Season 3 of Software Engineering Internship: Team Management

Remote / Work-from-Home Position: Rolling Start Dates, Full-time over Summer 2021, 3-4 Month Commitment, Unpaid Internship 

Rather than the coffee-fetching of a typical internship, Bashpole Software, Inc. interns will gain useful experience in process management; organizational architecture, goals, and leadership through interaction with Bashpole Software experts. Interns will also have access to formal documentation and, by association, actions occurring across the company. Interns will participate in consistent group action, learning process management from experts in Bashpole Software.

Real Experience: Bashpole Software offers interns a rare opportunity for management consulting experience. Very few companies or organizations have programs that train interns to lead teams. Season 3 interns at Bashpole will be trained to manage and actually manage interns from earlier Seasons. They will also expand and update our training processes. In turn, through the work of the people they train and manage, they will benefit a variety of in-house staff members, future interns, and nonprofits. Our interns’ work will be used by real people in the real world. This practical application is meant to bridge the gap between an intern’s university learning and workplace reality.  

Thoughtful Mentorship: Bashpole Software, Inc. enables you to work in small teams of typically 3 to 5 interns with direct supervision and mentorship on a weekly basis from either the company’s CEO, senior staff members, interns who have held this position before, or all of the above.

Timeline:

This internship is the third of a three-part series of training for software engineering that leads to definite positive impact for charities that interest you and even potential employment with Bashpole Software.

For internships, a “season” means one of summer, fall/winter, or winter/spring. It varies depending on the timeline (semesters/trimesters/quarters) your college follows, and internship begin and end dates vary likewise. Generally, a full-time internship lasts for at least 3 months, and a part-time internship lasts for at least 5 months, no matter the season.

People can apply to skip Season 1 if they have an exceptional background and experience already. Interns wanting to move to Season 3 must have done a Season 2 internship in advance.

Note: do not apply for more than one internship position at a time. Pick the one that interests you the most, apply for it, and then if you are invited for an interview, mention your interest in the other positions at that time.

A Unique and Valuable Experience: Bashpole Software is preparing to roll out its prototype software to nonprofits that work on a wide variety of social causes across the USA and many other countries.

  • We support creating opportunities for leadership. As an intern, you’ll be encouraged to lead projects and goals that suit your interests. This encouragement extends to potential management training.
  • You will work either collaboratively in a team or independently on a project of your choice from a list that we will provide.
  • In weekly team meetings, you will be guided by Bashpole employees who have from 10 to 20 years or more of relevant work experience.

Network with Peers, Mentors, & More: Bashpole supports networking opportunities by helping you to learn how to effectively communicate with executives. Build lasting impressions and have direct interactions with staff members and fellow interns who reside around the United States and the world. Interns often report being able to meet more people in our remote internships than they are able to meet in physical classrooms with the same number of people because of the ways we encourage and facilitate networking meetings.

Portfolio: With approval from management, this internship also offers opportunities for you to add examples to your professional portfolio, which you can later use for future job applications.

Credit: If you want work-study or school-credit for the internship, we can provide the kind of oversight your university would require. Some educational institutions require prior approval before the start of an internship. It is the responsibility of the student to check with their institution to be sure they meet any requirements before they accept a position.

Workplace Readiness Training: There are a variety of corporate culture and communication soft skills that many organizations expect you to know but few universities or companies actually provide training for. So, we’ve developed something unique: our rules-of-thumb (RoT’s) training process. The RoT’s are the otherwise unwritten rules of professional etiquette straight from hard-learned experiences of industry professionals. We’re developing a book and a training system for expressly teaching this kind of advice to our employees, our interns, and eventually to others that will be valuable for your future career.

Testimonials: Bashpole’s company culture is a supportive, motivated, and collaborative environment for all levels of employment that isn’t based upon strict workplace hierarchies. With the projects you work on, and the people you regularly work with, you can establish a cooperative and productive relationship with anyone at any place on the corporate ladder.

Make a Difference: Unlike with your classroom experiences, your work here will be with real people on real projects that we will put to real use in short order for our customers and partner organizations. This allows you to have a larger impact than if working with a single nonprofit or government organization alone. Interns will also contribute to our training documents and leave a legacy for future interns.

About Us: Bashpole Software, Inc. has been in business since 2006 with the mission to develop technology to better the world. Our services include applied research and development, nonprofit marketing, sponsorship opportunities for businesses, and data services. Bashpole has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Initiative (DARPA), and the sales of services to nonprofits. For more information, please visit https://bashpolesoftware.com/.

Responsibilities:

Interns will be responsible for managing interns from Seasons 1 and 2. Their responsibilities will consist of the following:

  • Improving the training processes for interns
  • Handling questions and concerns
  • Reporting to senior management
  • Assisting with recruitment of new interns (including interviews)

Interns will also practice skills for running meetings, tracking others progress, and learning how to motivate their teams. 

Preferred Skills to Have and Develop:

  • Ability to communicate effectively with all members of the team
  • Ability to create documents for team management
  • Demonstrates problem-solving skills
  • Remote work both as a team and individually
  • Connection with your coworkers with a positive personality and sense of humor
  • Challenge to your own assumptions and think creatively

Internship Parameters:

  • Be generally available for meetings during business hours – we have team and individual meetings every week via Google Meet and similar online conferencing software
  • Flexible daily start and stop times 
  • For internships taken during the fall or spring, work on average 2-4 hours a day or 10-20 hours per week. For internships during the summer, work on average of 8 hours a day or 40 hours per week.
  • Bashpole expects interns to manage their individual schedules.
  • Internship begin and end dates are flexible according to your university’s calendar for classes

It is expected that interns start ASAP and continue to the end of the school term for each season. Internship participation over multiple seasons is preferred, but not required.

Internship Benefits:

Interns will partner with helpful, friendly teammates from many universities and a variety of backgrounds. Please read the Company Culture to see the experience past interns had with us. These networking interns perform can lead to lifelong professional and personal connections. Interns will be given unique soft skills training called the “Rules of Thumb” (RoT) and position-specific best practices. The friendly and supportive people at Bashpole Software provide excellent mentorship.

Bashpole Software, Inc. complies with all US Department of Labor Federal Internship Guidelines. https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.htm

To Apply:

Email careers@bashpole.com by submitting your resume and including short descriptions of your qualifications for each bullet under the Prefered Skills section in the Cover Letter. Resumes sent without this information will not be considered. You must be a student during the time of your internship and must not have permanently graduated.

For an intern to get into management consulting, they need previous management experience. Bashpole provides its interns with extensive training on management activities. The management internship — while not a guarantee — is an excellent pathway to a paid staff position at Bashpole Software, as well as being an excellent resume booster. Interns applying for such positions must have successfully completed at least a Season 2 Internship, preferably a Season 1 or a different Season 2 Internship.

Interns – whether interested in one or multiple internships – will require only one, one-hour first interview. Also, in some cases, a customized internship may be possible.