Internship Recruiting

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Internships Defined

An internship is a practical work experience in a student’s chosen major/field of study. Learning objectives, established with a faculty member, guide the student through their internship. A representative from the internship site and a faculty member from Fitchburg State work together to monitor the internship and the intern’s progress.

The aim of every internship at Fitchburg State University is to connect students with meaningful, real-world experience through valuable, applied learning. Depending on the academic program, internships are available to all undergraduate and graduate students either for academic credit or as non-credit experiences.

Organizational Benefits

Internships can bring many benefits to an organization and create excitement among your staff as students enter the workplace. Some of the benefits include:

  • Early recruiting of qualified employees
  • Access to new concepts and ideas
  • Supervisory and mentoring experiences for your staff
  • Ability to promote and share a positive image of your organization
  • Advantages from the enthusiasm and knowledge base of university students and faculty
  • Bringing extra personnel to your organization to address project needs
  • Development of a relationship with the University that can lead to other collaborations
  • Reduced training costs as interns may have an abbreviated learning curve if hired.
    Interns will already understand the organization and culture.
  • Demonstrated investment in the community—interns will grow and develop into tomorrow’s leaders.
  • Your organization will contribute to the community by promoting and retaining an educated workforce.

Recruiting for Internships

Before you recruit a Fitchburg State intern, make sure you have:

  • A job description that clearly states your company’s background, goals of the position and required skills
  • Hours, salary, start and end dates
  • Internship positions should be posted on Handshake
Post an internship on Handshake

Internship Compensation

We strongly encourage employers to compensate interns. Interns add significant value to your organization and a paid internship may also create a more competitive applicant pool.

Companies posting unpaid internships must make it clear the position is unpaid and are encouraged to review the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ position statement on Unpaid Internships and the Need for Federal Action and compensation and the criteria put forth by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).

Support for Internship Development

For employers, particularly small businesses local to the Fitchburg area, we are here to support you in developing internship opportunities. Please reach out to Susan Beddes, Associate Director for Internship Coordination and Employer Relations at sbeddes@fitchburgstate.edu or 978-665-3321 to schedule a consultation. We also encourage you to review the following resources:

Employer Frequently Asked Questions

We use Handshake as our career and internship platform for all students (undergraduate, graduate, and recent alumni). Employers can make a profile for their organization by going to: app.joinhandshake.com/employer_registrations/new. Once your profile is complete and you have passed the vetting process, you will create a job posting and add Fitchburg State University as one of your schools and we will approve you for all future job and internship postings. Once you are established in Handshake, we can easily share your open positions with the most relevant students/alumni through targeted emails and social media posts.

Please keep in mind that students seeking academic credit need to secure their internship by the end of the semester prior, so advertising and hiring need to take place well in advance (3-6 months). For example, a student looking for a Spring semester internship would need to secure their internship by early December at the latest. In this case, advertising the position in September/October and conducting interviews in November would be ideal.

The paperwork you need to fill out may vary slightly and is dependent upon your intern’s academic program, if they plan to apply for academic credit. The University has a contractual agreement that the intern site supervisor will need to sign (the student will provide this form). Most organizations have an intern fill out an application to keep on file. Sometimes this form is the same as the application for regular employees. Other times, organizations will create a form specifically for interns.

Interns should work with their site supervisor to develop a mutually agreeable schedule. This schedule will vary depending upon the number of credits assigned to the internship and the number of hours required by the student’s program of study.

Evaluation processes may vary slightly and are dependent upon your intern’s academic program, if they plan to apply for academic credit. If the internship is non-credit, there is not a required evaluation, but having a formal mechanism for giving the students feedback is recommended.

First, schedule a meeting with the intern to discuss any concerns. If you have counseled with the intern and have not seen progress, contact the intern’s faculty supervisor (for students pursuing academic credit) or the Associate Director of Internship Coordination and Employer Relations (for students not pursuing credit).

Site visit processes may vary slightly and is dependent upon your intern’s academic program, if they plan to apply for academic credit. The more prepared you are for your intern, the more sustainable your internship program will become. In the end, the intern, your organization, Fitchburg State, and your community will benefit. We thank you for your willingness to collaborate with our University and our students.