Interns find more revved-up roles

The fall term at DePauw University began weeks ago, but junior Andy Bagley is 800 miles away from its Greencastle, Ind., campus, working at the American IronHorse Motorcycle Co. factory in Fort Worth, Texas.

A bad case of hooky? Actually, Mr. Bagley is working as a marketing intern at American IronHorse with the full support of DePauw, which practically demands that all of its 2,200 students go into the workforce during their college years to sample work life and prepare for the real world.

Experiential education – the term applied to internships, cooperative work, and fellowships – now appears to be the ticket to a career.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers' survey of job recruiters shows that their top selection method is now internships, beating out on-campus recruiting trips. And interns now make up 32 percent of new hires – double the rate of just five years ago.

Internships once were pretty much limited to students who planned careers in engineering, law, or teaching. They have steadily spread to other fields, though students were in many cases used as gophers to make coffee or run the photocopier.

But then employers saw the value of bringing on board someone to help, especially during the summer months when regular workers are on vacation.

"There's been a push over time to make [students] have more responsibilities," says Camille Luckenbaugh, of the colleges and employers group.

They've taken that notion to heart at Fairchild Publications, the Manhattan company behind magazines such as Jane, Details, and WWD. Its staff of 750 is complemented by 300 interns who check facts, edit copy, produce graphics, and assist with photo and fashion sessions. They've even helped design magazine covers. "Something they're not going to get from textbooks," says Rena Kokalari, who manages Fair-child's internship program.

Bagley, for instance, helped draft American IronHorse sales brochures, writing a revamped dealer application form. He also attended meetings with high-level executives, giving him a real dose of the work world.

"I sit in the same office as the vice president of marketing, who's in contact with the CEO," says Bagley of an experience that he believes will give him an edge over fellow graduates when they enter the workplace.

"What's going to separate you out [from the rest of the pack]?" asks Lynn Gaulin, who retired last year as director of the experiential learning office at the University of Rhode Island.

Internships give students a chance to explore the world, and explore different kinds of jobs. Bagley, for instance, previously pulled a stint at a bank in Ohio, where he worked on a credit-card marketing program.

"It's like a two-month job interview," says Barbara Cook, of Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co. The Fort Worth-based railroad formally evaluates interns who work for it every summer, and finds that a growing number of its new management trainees come from its summer job programs in everything from accounting to transportation.

Cook says BNSF also likes the intern program because making a career at a railroad may not have been the first notion to cross the mind of a freshly minted college graduate. Exposing students to the transportation industry via a summer job can show them that it actually has the makings of a high-tech career.

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