People often ask me about the ColdFusion internship at TeraTech, how does it work, who is it good for, why do we do it, etc. The Internship is a chance for people new to CF to learn the latest programming techniques hands on for 6 months from experienced programmers. Just as important is learning how to work well on a team and day to day tips of software development that you can't learn from a book. Interns start on small internal projects then as their skills progress they help out on real world projects. Interns often go on to get full time jobs at TeraTech or other tech companies.
We only accept people who have done some programming in some language before (doesn't have to be ColdFusion) or used an older version of CF and want to step up to the latest version. Often people in career transition or who need to get current job experience to move into their dream career. Because of all the mentoring interns receive it is on site at our Rockville MD office for 20-40 hours per week. Interns attend all TeraTech classes and event such as CFUnited at no charge.
So why do we do it? It is a way to give back to the community; a way to find and interact with potential new employees over the long term and a way to get help on community websites such as mdcfug.org and cfconf.org. Also intern often have lots of questions and questions and mentoring are a great way to keep our programming fresh and up to date. There is nothing like teaching some concept to someone else to really understand it yourself!
Does anyone else have a internship at their organization and how does your internship work?
