What exactly IS an internship

[clori]

When I was in undergrad we had to do 2 internships to graduate. My major wasn't in the business field so obviously the work was different. However it seemed similar in all the undergraduate majors.

My first internship had to be x hours (maybe 150?) over x time (spring semester). I believe I had do do at least 10 hours a week. Some peon work was allowed as long as it was work the regular employees had to do as a regular part of their job. For instance filing a few pieces of paper but not hours of filing. Twice over the semester a university professor would come to the intern site to meet with you and the supervisor.

In addition everyone doing an internship in my major at the same time had to meet bi-weekly in a class for an hour. I think we just talked about what we were doing. There was also a journal requirement. Simply doing an internship did not guarantee that it was recommended that even pass and your grade depended on supervisor input. I got 3 credits for the internship. It went on my official transcript.

For my second internship I had to complete 300 hours over 1 semester basically 20 hours a semester. It was a 6 credit class similar to the 3 credit one only depending on your actual job site more could be expected of you. The university would give a list of job sites that interns had previously used but beyond that you went out and found your own site. The supervisor/professor had to agree to your position/work functions and hours. You were expected to be on time, work all hours etc. The hours had to be completed unpaid. I was allowed to get paid for some weekend work I did but it was above the required hours. I had to get permission from the professor otherwise it would have been considered unethical and I would have failed the internship.

 

[Hrhpd]

In my case the issue may be tighter due to corporate rules.
In my wife's case, interns are also governed by the Union contract.

The phone example is interesting thought because that is about the only thing in both shops that interns ARE allowed to do alone.

Absolutely. A corporation can have their own stricter rules as long as they are still following Federal rules.

But an intern not being allowed to work is not a California (same as Federal) law as you stated.

 

[DopeyDame]

Nice gigs! What year of schooling are they in? I'm thinking they must be at least a junior or a senior?

I'm not the pp, but I am an aerospace engineer, so I'm very familiar with what she mentioned. There are plenty of junior and seniors interning for us, but we also really like to get younger interns - finishing sophomore year is sort of the standard entry point for our interns, but it's not at all unheard of to have someone just finishing their freshman year, and where I work we actually have a program specifically for high school interns, as well. The technical fields are big on workplace experience and the corporations absolutely support that by offering (generally speaking) meaningful experiences for students.

 

[NotUrsula]

I can see quite a bit of wiggle room in that California statute:

• Interns must receive training from the company, even if it somewhat impedes on the work of the organization.
• Interns must get hands-on experience with equipment and processes used in the industry.
• Interns' training must primarily benefit them, not the company

I think you can make a solid argument that training in how to answer phones and be the "first impression" for the company will benefit the intern. You can also argue that learning how to gatekeep and handle customer inquiries, or how many copies of a particular type of document must be made and how they must be filed is a part of "experience with equipment and processes used in the industry" if the "industry" is in an office environment.

I suspect that the wording is very deliberately somewhat ambiguous in that respect. As long as the work is something that typical workers in that field also do regularly, a case can be made for having interns do it as well. Perhaps not as their sole duty, but I can't see anything in that law that would require that someone in a customer-contact-type position cannot spend some of their time working in Reception.

 

[tvguy]

Absolutely. A corporation can have their own stricter rules as long as they are still following Federal rules.

But an intern not being allowed to work is not a California (same as Federal) law as you stated.

Okay, I pulled out the paperwork. Our corporate attorney's say California law says they can't do work.

They also say California law says employees have to take their lunch breaks no sooner than 3 hours after the start of their shift, and no later than 5 hours after the start of their shift. My wife's place says as long as you get the break, it doesn't matter when you take it.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

As a public relations major, I was required to do an internship in the summer between my junior and senior years. I did mine at the local chapter of the American Cancer Society. I was required to enroll in an internship course through my university and pay the tuition. I earned 3 college units for completing a minimum of 240 hours at the job site. I had to register my internship with my course advisor and he visited me on the job and spoke to my supervisor one time. I was not paid, but the organization did pay the tuition fee to enroll in the course.

I worked under the Communications Director. For the first week or so, I read through past communication materials to get familiar with how they did things. I also interviewed the directors of each department, and wrote up reports on what I learned. My supervisor had me sit with her in planning meetings and shadow her throughout the day. Within a few weeks, I was writing PR materials, designing the newsletter, etc. I did press releases, public service announcements, and articles. My articles got picked up and published by several local publications which was very exciting. I kept a portfolio of my work to show my course advisor. I also built up a nice amount of work for the professional portfolio I used to get my first job after graduation. It was a very good experience. There was no grunt work, no picking up lunches, making coffee, sorting the mail, etc. The course advisor wouldn't have allowed it.

Later in my career I worked for a small PR agency. The owner started talking about getting an intern to do the grunt work around the office. He wanted someone to make copies and stuff press kits for free instead of paying for temps. I told him that the local university (same one I attended) would not allow PR interns to do that kind of work. He said we would "spin it" so the advisor wouldn't know. I didn't like the way the guy did business and only ended up working there for 3 months. He never did convince the university to give him an intern!

 

[sonnyjane]

As a public relations major, I was required to do an internship in the summer between my junior and senior years. I did mine at the local chapter of the American Cancer Society. I was required to enroll in an internship course through my university and pay the tuition. I earned 3 college units for completing a minimum of 240 hours at the job site. I had to register my internship with my course advisor and he visited me on the job and spoke to my supervisor one time. I was not paid, but the organization did pay the tuition fee to enroll in the course. I worked under the Communications Director. For the first week or so, I read through past communication materials to get familiar with how they did things. I also interviewed the directors of each department, and wrote up reports on what I learned. My supervisor had me sit with her in planning meetings and shadow her throughout the day. Within a few weeks, I was writing PR materials, designing the newsletter, etc. I did press releases, public service announcements, and articles. My articles got picked up and published by several local publications which was very exciting. I kept a portfolio of my work to show my course advisor. I also built up a nice amount of work for the professional portfolio I used to get my first job after graduation. It was a very good experience. There was no grunt work, no picking up lunches, making coffee, sorting the mail, etc. The course advisor wouldn't have allowed it. Later in my career I worked for a small PR agency. The owner started talking about getting an intern to do the grunt work around the office. He wanted someone to make copies and stuff press kits for free instead of paying for temps. I told him that the local university (same one I attended) would not allow PR interns to do that kind of work. He said we would "spin it" so the advisor wouldn't know. I didn't like the way the guy did business and only ended up working there for 3 months. He never did convince the university to give him an intern!

That's probably a big difference. Both my PR internships were for boutique agencies (less than 10 employees)