Being stuck in an office supply closet without lighting was not what Chelsea Prince envisioned for her first internship experience. So she set out to prevent students from having her “internship gone sour” experience by creating Intern Circle, the first social networking site for interns and internship employment.
After a chief executive of a small creative agency in New York City forgot to tell his employees about Prince’s arrival, she was stuck arranging office supplies instead of contributing to major projects as promised.
“I’m not the only individual having a bad experience …” Prince said. “I wanted to create one physical portal for everything internship.”
Two months ago that desire became reality when Prince, a senior at Syracuse University, launched Intern Circle, which caters to both students and companies. The Web site, www.interncircle.com, is free for students and offers internship advice, housing information, and industry news.
Students set up a personal profile to list their experiences, agenda, education, recommendations, and a showcase to post videos, links, and their resume.
But while you can find an employer, an employer can also find you. Employers can search students by GPA, college, or location, to hone in on the intern they want. And each company has their own profile for students to see intern openings, agendas, and pictures.
The site currently has 500 members, and Prince is hoping to hire staff by next semester. “People [at companies] were really receptive to it because it’s different, it’s a different way for recruiting … right now internships are really, really hot because of the starting job freezes … so I’m kind of hitting a sweet spot right now because people are interested,” Prince said.
Erica Sanderson is a graduate student in Newhouse. She can be reached at emsander@syr.edu.
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