The Internship Network in the Mathematical Sciences

Lessons Learned from the INMAS Program

This document summarizes the lessons learned during the existence of the INMAS program. It is hoped that these lessons can serve to guide institutions desiring to complement their PhD program with some of the best practices developed during the five-year run of the INMAS program. During this time, INMAS trained close to 340 students, who were placed in more than 220 different companies.

What key things we observed

• Recruiting and student participation
  • Set expectations
  • Some students lose interest (that’s OK, focus on ones who see value in the training and internships)
• Training
  • Weekend workshops may not be ideal
  • Self-learning without assessment may not work
• Point of contact
  • It is important to have one person be the point of contact for the students and the companies.
• Mentoring
  • Building confidence in student is key getting internship
  • Work with students on communication skills
  • Get to know students so that you can confidently refer them to postings
  • Encourage student to seek their own internships
• Internship project creation
  • Set expectation for the companies
  • No one-size-fits-all method, use all connections you have.
• Successful internships
  • Prepare them well for the internship; company culture is very different from academic culture
  • Stay in touch with students, ask them to send check-in emails every two weeks.
• After internships
  • Maintain contact with company hosts, keep connections warm.