we also hope our students add value to your company during the time they work for you, and if that's the case our hope is they can be compensated for adding value. Keep in mind, too, that compensation can take many forms. It may be an hourly wage, a defined salary, a stipend, bonus upon completion, or any combination of those. Students are generally appreciative of any form of reasonable compensation and/or benefits.

Because our internship guidelines require that our for-credit internships must be beyond the scope of the typical part-time or temporary job, we ask that you ensure that your intern's responsibilities are similar to those of an entry-level employee. Additionally, we ask that you confirm your intern has met the required minimum number of hours and work weeks during the semester and also complete their end-of-semester evaluation. 

The internship must be scheduled for a minimum of 180 hours for a 3-credit-hour course, 150 hours for a 2-credit-hour course, and 100 hours for a 1-hour-credit course.