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Author Topic: Tips for finding an intern  (Read 5698 times)

Michael Lascuola

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Tips for finding an intern
« on: July 30, 2014, 11:27:26 PM »

I've been able to handle the setup and teardown of my small system OK for 20-odd years, but I'd love to have a college-aged kid tag along who is genuinely interested in learning the craft.  Plus, it would be great to have help on those 5-band, all day outdoor gigs :0

I've tried placing an ad on the bulletin board at the local college, but kids today don't do paper.  They even think email is "yesterday" :)

Any advice would be most helpful!
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Rick Powell

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Re: Tips for finding an intern
« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2014, 12:05:24 AM »

I've been able to handle the setup and teardown of my small system OK for 20-odd years, but I'd love to have a college-aged kid tag along who is genuinely interested in learning the craft.  Plus, it would be great to have help on those 5-band, all day outdoor gigs :0

I've tried placing an ad on the bulletin board at the local college, but kids today don't do paper.  They even think email is "yesterday" :)

Any advice would be most helpful!

You could start by putting an ad in the Marketplace here.  Use social media (FB. etc.) to get the word around, maybe a friend or a friend of a friend knows someone who might be interested.  How about your clients, they might have a lead or 2 on someone who might be interested. 

FWIW, my son starts junior college next month and does most of our sound gigs now with a friend or 2, although I still come to some of them and help out.  He has no problem getting helpers thru his contacts (old school friends, etc.).
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Jay Barracato

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Re: Tips for finding an intern
« Reply #2 on: July 31, 2014, 01:13:57 AM »

I've been able to handle the setup and teardown of my small system OK for 20-odd years, but I'd love to have a college-aged kid tag along who is genuinely interested in learning the craft.  Plus, it would be great to have help on those 5-band, all day outdoor gigs :0

I've tried placing an ad on the bulletin board at the local college, but kids today don't do paper.  They even think email is "yesterday" :)

Any advice would be most helpful!

If you are truly looking for an intern and not just free labor, it should be through a particular college program for which the student receives credit, has set goals for the time period, etc.

Many of the ones in business departments can be quite flexible, but I would also look for technical/AV students and programs that might be bent to include live sound.
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Jay Barracato

Lee Buckalew

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Re: Tips for finding an intern
« Reply #3 on: July 31, 2014, 06:54:22 AM »

If you are truly looking for an intern and not just free labor, it should be through a particular college program for which the student receives credit, has set goals for the time period, etc.

Many of the ones in business departments can be quite flexible, but I would also look for technical/AV students and programs that might be bent to include live sound.

I agree with Jay here. 
Also check out
http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.htm
It goes over the current FLSA requirements for unpaid internships.  Enforcement of these rules has been increasing significantly over the last few years.

Lee
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David Sturzenbecher

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Re: Tips for finding an intern
« Reply #4 on: July 31, 2014, 07:54:24 AM »

Unpaid internships are as cool as email.
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Jay Barracato

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Re: Tips for finding an intern
« Reply #5 on: July 31, 2014, 10:01:05 AM »

I agree with Jay here. 
Also check out
http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.htm
It goes over the current FLSA requirements for unpaid internships.  Enforcement of these rules has been increasing significantly over the last few years.

Lee

Thanks Lee,

That document clearly states that the overriding purpose of an unpaid internship must be for the education of the intern. Having the link with the cooperative education courses of a college would make that position more defensible.

Personally, I did a number of research internships all of which were paid. The big difference was the lab i was working in was not paying my salary, and in addition to my duties, I had a number of obligations to the funding agency to produce a final "product" for them as well based on what I learned.

At my college where I teach (a two year community college with many direct to work programs) you can do a cooperative study course in almost any program/department. I have not had a lot of contact with the details but did look them up in the faculty handbook yesterday after responding. Our cooperative education courses may be paid or volunteer. They are required in some programs of study and are electives in others. Each student will have a faculty supervisor from the college and a work supervisor from the organization providing the internship position. The student may spend up to 6 weeks with just the faculty advisor prior to beginning the position. All three people (the student and both supervisors) will develop a learning program to meet the needs of the student within a particular time frame (usually a semester) and both supervisors will evaluate the results of the project.

