Ten of the Best Internships

Ten of the Best Internships

All the internships selected are distinguished by offering little busywork, You can find many ressources at many colleges around the country, which often allow non-students to use their placement offices as a resource.

Abbott Laboratories: A health care products company, Abbott has a 12-week summer internship for college and graduate students at its headquarters near Chicago. Highly selective, Abbott accepts 150 to 200 interns to work in areas from manufacturing to product development, medical and pharmaceutical research, accounting, marketing and other fields. The rewards: Free housing, travel, seminars. Rather good salaries.

Academy of Television Arts and Sciences: Student Internship program. The job: Best known for awarding the Emmy awards, this highly selective eight-week program accepts about 30 undergrads and recent college grads. Interns work in production, scriptwriting, film editing, public relations, animation, casting, and other areas. The rewards: Academy interns receive a stipend and are honored at a party with the Academy governors. About 75% land good jobs in the television industry.

Apple, Inc.: Internship Program College Relations. Apple's highly selective program accepts 200 undergrads and grads for its 12-week summer program in Cupertino. The rewards: Interns set their own hours, get one day working vacations, participate in seminars, and receive discounts on Apple products. Salaries are high.

National Tropical Botanical Garden is one of the best internships. Photo by Elena.

Boeing: The job: Located in Seattle, this internationally known aircraft manufacturer accepts 100 to 250 college juniors and senior for a summer or a six-month program. It was named the nation's top program in various occasions. The rewards receive salaries, housing, weekly classes in which they learn airplane design.

Intel Corp: The Job – about 1000 interns work at Intel, which produces computer chips. College grads and undergrads spend eight weeks to eight months working in design, engineering, human resources, finance, and other areas in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Oregon. The rewards: Intern earn good salaries, they also get free round-trip travel, a rental car, a moving allowance. More than 70 percent of all college graduates Intel hires are former Intel interns.

Lucasfilm: The job: Founded by George Lucas, this highly selective program offers 9 to 12-week summer, spring and fall internships to 15 to 20 juniors, seniors and grads at its Skywalker Ranch or at its production facility in San Raphael, both near San Francisco. The rewards: Interns earn salaries by hour, or nothing at all in fall and spring, but do get to work in TV and film production, visual effects, commercials, model-making, games, finance, merchandising, and more. Interns attend advance screenings of Lucasfilm pictures, seminars, and company pictures.

National Tropical Botanical Garden. The job: In Kauai, Hawai'i, six college grad students spend 8 to 10 weeks in the summer, fall, or spring working in this garden's collection, research, administration, visitor's center and conservation programs. In addition to weeding and planting, interns conduct tours, have seminars with experts in botany and horticulture, and fly to Maui, or other sites in Hawai'i for work and recreational activities. The reward: the pay is medium, and the NTBG provides free housing, seminars with horticultural experts, and even tree-climbing lessons.

TBWA: Internship program. Located in New York, TBWA is one of the world's top advertising agencies. Clients have included Absolut Vodlka, Eagle Snacks, Nissan and more. This moderately selective program accepts 8 to 12 interns for its 10-week summer internships in market research, account management, or media. Interns get pay and the chance to mingle with copywriters, client reps, TBWA's president at weekly luncheon seminars and the company picnic.

U.S. Department of States: Office of recruitment students program. Year round, the State Department places over 900 high school students, undergrads, recent grads, and grad students in internship positions in Washington, D.C., New York City, and over 250 embassies and consulates worldwide. Interns work in such areas as consular affairs, human rights, and scientific affairs. The State Department provides interns with tours of embassies, access to formal events and free oversees housing. Ten percent of interns are paid.

The Washington Post. The Post runs a highly selective internship program wherein 15 to 20 college juniors, seniors, grads report and write stories for the national, metro, business, sports, or style sections of the paper. Most successful applicants have had previous experience at other publications. Interns write at least one story a week and many do front page stories four or five times over the summer. The rewards: Compensation is high, intern lunch with prestigious journalists, political columnists, etc.