Since late 1998, the IT Division has worked with local community colleges to employ interns. The School to Career program was developed by the Berkeley Lab’s Diversity Office (Harry Reed), Charlie Verboom, and the ITSD Division in late 1998, and Dr. Bidleman, an instructor with the Peralta District, as its educational partner.
Overview
The program offers occupational work experience scaled to the requirements of the colleges. Participants must be considered full time students. Interns work on a part-time basis, up to 20 hours per week while in school, with a mentor in the IT Division. The internship may be as short as three months, but it more typically lasts for six months or even longer. Interns have benefited. Some hold jobs at the Lab today, and many others have found employment at other companies due to their experience with Berkeley Lab.
Outreach to the Community
The internship program extends LBNL’s community outreach effort to community colleges in the San Francisco bay region. The program:
- Supports the Lab’s diversity program goals by making contact with a diverse group of faculty and students
- Provides community college faculty feedback on technical positions in industry
- Provides interns with a wide exposure to real-world IT
- Develops job-eligible technical skills: Mac OS/Windows; desktop / laptop / tablet / mobile support; networking; programming
- Develops job-eligible soft skills: clear communication, tact and clarity in dealing with customers, reliable and prompt response
Benefits within the Lab
The internship program has aided the Lab internally as well.
- Recruits excellent candidates.
- Provides IT professionals with valuable help for routine tasks
- Furthers the careers of Workstation Support engineers and other mentors by providing management and mentoring experience
Recruitment
Hiring into a temporary or career position at the lab is solely based on openings at any given time, and subject to workload and budget conditions. There is no guarantee of a job after the internship.
However, IT management uses the intern program to observe possible candidates during real-time exposure to Lab systems. As a result of the experience, the intern often wants to continue working at the Lab, and the Lab often wants the intern to continue on in a full time position.
Interested students can email resumes to ccinterns@lbl.gov.
Student opportunities are also posted at jobs.lbl.gov.
Pay rate
Intern salary ranges between $15-$25/hr. We give credit for education and prior working experience, so that the pay rate differentiates those students at the community college who are coming directly from high school and bring little work experience to the job, and those students who already have other degrees or work experience.
