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By Anand Chopra-McGowan
The idea for YouIntern.com came out of our own personal experiences after having interned at a number of places with mixed results. Reflecting on our own internship experiences Dan, Matt, Nikhil, and myself felt that there was a need for a centralized place where interns could share their experiences as well as apply for new internships.
Our site is an online community of college students and employers, where students can review internships, and employers can post them.
Currently we are focused on the advertising and marketing industry. Since internships are more valuable than ever today, our goal at YouIntern.com is to not only help students get an internship, but to provide them with a forum in which to help each other. We accomplish this by providing a way to share feedback, insights, and tips with fellow internship seekers on our site.
How long has YouIntern.com been in existence?
YouIntern.com began in February 2008 by four college friends - Dan Chaparian (BU '07), Matt Donovan (Northeastern '07), and Nikhil Srivastava (Harvard '09), and myself.
How did YouIntern.com get started?
YouIntern.com originally started by providing information on internships for BU students and then we expanded it by adding internship reviews and finally postings. We wanted to connect students with employers and continue offering personalized service by providing a way for students to share their personal experiences and offer their comments as well. We've grown to posting internships online but our main focus is to provide a forum where students can comment and help other students by providing feedback.
Due the state of the current economy, internships have spiked in number as employers try to figure out where to put their resources. Since many employers currently do not have the money or permission to hire on any new employees, many are opting for interns to fill the gap. We receive three or four new postings daily. We have 5,000 student users and 400 companies and we find that we are growing each day. Many companies post multiple internships, bringing the total number of lists to close to 1,000. The site includes employers from across the United States who post with us. Matt is our designer and Dan sends out a personal email to all those signing up to become members.
We get a lot of feedback from users. We currently focus on advertising and marketing but we may expand in the future. We selected the advertising and marketing market since that is our area of expertise. I currently have a full time job in advertising. Advertising and marketing are a good fit for internships since internships in the field are most often a requirement prior to getting hired into a full time job.
I find that it’s the smaller companies where people don’t know what to expect. Doing an internship at a smaller company is a competely different experience than doing one at a larger, more established organization. Smaller companies give their interns a wide variety of experiences since everyone in the company generally does a little bit of everything. Smaller companies provide an opportunity to get great experience and gives students an understanding of what it's actually like working in the field.
Part of the reason we started YouIntern.com is because we felt that currently there’s not an even playing field for large and small companies. I interned at a large agency in Boston but before that I interned at a smaller one. I found that both of these experiences played an important role on my resume. I think oftentimes smaller companies get overlooked and we at YouIntern.com want to give all companies in the industry an equal playing field in which to flourish.
Can you tell me a little bit about YouIntern’s mission and goals?
Our goal is to connect students with employers. For many students it can be incredibly difficult trying to find an internship and frustrating when they do find one and apply and they never hear anything back from the company. Our goal is to provide original internship listings for students and ensure that they have a direct contact that they can call or email. We encourage students to be proactive and be prepared to ask questions and follow up. My personal experience working at an ad group in Boston, is that nine times out of ten I don’t get a second email or follow up from students seeking jobs or internships. Since I’m interested in candidates who really want to work for us, I’ve made it a practice not to respond to initial emails unless I receive a follow up.
What does YouIntern.com have to offer students and employers that similar sites don’t?
- I think the internship reviews we offer on YouIntern.com set us apart. I don’t know of any other site that includes a lot of depth and content along with internship reviews and postings.
- The ability to apply for internships directly on our page. Applicants can post a resume and then just hit Apply Now to send it off to employers. The employer will then get an email stating that a student has applied via YouIntern.com. Since employers posted the internship on our site, most employers quickly review applicants that apply.
YouIntern.com operates a blog with advice from employers around the country, and also has several hundred followers on Twitter. Once we get new sign ups, we try to immediately send out a message welcoming them to our site. We take our commitment to students very seriously since we are all students or recent grads ourselves.
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