I have received direction from the higher ups to obtain an intern so that our GIS system can be brought up to date and finalized.
Anyoen have an example of an ad they sent to the local university to get an intern?
You can PM me for my email address, thanks!
You get all squeezed up inside/Like the days were carved in stone/You get all wired up inside/And it's bad to be alone
You can go out, you can take a ride/And when you get out on your own/You get all smoothed out inside/And it's good to be alone
-Peart
"Hello, Rich? Mike here. I'm looking for an intern who is good with GIS. Know anybody? Thanks. Have him send me a resume."
OK, so my thought is that you want to very clearly define what you want this person to accomplish, given that it can be fairly technical to "finalize" and bring your municipal GIS "up to date". You want to make sure that they are already sufficiently proficient that you will not need to constantly monitor and teach them.
Anyone want to adopt a dog?
Thanks, Card, I got a response from the Intern director with the college program. Simply said what you said.Originally posted by Cardinal
I am over thinking and over formalizing things again.
You get all squeezed up inside/Like the days were carved in stone/You get all wired up inside/And it's bad to be alone
You can go out, you can take a ride/And when you get out on your own/You get all smoothed out inside/And it's good to be alone
-Peart
I suspect agency management wants to get an intern to independently do technical GIS work that they don't have the internal capability to do themselves.
How exactly is the intern benefiting from this arrangement? "Experience" isn't a valid benefit. Unless someone can articulate specifically what subject matter the intern is learning, the internship is not legal (nor ethical).
You have no idea if this is paid/unpaid.
In addition, an internship like this might be done for "class credit" which renders the paying thing moot. Before spouting shit without knowing what your getting into, maybe ask the OP these simple questions before calling into what is indeed ethical or unethical.
Brotip #2418 - know when it's time to switch from being "the little engine that could" to the "little engine that said, 'f*ck it'"
Just to note, in grad school, I had an internship with a local agency where one of my responsibilities was GIS. I was the only one in the City who even had an inkling of understanding of GIS. Given the time to learn how to do the things I needed done, I was able to get quite a bit of practical experience with GIS and it was a valuable experience (that I then carried forward into my first paid position after graduating).
Nothing unethical about it (and illegal? how so???).
By contrast, in undergrad, I had another internship with a local agency where I was tasked with completing a housing occupancy survey. Yeah, calling people up and figuring out how many people live there. I learned nothing (though did get class credit). And that was WITH someone who was a full-time planner and who probably had stuff to teach about demographics research (but didn't). Worthless internship.
Nothing wrong with what the OP is trying to do - on the contrary, I hope the OP finds a good intern and gives them the same experience I got.
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. (Douglas Adams)
I actually applied and was awarded a GIS internship for an MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization) this Summer. The posting was honest about the requirements, and the nature of the work. It still seemed like a great opportunity because of the organization I would be working for despite it not being the traditional planning internship. During the interview I was asked very specific GIS questions to test my knowledge of the software.
The important thing is to be honest about the nature of the work, and I'm sure you will get plenty of qualified candidates. A lot of my classmates, including myself, are getting minors in GIS because of its increasing importance in planning. This internship has been a great experience so far. Good luck in your search!
Unpaid internships for any not-for-profit organization is perfectly legal. If this assignment is for a city agency, then it is legal. Unethical? I've become more inclined to say that because I'm in that rut right now, but the Fair and Labor Standards Act has no problem with it.
If I were in the original posters shoes, I would write up the basic summary of the task, what is expected from both the intern and agency, and then send it to the school.
Quote
