記者之路

The full name of this program: International Internship Program
ITRI is in charge of this program. I am one of the people who in charge of this, but not a full-time employee.

I start to involve this program three years ago. In the beginning nobody paid attention to this project, so I decide what to do, what not to do, not someone assigned me this work.

Why did you come to Taiwan?

The first time I came here in 1996 for teaching English. I have a friend in Seattle who came here first, and she told me, “Come here, you will find a job.” I came here for a while and then I went back to U.S.

The benefits and goals of this program

There are some benefits of this program: first, general public relation, we can spread name of ITRI to different universities of different countries. Second, Interns will do works for us, such as conferences. They can help our projects and contribute their skills. The goals of this program are people recruited and attract international workers.

Most of applicants are in school, and they can’t accept part-time jobs. But some of their departments will ask them to find internship, after they finish the works, they will become more cooperated. More and more students want to have international experience, and that’s why they apply these internships.

For summer intern, we have 25 to 30 positions, but more than 200 applicants and questions. So we spend a lot of time to choose interns. Other benefit is interns have opportunities to meet people from different countries and background. We can get fresh ideas to solve problems.

From budget point of view, managers prefer recruiting part-time employees than full-time workers, because they can make pretty good commitment with less money.

Didn’t you spend more time to train them?

They key is managers of programs will arrange works for them, but they work in another way. Interns who come here can contribute experience or skills that the program lacks, and they will teach other people.

Did you have any difficulty?

For me, because there are many applicants interested in internship, I have to spend a lot of time to answer questions, organize information and spread to different department, then the departments will tell me their wishes.

So far, once interns come here, their departments will take care of them. I don’t see these students very often. We design many activities for these interns and science companies. They are motivated, and want to learn new things. Also, interns who come to Taiwan like adventures. They are not afraid of being lost. It’s fun to them.

There are 150 applicants this year. More than 50 are from US and Canada. European applicants, two from France, one from Austria, one from UK, but most of them are from US. The reason is I am from US, and I know the universities from US. Another reason is that managers of programs know better about American universities, and even some of them studied in America. They want to hire people from the same college.  

In December, we spread our internship information. I can give you the brochures. I will send this to all of departments and ask them if they need interns for coming summer. They have to provide their plans, who’s in charge of this program, who’s mentors, what kind of internship, and what kind of interns they need, and give me the application forms.

Most applicants mention their motivation to come here is they have nothing to do in summer. But it’s bad for programs, after they went back to their countries, they would tell their friends, the program was boring and learned nothing. So the most important is departments must have needs to recruit interns, and also have plans. They can learn something useful and they would be happy.

On the form, I will tell departments, if they need interns who can speak Chinese, they have to add this on Job Description. So far, there’s no problem between mentors and interns. Again, departments have to know what kind of interns they want and what kind of jobs they do.

Many applicants are young people. Usually, people who stay here for a while will show newcomers around and they are not afraid of getting lost. Taiwanese normally treat foreigners friendly, and if they have some questions, they will ask locals.

I post information on those places for international students, such as National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.

We don’t provide the airfare, but we provide free dormitories. For undergraduate students we pay NT.30000 per month and master students NT. 32000 to NT.35000 per month. It’s the most important that they can learn new experience, such as culture shock from Taiwan.

Do they have any complaint?

Most of them complain about hot weather, but they mostly are healthy, and we provide insurance for them.

Some departments will ask for their feedback form to understand what they learn during internship. I will also collect feedback forms from students and departments and know what can get better next year. In the past years, some departments said they want to recruit high level students, and also hope they can stay for more than two months. So this year we recruit students can stay for over six months.

I will also provide them information about where to find jobs in Taiwan and I believe these internships will give them certain help for their future jobs.