At 25, Erika Welz believes her youth is advantageous to the business she launched last August. Because she can relate to students on the verge of graduating and facing confusing employment choices, Welz created Real World Internships, Inc., a placement agency matching college an high school students with companies needing interns.
There are numerous Long-Island-based temp agencies and staffing services, but "nobody else has ever focused on the intern level," Welz said of her internship agency. "I'm basically a low-level headhunter.
"Real World Internships incorporated last August, but because she needed a steady paycheck, Welz quit her job at Prodigy in March. Real World has been concentrating on summer internships for now. But in the future, "our plans are to take this year-round. We've had enough interest" from students and companies alike, Welz said. "I used to travel to Manhattan for my own internship," she recalled. "I never realized that right here on the Island theres so much opportunity."
Students seeking internships and businesses searching for interns fill out a Real World Internship request form through the company web site or by mail. Real World sorts through the information, screens students through the forms and a follow-up phone interview and provides the potential employer with an internship candidate profile. Welz then sets up a face-to-face interview.
"If any only if a position is offered after a company interviews a student, and if they hire that student, there's a one-time fee for both paid and unpaid internships," Welz said. Both the employer and the student pay Real World for its services.
We've had companies that have turned to us because they've not had luck with local colleges," Welz said in explaining why companies that can find interns for free might want to use Real World. "Theres limited time and resources that a counselor can spend on students."
So its not surprising that these very offices have embraced Real World Internships by providing students with information about the company. On Long Island, Welz said she had been working in tandem with the career offices at Hofstra University, Adelphi University, C.W. Post, Nassau Community College and SUNY at Stony Brook and Farmingdale. Welz also recruits students from out-of-state colleges, such as Boston University and the University of Wisconsin, who want to do their internships at home on Long Island.
"Time is money," said Tyler Roye, a partner at Invision LLC in Commack, which found three interns through Real World. "You have to be a very large company to develop an intern program to find and screen interns the way she does."
Other local companies Real World has supplied with interns include Erin Edwards Communications in Glen Head, Long Island Global Link in Hauppauge and the radio station 92.7 FM in Garden City."
Were open to trying to work with most companies," Welz said. "We now specialize in graphic design and computer information services, Internet companies or software companies. The other areas we specialize in are advertising, public relations and publishing."
Welz own career path took a detour after graduating from Boston University. With three internships behind her, "I was planning on going into print journalism," she said. But one of the benefits of doing internships is "to learn what is and what is not for you." Journalism was not for her. While working at Prodigy in White Plains in the on-line business content development area, Welz came up with the idea for her internship placement agency.
For market research, with her sister Dina, 22, who is the company director (Welz is president) they combed the beaches of Long Island with a video camera in hand, interviewing students about their summer work plans. Welz knew her business venture would work "when the follow-up question was asked: Would you have been interested in using an agency if they could have helped guide you toward an internship this summer, according to your major? Down the line, it was a straight yes," she recalled.
