Landing a job after graduation requires a certain set of tangible skills, but how can you go about amassing those when you've been a student for four years? It's that old conundrum-can't get a job without experience; can't get experience without a job.

Enter the internship. But first, how do you go about finding one?

"There are superlative web sites, and in this day and age that is where students should start," says Peggy Curchak, associate director in Career Services at the University of Pennsylvania. For instance, the American Chemical Society's annual Directory of Experience Opportunities is a searchable online database of internships, co-ops, and fellowships. You can tailor your search by region or state; by area of interest such as environmental chemistry; or by type of experience such as co-ops versus internships.

Another website to try is The Riley Guide by Margaret (Riley) Dikel. Under the internship heading on this well-established career advice site there are links for co-op programs, internships, fellowships, work-exchange programs, apprenticeships, and volunteer opportunities. Curchak also suggests looking at websites for pharmaceutical companies, many of which are listed in the ACS directory.

To be sure, the Internet is playing a larger role in connecting students with practical experiences in industrial, academic, and other settings. Still, many students find their off-campus training in more traditional ways. Chris Fetner, a co-op student at Ciba Specialty Chemicals Corp. in McIntosh, Alabama and a junior at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, found his current position at an interview fair set up by the university's co-op department. The program invites company representatives to the UA campus in the spring and fall to talk with students. In Ciba's case, the firm then contacts students if they meet such criteria as good grades and good verbal communication for more in-depth, on-site interviews.

Hardcopy versions of the ACS directory are sent to most chemistry department chairs and other faculty, as well as university career centers, where they're shared with students. Kristen Korman, a senior majoring in chemistry from Rutgers University, used the ACS directory to target companies in her home state of New Jersey for a summer internship. "I sent resumes out on my own," says Korman, who contacted seven companies and received callbacks from five, although by her own estimation she sent her CV out on the late side-April instead of March. Korman is now doing her first internship at Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Erin Diskin, a junior majoring in biochemistry at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA took a different approach. Representatives from Bristol-Myers Squibb came by her university looking for prospective full-time employees and her department notified students about their visit. "I asked if they were looking for people for internships and they said: 'Well yes, why don't you come down and interview,'" recalls Diskin. "I always try and interview with people who come by the school, just in case." They called her back a month later and hired her for her first internship, which started the summer of 2001.

Joe Sundeen, the associate director of chemistry at Bristol-Myers Squibb, says that he gets between 50 and 75 e-mails each year as his firm's contact person listed in the ACS directory. Between three sites-Hopewell, N.J, Lawrenceville, N.J. and Wallingford, Conn.-the company hires about eight interns per summer to fill paid internships. The internships at Bristol-Myers Squibb try to provide an experience that's very similar to an entry-level employee, notes Sundeen. For more on internships in the chemical sciences see his article in the September/October 2000 issue of inChemistry.

Defining the Internship

Describing what an internship entails is complicated, says Curchak, because the term is used to mean different types of work experiences: for example, an unpaid voluntary stint that is career related; a paid short-term job, such as a summer internship; or postgraduate internships that can be paid and as long as a year.

Most internships for undergraduates take place working alongside industry or academic chemists in the lab. Also, the majority are paid, especially those in the private sector.

"A third wrinkle in all of this is the co-op," says Curchak. A co-op is usually a semester-long project for academic credit that involves working with a company scientist full or part-time on a specific project. Most are also paid; however, not all universities sponsor co-op programs. Check with your career center for the options at your school.

In Fetner's case, he works full-time when he's at Ciba and gets three hours of pass-fail credit for the co-op. He's finishing up his third semester on a Ciba co-op. Ciba interns only work during the summer while co-op students alternate between semesters working on projects at the plant site and taking classes.

Fetner spent his first co-op semester in an applications lab where he learned to test dyes and detergents for strength of color and effectiveness. He spent his second and third semesters in an automation lab, working on a computer program for one of Ciba's manufacturing processes.

"The biggest thing I looked for in my co-op was to find out if chemical engineering was really what I wanted to do," says Fetner. He also says that making the connection from what he's learning from the textbook to the workplace has been invaluable, "because as you get deeper and deeper in your chemical engineering coursework you use more and more of it here at work." For example, his supervisor at Ciba keeps track of what courses he's taking so he can challenge him with related projects. "I took a course in thermodynamics and fluids this semester and my first project is based on a steam-related process at Ciba."

Garnering Experience

Why do mentors like Sundeen get so many e-mails about internships? Simply put, because many students realize the need to get professional experience before graduation and the job hunt. "Employers are very loath to hire people on faith, so the more they can say: 'Yes, I've done that,' the better," says Curchak.

Students also learn what work is like by taking on internships and co-ops. It's a chance for students to develop a repertoire of professional skills. What's more, it gives them a chance to see the type of situation in which they might like to work-academic lab, chemical or pharmaceutical lab in industry, or a nonprofit setting.

Nevertheless, directories and web sites for finding internships do cover the gamut of these types of experiences. Some savvy students even do a practical internship at an industry lab one summer and then work in a biomedical lab on a basic research question the next year. Overall because of this type of varied exposure before entering the work world, students can be "more discerning about their preferences as they move along professionally," says Curchak.

Korman, who is working in the Pharmaceutical Research Institute at Bristol-Myers Squibb synthesizing a proprietary compound, couldn't agree more. Because she's graduating in May of 2002, she wants to find out if this is the sort of work she wants to be doing upon getting her BS or continuing on to graduate school.

For Diskin, who is also working on the synthesis of a proprietary compound, but in the Discovery Chemistry Department of Bristol-Myers Squibb, the drive to take on an internship is about independence and making her coursework and labs finally come alive: "Part of it is that I'm learning how to be a real chemist in a real lab, not just following some notebook procedure that someone's given me."

Karen Young Kreeger is a freelance science writer based in Ridley Park, PA.