Internships - Be There for Students!

I had an interesting conversation with my youngest son yesterday as he begins his search to obtain an internship next summer. He told me that last year as a freshman that he had gone to several on-campus events with employers to talk about internships. He recognized as a freshman he probably wouldn’t qualify, but wanted to establish connections with potential companies and learn what he needed to do to prepare for internships. He approached each companies recruiting team with the same story – talking about how many computer classes he had taken in high school, what types of apps he had already created in and out of class, how he had already taught himself the basics of machine learning and the programs he had created utilizing machine learning. At the end of each conversation he asked a simple question – what else could he do to be attractive candidate to be offered an opportunity to intern with the company in question.

The response he got from most companies that were attending the job fairs was what floored me, “If you had other internship positions prior to applying with us, that would make you stand out.”

Huh, what?

 Let’s discuss what the purpose of an internship program is as defined by the Oxford dictionary:

• The position of a student or trainee who works in an organization, sometimes without pay, in order to gain work experience or satisfy requirements for a qualification

Nobody, and I mean nobody, should be telling a student that to stand out to get an internship that they need to already have had an internship position. I continue to be amazed at the false barriers we place in front of students before we give them a chance in the business workplace. Specifically, as it relates to my particular profession – software development – there is a shortage of skilled workers that is only getting worse as the baby boomers begin to retire. We need to be encouraging students to get into this profession and knock down the mindset that creates statements like the above about needing prior internship experience or that they need a four year degree.

I tell students that I meet with that our internship program is to align with what they are learning in the classroom. To give them practical hands on experience with concepts that they are learning and to expose them to what being a developer means so that they are prepared when they enter the job market as a graduate. Here’s where they will learn things that they don’t tell you in school (list below is not meant to be an exhaustive list of what they will do):

• Design Documentation
• Tagging and Merging Code
• Unit and Integration Testing
• Implementation Planning and Execution
• Implementation Validation
• Defect Management

I’m happy my son has chosen to obtain a four year degree because of the specific type of software development job that he wants to get when he graduates. But, I’m all for students getting the necessary experience in high school and then entering the workforce as an entry level programmer. Alternately, there are great 2 year programs offering Associate Degrees thru our Community Colleges that get students work ready to enter the job market and be great developers.

I have offered internships to high school, community college and traditional four year college students. They, for the most part, have all been able to join my teams and be effective developers.

Don’t ask students to already have completed internships, ask them about what drives them, what have they already done, what are they doing outside of the classroom that proves that they have the passion to develop great software? What experiences have they had working on a team project – either in school or with friends? What experience do they have in resolving conflicts within a team project? What kind of a student have they been – where have they gone above and beyond what was expected in assignments? What type of relationships do they have with their professors?

Stop finding a way to say no and find a way to give hungry students opportunities.

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It's Time To Revamp K-12 Programs for the 21st Century

My kids have worked their way thru K-12 and are in the midst of their college experience. I’ve now seen what our modern education system is like. And, to be honest, I’m not thrilled with the current opportunities and expectations that are set on our K-12 students. Our system is not preparing students for todays workforce, let alone for tomorrows workforce.

What do I mean by this? Well, our education system is still largely based on standards set in the last century. We are not providing the necessary exposure to the jobs of today, limiting the ability of high school students to graduate with the ability to get entry level jobs in software development, networking or cyber security. Yes, I’m focused on a specific set of technology jobs, but I passionately feel that these are jobs where students could enter the work force immediately graduating high school, if given the appropriate training along with internships/apprenticeships while in high school

To be quite honest, I’ve provided jobs to selected high school students who have done the necessary work thru AP courses in high school along with taking selected courses at our local community college.

What I find frustrating, is that there are no standards that high schools create a path for these types of careers. Yet, we still force kids to take 3-4 years of foreign language coursework. I have talked to my kids and many of their friends – all of whom either took 3 or 4 years of Spanish. Our school district is rated within the Top 10 in the state of Iowa, so, they have great educational program opportunities for students. With that said, my kids, and their friends will all freely admit that they can’t speak conversational Spanish after their 3-4 years of coursework. Yet, they were all forced to take a foreign language due to the entrance requirements of colleges.

We provide students with opportunities in shop – metal and woodworking, automotive, and other trade programs. These programs are valuable and allow students to get the training needed so that they can potentially get jobs after graduating high school. Computer Science jobs are in demand and there is no reason why students graduating from high school can’t fill these well paying jobs if they could just get the necessary education.

Standards need to be set at either the national or state level that force local school districts to revamp their courses to provide educational and training opportunities for students to land entry level jobs in software development and networking. I’d also take a run at saying cyber-security based on what I’ve seen some high school kids achieve when given the right resources. This isn’t an either-or conversation, we must provide a path for students interested in pursuing these careers that doesn’t involve post high school education.

With today’s technology, there is no reason we can’t provide remote/virtual classrooms with the instructors from our local community colleges. They have the programs in place, are knowledgeable in what they do and our community colleges can provide this while the local school districts either work to get their own programs in place or make the decision to permanently rely on the community colleges to provide these services.

These are good paying jobs and would allow students to graduate from high school and enter the workforce without incurring debt associated with getting a 2 or 4 year degree – four year private colleges can easily exceed $160k. Granted, almost nobody pays the full tuition burden due to financial aid, but many still graduate with $100k in debt.

Some students will still want to continue on to get either a 2 year or 4 year degree. Bravo! We need these students as well. If they want to take additional course work, they will still find jobs when they complete their education. There is nothing wrong with that route and we should encourage those who can make the investment to do so if it is what they want.

I hear some make arguments that their after-school clubs and programs like Lego Robotics are available for students that are interested. Come on! Yes, these are nice, but there are many students who are not able to attend after school programs, and whose families don’t have the financial means to support some of these programs that cost additional money. Also, these are not consistent across all middle schools and high schools. It is critical that every school district provide educational opportunities in software development and networking – it is the 21^st century and our students deserve to graduate with skills that allow them to enter the workforce.

Not every student is going to want to go thru this type of a program. And, they shouldn’t. But we should be presenting these types of programs as acceptable options for students that are interested.

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