Employer Resources

We are excited to collaborate with you by advertising your internship or job opening to our current students and alumni. Our students are resourceful, innovative media professionals who make excellent interns and employees.

Thinking about creating an internship or micro-internship at your company?

What is a micro-internship?

A short-term, remote, project-based opportunity that allows students to gain experience and expand their skill sets in an educational setting. The goal is to create a mutually beneficial experience for both the organization and the student. Our students are creative, capable and motivated to do great work and engage with industry professionals!

What should compensation look like?

Interns need be paid at least minimum wage. Hours can range from 5-40 hours per week, for the duration of the project. There is no expectation for employment at the conclusion of the micro-internship, but mentorship and feedback make the experience more meaningful for both the intern and supervisor. Please consider how you can help an intern in other ways, such as connecting them with colleagues to jumpstart their network.

What can a SOJC intern help you accomplish?

Our students have a diverse set of skills and experience in research, strategy, writing, social media, content creation, video production, photography, traditional media relations, building media lists, etc. Do you have a project that could use a good writer, fact checker or copy editor? Are you interested in researching competitors? Do you need someone to create your social media or manage content? Micro-interns can help you accomplish important tasks while allowing the intern to build proficiency in the industry.  

Tips for success

  1. Be clear about your expectations, goals of the project, and timeframe.
  2. Create a process for reviewing the intern’s work and how you will communicate.
  3. Help students develop their own client relations skill set by inviting them into the process.
  4. Take a chance. Our students want to gain experience, build industry connections and create portfolio pieces. Consider mentoring a student with lots of enthusiasm, but limited experience.

Flexible schedule, micro-internships can be a great opportunity for students. Keep sending micro-internship opportunities to Rachel Allen (rallen@uoregon.edu). Students will still be looking for micro-internship and mentorship opportunities!


Interested in posting an opportunity for SOJC students?

  • Job and internship opportunities are now posted on Handshake. This new platform will better allow students and employers to connect about media-related opportunities.When posting an opportunity, follow the instructions on our job and internship opportunities page to tag SOJC students with your posting.
  • Both employers and students will need to create a profile and login to Handshake.
  • If you need support creating an employer account, please contact the UO Career Center.
  • You can post positions on our SOJC career newsletter and social media platforms by emailing rallen@uoregon.edu with the link to the position, deadline to apply.

Looking to meet with UO students on campus?

  • Contact the UO Career Center about recruiting on campus.
  • For media-specific interests, you can also email SOJC Career Services.
  • Join the conversation: #SOJCJobs and #SOJCIntern

The SOJC’s Internship Policy

The University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication believes that professional internships are an integral part of our students’ education. We encourage students to search for and apply to internships that will offer them the opportunity for hands-on training where they can develop relevant skills and experiences. The SOJC embraces the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) definition of an internship:

“A form of experiential learning that integrates knowledge and theory learned in a classroom with practical application and skills development in a professional setting. Internships give students the opportunity to gain valuable applied experience and make connections in professional fields; and give employers the opportunity to guide and evaluate talent.”

We expect internship supervisors to provide students with personal supervision, ongoing guidance and support, and timely professional feedback/evaluation. An intern is neither free help nor meant to replace an employee and should never spend more than twenty percent of his/her time completing busy work (filing, covering the phone, errands, etc.). Instead, an intern should be guided and monitored based on a set of intentional professional goals that have been established in consultation with the intern and his/her supervisor.

We strongly encourage your organization to offer compensation to your interns. If you are unable to financial compensate your interns, than your organization must abide by the Fair Labor Standards Act (make a link) that sets forth a series of criteria that must legally be met for unpaid internships.


Guidelines for Internship Opportunities

Below are some FAQs regarding structure and expectations of an internship from the employer perspective.

An academic internship is a form of experiential education that integrates knowledge and theory learned in the classroom with practical application and skill development in a professional setting. An integral component of the experience that distinguishes it from other types of work is one or more forms of structured and deliberate reflection contained within learning agendas or objectives. Professional organizations are expected to provide student interns training, supervision by someone in the intern’s field, and evaluation. Internships are meant to serve primarily as learning experiences for the student.

Students earn academic credit, or there is some other connection to a degree-granting, educational institution. This work/learning arrangement is overseen by a faculty or staff member of an educational institution and by a designated employee of an organization. The internship is usually the length or equivalent of an academic term, may be part-time or full-time, paid or unpaid.

To be eligible to earn credit for an internship, students must have completed the first sequence of SOJC major coursework. Some major sequences (ex. Public Relations) also require that the student complete certain coursework prior to earning internship credit (ex. J 350: Principles of Public Relations). The student will need to confer with their faculty advisers to discuss their eligibility. Some employers also use courses like Reporting I as a requirement for their internship candidates.

Ideally, posting an internship two months before the term gives you enough time to interview and select an ideal candidate. Students actively look for internships throughout the school year. The quarters run:

Fall Term: late September – mid December
Winter Term: early January – mid March
Spring Term: early April – mid June
Summer Term: mid June – late September

Planning ahead allows students to secure credit before the term begins. To receive credit, a student needs to talk to his/her faculty adviser. The faculty offer credit for experiences that prepare students to enter their chosen field.

Internships at the UO follow the quarter calendar which is ten weeks long. Some employers request students to commit to two terms. In the first term, students are similar to new employees, learning the job and the company culture. Students who are further along in their coursework or have had other internships may require less training.

Typical time commitment for an internship would be 8-10 hours a week during the school year or up to 40 hours a week during the summer. The number of hours can depend on the size of the project to be completed. If a student receives credit, the number of credits earned usually depends on the number of hours the intern works. If a student works three hours a week for ten weeks, s/he would receive one credit. Nine hours a week would give a student three credits.

We strongly encourage you to offer compensation, especially if your organization is a for-profit business.  Many students work their way through college and often give up a paying part-time position to take an internship, so receiving some form of remuneration is appreciated.

A student can pay to receive up to nine internship credits from the School of Journalism and Communication. If you have applicants from other departments, there are other opportunities for them to secure credit on campus.

Students can earn both credit and compensation for an internship. Some employers offer an hourly wage, stipend, tuition or travel assistance. Many students need to make money to pay bills, especially in the summer. Any extra income frees up time students are devoting to part-time jobs. Offering a wage also increases the quality of an applicant pool.

For more information about paying interns, please read the US Department of Labor Wage & Hour Division’s “Fact Sheet #71: Internship Programs Under The Fair Labor Standards Act

You want to design the position with the success of the internship in mind. Decide who in your organization will mentor the intern, as professional supervision is a required aspect of internships. This supervisor will be the one to give the intern feedback throughout the internship. This supervisor needs to be a professional in the area that the intern in working in. It is recommended that the supervisor and student create a contract before the internship begins, including: hours, specific goals, training or shadowing opportunities, and timelines. Establishing both the student’s and employer’s expectations at the beginning is important. The more communication that happens up front, the better the experience will be for all.