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Internship Information for Employers

Employers who seek interns may reach ASU students through a wide range of methods and venues including participating in our various career events, posting internship opportunities and searching resumes through Sun Devil CareerLink, contacting academic departments and student organizations as well as faculty and internship coordinators, and referrals from current or recent ASU interns who are employed with your organization.

Internships are great opportunities for students to gain career-related work experience while still in school and sometimes earn academic credit for their work. It is up to a student's academic department whether or not credit may be earned for a specific internship. If a student chooses to earn credit for the experience, employers usually provide a job description with learning objectives, an evaluation of the intern's job performance, an affiliation agreement, and occasionally a confirmation of the hours the student has worked.

Hiring an Intern?

If you are interested in employing an intern, consider providing monetary compensation in order to:

  • Attract skilled interns.
  • Increase intern commitment and reward for contributions.
  • Reduce financial burdens that may require a student to work a second job during their internship.
  • Offset the cost of paying for tuition when a student chooses (or is required) to earn credit for an internship.
  • Comply with the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which is applicable to all companies that have at least two employees directly engaged in interstate commerce with annual sales of $500,000 or more and states that if an organization benefits from the use of interns, the organization is required to pay the interns at least minimum wage.

Additional ways to compensate interns:

  • Offer a stipend.
  • Provide networking opportunities (through professional association memberships, sponsoring attendance at networking events, opportunities to sit in on meetings, participation in workplace or vendor-provided training, and get to know personnel from other departments to increase organizational knowledge).
  • Cover out-of-pocket transportation, tuition for internship credit, or housing costs.

What Constitutes an Internship?

An internship is a short-term, hands-on, supervised work experience with a professional organization that's designed to increase a student's knowledge of a professional career field.  More than a part-time job or volunteer experience, an internship includes intentional learning objectives related to increasing student knowledge, training to develop additional skills, and quality supervision to guide and mentor the intern.

In order to qualify as a professional internship experience, the following criteria should be met (note that some academic departments may have additional criteria):

  • The student intern will receive quality training by a supervisor/mentor designed to increase their skills and knowledge related to a professional career field.
  • The experience will provide exposure to multiple aspects of a professional career field, internship organization, or industry.
  • A job description will be provided that includes a detailed explanation of duties and/or projects, required skills or qualifications, minimum number of hours per week (flexibility in days/hours is encouraged to accommodate class schedules), and approximate start and end dates for the experience.
  • Clerical tasks will comprise no more than 20% of the intern's responsibilities.
  • The intern will be provided with an appropriate work space and resources required to complete assignments, as well as with introductions to employees and an overview of the organization (similar to an orientation that would be provided to any new employee).
  • To receive credit for an internship, a detailed job description and learning objectives must be approved by a university internship coordinator and the student seeking credit must meet the criteria and follow the registration procedures determined by the academic department granting the credit (most departments require that the internship be approved and the internship credit registered for PRIOR to a student beginning an internship).

Please contact Career Services if you are interested in internship opportunities for our students.