Re[2]: Interns

[Dan Roberts <Dan_Roberts -at- IBI -dot- COM>]

Eric said: I also think that it's more likely that an intern
would do something SUBSTANTIVE (and educational and useful)
at Joe's Software and Sub Shop than at MegaSoftware
Corporation, which probably has writers with boring and
trivial overload work to slough off on an intern.

To which I respond: probably true. You might perform more
trivial tasks with more well-known products at Mega, but
Joe's could give you more experience. Or it might not,
depending on how busy Joe's is and how much they trust you,
etcetcetc....

Eric said: Not that all large corporations are
like that, but I know of at least one that fits that
description.

To which I respond: make that 2 <g>

 Eric asked: Employers and internship coordinators -- what do you do to ensure
 that your students have substantive internship experiences?

 To which I respond: Find something *small*, somewhat within their abilities,
 and somewhat challenging. Got a new GUI dialog box, or panel or such to doc?
 Hand it over to 'em. Got some small technical updates in a spec? Hand 'em the
 spec and the files (but keep a backup [g]). For example, I gave our intern the
 task of doc'ing a Java report writing tool we're developing, and Bob is doing a
 fine job figuring out how to run the thing and doc it. Only real major hurdle
 so far is getting him to *conceptualize* how online info can float around. But
 that'll just take time and experience.

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