So if you went to take on an intern (rather than cheap labor) be prepared to design a course of study and evaluation.

I think if I were to approach a college looking to host interns, I would start with a basic structure of what can be learned onsite, and look for specific hands on projects that match what the students needs are. For example, if you have a reasonably extensive shop, is there enough gear that the student could basically build you a "C" rig or if you have a "C" rig, break it totally down and rebuild it? That followed by deploying and using the rigs for a couple of events, maybe on campus, sounds like a good semester to me. If the student was a volunteer and the events are also volunteer I think that would cover the "not for profit" guidelines even if the student did help with other paying events during the time of the internship for the experience.

As for finding the potential intern, I would check with the engineering departments and the theater departments for students that want to expand into event sound.

I guess my final word is having been a professional educator for over 25 years now, if you want an intern you should be committed to training because it takes a special personality to swatch someone struggle with tasks that are easy for you and it actually often takes more time and effort to explain what you want, observe, correct, and evaluate than it would of for you just to do the task yourself.
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Jay Barracato

Kyle Van Sandt

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Re: Tips for finding an intern
« Reply #6 on: July 31, 2014, 10:19:02 AM »

Give a call to your local college or broadcast center type programs.  We have a small recording "new media" school in town that pushes kids through our venue occasionally.  Our rule with it is we fill calls based on house standard  and always look as the intern as a +1. 

...Now if you want help, want to teach, and want to to pay the kid 10 bucks an hour you can do whatever you want.  You have ppwk issues with that as well, but at least you won't feel like an ass at the end of the night.   
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Michael Lascuola

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Re: Tips for finding an intern
« Reply #7 on: July 31, 2014, 05:43:37 PM »

Give a call to your local college or broadcast center type programs.  We have a small recording "new media" school in town that pushes kids through our venue occasionally.  Our rule with it is we fill calls based on house standard  and always look as the intern as a +1. 

...Now if you want help, want to teach, and want to to pay the kid 10 bucks an hour you can do whatever you want. 

Thanks for the replies!  I suppose I used the word "intern" a little loosely -- I did not mean to imply that they would not get paid.  I'm more interested in someone who is younger and wants to actually learn rather than simply collect a paycheck.

I still think email is pretty cool.  ;D
« Last Edit: July 31, 2014, 05:46:09 PM by Michael Lascuola »
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David Morison

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Re: Tips for finding an intern
« Reply #8 on: August 01, 2014, 08:21:55 AM »

I guess my final word is having been a professional educator for over 25 years now, if you want an intern you should be committed to training because it takes a special personality to watch someone struggle with tasks that are easy for you and it actually often takes more time and effort to explain what you want, observe, correct, and evaluate than it would of for you just to do the task yourself.

A huge +1 to this.
I'm not a pro educator, but even at a lower level like training up volunteers to run a GL2200 in a 300 person church, I found that time and again.
My conclusion was that if I wasn't going to get them in a more formal lecture type situation where I could drill the info into them in a more controlled/structured way, then training just wasn't meant for me. The urge to take over and get the task done myself was just too strong when I tried to do the training on the job.
FWIW,
David.
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Jamin Lynch

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Re: Tips for finding an intern
« Reply #9 on: August 01, 2014, 06:42:01 PM »

I've been able to handle the setup and teardown of my small system OK for 20-odd years, but I'd love to have a college-aged kid tag along who is genuinely interested in learning the craft.  Plus, it would be great to have help on those 5-band, all day outdoor gigs :0

I've tried placing an ad on the bulletin board at the local college, but kids today don't do paper.  They even think email is "yesterday" :)

Any advice would be most helpful!

Are you just looking for free help to hump speakers? Might be difficult to find.
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ProSoundWeb Community

Re: Tips for finding an intern
« Reply #9 on: August 01, 2014, 06:42:01 PM »


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