With millennials now occupying the largest portion of the U.S. workforce, and information technology careers on the rise, internship opportunities for students are being presented. One company, ISF, has an internship program of their own in Jacksonville and Tallahassee.
ISF is a Florida-based information technology and consulting company with clients across the nation and offices in Jacksonville and Tallahassee, as well as Austin, Texas. Their internship program recently began at their corporate office in Jacksonville, and it is quickly getting off the ground.
The vast majority of computer and information technology occupations are growing at a faster than average pace, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Computer occupations are projected to grow 18% from 2012 to 2022, with web developers at 20% and software developers at 22%, double that of the total growth of all occupations, 11%.
These careers are not only growing in numbers, but also in popularity. U.S. News named software developer the number one technology job, and third overall in the Best 100 Jobs of 2015. Web developer is close behind coming in third for technology, and eleventh overall.
Tanishia Shingles, recruiter at Wired People, Inc., ISF’s recruiting partner, has been spearheading the program and is excited to expand. ISF utilizes local universities such as the University of North Florida (UNF), Florida State College, and Florida State University to seek out potential interns. Internships at ISF are a paid opportunity and course credit is determined by individual universities.
So what does it take to become an intern at ISF? To qualify as a programming intern at ISF, UNF students must successfully complete the course CIS4327, Information Systems Senior Project I, to be considered. Tallahassee interns must be working towards a degree in the information technology field, with ISF having a project need for such a position. Intern assignments are given based upon experience and how far along students are in their schooling.
So far, two interns have been hired at the Jacksonville office, Christopher Pearson, from Florida State College, and Zeph Cohn, from UNF. Pearson is now employed with ISF fulltime as a developer.
Pearson noted about his internship, “Right away I started to apply knowledge obtained in my SQL Server class to write database scripts and document database changes needed in the update of the legacy application. In addition to working on my analytical skills, I improved my programming skills in HTML, CSS, C#, and .NET. I found that my work was a vital part of the projects I worked on.”
When asked about transitioning into a fulltime position, he responded “At ISF, there is always something new to learn, and I have people I can call on to help me when needed. Knowing these things made transitioning to a fulltime developer, after receiving my BAS in Information Technology, a simple decision.”
ISF’s Tallahassee office recently employed their first intern, Ashley Peterson, who is a student at Washington University in St. Louis studying computer science. She is working in various project-based environments with ISF project managers and clients. An excellent referral combined with opportune timing landed Peterson the internship in Tallahassee.
“I’m really liking it here so far,” Peterson commented about her opportunity at ISF, “and I like feeling that the work I’m doing is actually useful and a step towards the goal we are trying to accomplish. It’s cool to think that the screens I made are going to be delivered to the client.”
When asked about her plans, she replied “I really like coding, but I’m hoping at some point down the line I can go into software development, possibly.”
For more information about ISF’s internship program, please contact Tanishia Shingles at tshingles@wiredpeopleinc.com.