Name:Ranye McLendon

Internship, Co-op or Research Site: Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science

Position Title: Intern

Major(s)/Minor(s):Computer Engineering

Work Term:Summer 2017

Tell us about your internship, co-op, or research opportunity, including your day-to-day responsibilities.

Harvard REU is an internship and research experience. I work in a lab from Monday to Friday, building three robots. Our goal is to have these three autonomous robots roam freely around campus without any guidance from us. We have daily tasks to perform that include coding, soldering, laser cutting, and 3D printing. In our lab, we mostly use python to write code for the robots. We occasionally attend talks from professors around the country. Program requirements include attendance at weekly evening faculty-led seminars, participating in an ethics seminar and giving both a final presentation and a final written report.

Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application?

I received an email from my UMBC account around February regarding the internship. A UMBC alumni referred me to the program director, and then I applied on the website with my transcript and 2 recommendations almost immediately. I persistently emailed the head of my lab to increase my chances of getting into the program.

What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization?

I enjoyed everything about the program. I enjoy building the robots mostly. I was able to learn new things and meet new people. We learned a new topic related to robotics every Wednesday at our lab luncheon. I enjoyed our tour at MIT media lab. Overall, I enjoyed the experience and have a better understanding of what I want to do after graduation.

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?

I believe that these robots the program had us work on will be the start of another self organizing systems robots for the robotics lab at Harvard SEAS. I believe I made an impact on my future after graduating with these new experience. The program allowed me to make new connections with people from all over the country. I am now able to speak about my experience as an intern in my hometown.

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience?

I would encourage them to be persistent, and to ask questions and seek advice from former students and alum that had already gone through the research experience or internship.

Like the Career Center on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram

#UMBCintern

Want to be the next Intern of the Week? Make sure to fill out this form and stay tuned. New interns are announced every Friday!

The brisk, chilly air of November is upon us, and right now we’re all pulling out our scarves and sweaters to get ready for winter. The oppressive heat of summer is the farthest thing from our minds - even though we felt it only two weeks ago. Anyway, no one could possibly be thinking about summer right now …… except employers! Even though summer is seven months away, recruitment for summer jobs and internships have already started! It may seem crazy early, but right now is peak recruitment season, so it’s a great time to start looking for summer opportunities. And as always, the Career Center has you covered.

Last year, the Career Center helped me out a lot in my summer job search. I was like most of you and waited until March to start looking for jobs and internships, but I had yet another obstacle: I was going to be living in Florida over the summer. I will honestly tell you that while UMBCworks is a fantastic resource, it doesn’t help much for jobs outside of the tri-state area. But that doesn’t mean I was alone in my search. The Career Center offers appointments specifically for job/internship searches, so I took advantage and met with an incredibly helpful career specialist. They gave me tips on websites to look through that aren’t indeed.com and showed me how to find internships related to counseling, which is what I’m interested in. Lo and behold, I got a part-time unpaid internship at a counseling center 10 minutes away from where I was staying in Florida. Doesn’t sound ideal, but using the Career Center’s guidance, I also found a paid position at a library nearby to support my internship. I had a really great summer, and the Career Center is mostly to thank for that. Now, thinking forward to next summer, let’s look at the resources that are available:

• As I’ve mentioned in the past, our calendar of networking events and on-campus interviews should be your first step in looking for potential employers. They are happening all the time with a wide range of fields, so constantly be checking!

• A whole list of Career Center-approved recruiting websites is available on this page for your perusal, including places to look for government and international positions.

• If you’re specifically looking for an internship, then learn how to get started, and even how to create your own internship. It may sound like that’s impossible, but that’s basically what I did for my counseling internship last summer, so I am proof that this actually works!

If you’ve never visited UMBCworks, stop reading this right now and go there. From myUMBC, it’s under Jobs & Internships (with the little briefcase logo). That should always be your first stop for looking for positions. But in order to apply through UMBCworks, you need to come get your resume approved by one of us, so stop in! We try to make it super easy for your resume to be approved, so we have drop-in hours every Monday - Friday from 2pm - 4pm. No appointment needed, you can literally drop in and meet with Career Center staff for just 15 minutes, to look over your documents and get suggestions to make it shine. If those hours don’t work for you, there are evening hours every other tuesday from 5pm-7pm, and those are by appointment through UMBCworks. And if you need more help looking for summer positions (like I did), stop by the Keys to Success workshop about Job and Internship searches on Monday, November 13th at noon in Commons 331. Master effective job search strategies, and learn some tips and techniques on how to explore the hidden job market. Another way students can find inspiration for their job/internship search is by checking out our Intern of the Week posts, where students give advice on how to find internships. And as always, feel free to comment about your job search experience or if you have any tips or tricks that could be helpful!

Name:James Rogers

Internship, Co-op or Research Site:SilcsBio, LLC

Position Title: Software Development Intern

Major(s)/Minor(s):Mathematics Major, Computer Science Minor

Work Term:Summer 2017

Tell us about your internship, co-op, or research opportunity, including your day-to-day responsibilities.

The end goal of my work is to contribute to software that is used in molecular modelling.  My primary project is to code a couple files that will eventually integrate into existing software and expand the range of models that it can support.  On a more day-to-day level this means examining and testing the existing code base to determine what is expected, then matching that with my code.  In addition the experience includes an introduction to startup culture; sitting in on strategical meetings, learning about the usefulness of startup incubators, and other similar soft lessons.  

Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application?

I found the position while searching for summer internships on UMBCWorks.  I had already gotten my resume reviewed by the career center, so when I saw this position listed I was able to apply almost immediately.  

What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization?

I love getting to see how so many different concepts and skills from my classes play a role in designing even small pieces of industry projects!  Everything from the most in-depth lecture on pointers to a side note on the homework about Linux is proving relevant here, and it's exciting to see the synthesis of it all.  

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?

I believe I made an impact through bringing in a more basic understanding of programming; since most of my classes are still fresh in my mind, it's easier for me to see the technical details in the code and how it interfaces.  I'm able to pick apart to small bugs and edge cases that may be harder to spot when looking at it from the perspective of the entire software package.  

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience?

When in doubt, submit an application. You never know how many applications you'll have to go through before finally landing a position, and you never know whether you'll like the job or not unless you get it, so why not try?  

Like the Career Center on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram

#UMBCintern

Want to be the next Intern of the Week? Make sure to fill out this form and stay tuned. New interns are announced every Friday!