And the internship search commences....NOW

With my last final out of the way, it's time to seriously search for a summer internship.  I have a few applications out, but during this holiday break I need to sit down and find more leads.  Ideally, I'd like to find something in the Seattle area, since that's where I plan to settle after my graduation in December 2010.  On a preliminary search, I found a place I'd really like to contact and set something up: NPower Seattle.  I don't know how much (if any) analytics they offer for nonprofits, but I'd also be interested in their CRM project.  I've also applied for a Microsoft internship, since they're pushing a good amount of data mining (especially text mining) with their Bing projects.  However, MS internships are extremely hard to land (seeing as though they apparently compensate their interns quite well).  If I can't find something in Seattle, I'll have to look in the Waco-Austin area.

I believe that if I end up interning in the business analytics field, I can still use that to the benefit of nonprofits.  I just see too many similarities between private sector and nonprofits to say "oh no, I must find an internship in a nonprofit."

I wonder what the updated assumption is nowadays for internship compensation.  Back when I was an undergrad, everyone I spoke to had pretty lucrative internships, and it seemed as though full-time positions were pretty much implied in the package.  I doubt that's the case anymore, since the economy today is vastly different from 1999.  If I have to, I might be able to swing an unpaid internship by taking out the max student loan amount, and if it's a situation where I think the experience is worth it, I'd try to make it work.  Technically, I don't even need an internship for my degree because I'm told that my work experience more than fulfills that requirement...but like I've said before, I'm not doing this for another degree to hang on the wall.  I'm doing it to broaden my knowledge, to get my foot in the door, and to be put in contact with people that know more than me and are willing to mentor an eager person with a unique background.