📓 Internship Coursework and Career Reviews
Overview​
Throughout the program, you will complete projects for career services. These projects will prepare you for internships and the job search. This lesson walks through career services coursework, including project deadlines, schedules, expectations, feedback, and submission.
Career Reviews​
Your career services advisor will review the project you complete for each Internship course assignment as your "career review". This term is specific to Epicodus. We use "career review" and "project" interchangeably, often abbreviating "career reviews" as "CRs".
Internship Course​
All assignments for career services are listed in the Internship course on Epicenter. If you are a part of a full-stack program at Epicodus, you'll find this course listed amongst your courses in the Courses tab on Epicenter. If you like, check out the Internship course now to see all of the projects that you will complete for career services!
Academic Honesty & Collaboration​
We encourage collaboration on career services assignments, like reviewing each other's LinkedIns and cover letters for typos and content. We also encourage you to share resources with each other, whether job postings or a helpful resume templating website.
All of that said, the work you do for these projects must be your own. Don't use sample language or content that you find online for any of your work, and do not copy other students' work.
As explained in our Student Handbook, these projects are an opportunity to receive personalized feedback, and to ensure you're developing skills for success after graduation. If you plagiarize work you both lose this valuable opportunity and risk setting yourself up for failure in the job search or interviews. This will not only harm you, but the reputation of all Epicodus students as well.
For these reasons, projects are carefully reviewed to confirm all work is your own. Students found to have plagiarized will be expelled.
Assignment Schedule​
Internship coursework and projects are assigned at different points throughout the program. The schedule for the coursework is listed in the following lessons:
Full-Time Career Services Schedule
Part-Time Career Services Schedule
Students will check in with their career services advisor regularly in meetings prior to each project to learn about upcoming assignments. We call these meetings "Career Services Info Sessions", or just "Info Sessions". If you ever have questions about the coursework, reach out to your advisor.
All career services projects have dedicated time in class to complete them. While some assignments vary, here's what the typical preparation and work that happens for every career review:
- You will first meet with your advisors in an Info Session to discuss the upcoming assignment,
- then you will be assigned readings on the topic of the assignment,
- and finally you'll have class time to complete the assignment.
Submission and Resubmission Schedule​
Projects for the Internship course follow the same submission and resubmission schedule as code reviews. Career reviews are due in the same course section that they are assigned, at the same time that the code review for the section would be due.
Initial Submission​
Although the dedicated time in class to work on career reviews is usually sufficient to complete a career review, some students take extra time to complete them. These are the deadlines for initial project submissions:
- For full-time students, and part-time day-time career reviews must be submitted by 5 pm on Friday.
- For part-time evening students, career reviews must be submitted the following Sunday they are assigned at 9 am.
Some projects don't require a submission, like with mock interviews. In those cases, attending the mock interview at the designated time counts for your submission.
When you do have a project to submit, complete the following steps to submit it:
- Login to Epicenter and navigate to the Courses tab, then select the Internships course.
- Select the link for the career review you have completed. This will open a page with a form to submit your project.
- Paste the link to your project in the provided "submission link" field.
- In the large Epicenter text box below the submission link area, include a brief note to your advisor about how the project went, and any questions or concerns you may have. This content will be sent with your project submission to your teacher, and is not anonymous.
- Submit your project for review!
Review Process & Resubmissions​
In the week following the initial submission, your advisor will review your project.
You'll receive general written feedback, and each objective will be rated on the following scale:
- The code does not meet this standard.
- The code meets this standard most of the time.
- The code meets this standard all of the time.
To pass a career review, you must receive meets this standard most of the time or meets this standard all of the time on all objectives. If any objectives receive a does not meet this standard the project does not pass. You will be required to complete further work and re-submit.
If you are passing objectives, there is nothing more for you to do!
If your advisor finds that you are not passing an objective, they will give you feedback and ask you to complete a resubmission:
- For full-time students, and part-time day-time students resubmissions are due the Monday 10 days after your initial submission was due, just like with code reviews.
- For part-time evening students, resubmissions are due the Sunday after your initial submission was due, just like with code reviews.
Your advisor will review your resubmission in the following week. If you are passing objectives, there is nothing more for you to do. If there are still incomplete objectives after your advisor has reviewed your resubmission, you'll have one more opportunity to fix any remaining problems in the project by the final deadline.
The only exception to this resubmission timeline is the mock interview assignment. Students who do not pass their first mock interview will be required to complete a second mock interview at a future date scheduled by their advisor.
Final Project Deadlines​
Final project deadlines are always due seventeen days after the project was initially assigned:
- For full-time students, and part-time day-time students, the final deadline is at 8 am on the Monday seventeen days after the project was initially assigned.
- For part-time evening students, the final deadline is at 9 am on the Sunday seventeen days after the project was initially assigned.
Projects submitted after the final deadline will not be accepted.
The Academic Warning Policy​
Epicodus staff will give you an Academic Warning when your project is not passing objectives by the resubmission deadline. The warning is intended to communicate that the project is near the final deadline.
Once your project is passing all objectives, we will remove the Academic Warning. However, the number of times you've been given an Academic Warning is a permanent count and will not be reset. We track how many times you've been given an Academic Warning as one way to monitor your progress through the course, and we may ask you to leave or repeat coursework (at no additional cost) if you've been given three Academic Warnings.
The student handbook (an upcoming lesson in this pre-work) covers the Academic Warning Policy in detail. Please make sure you have reviewed the following sections and reach out to your instructor or advisor with any questions:
Course Requirements and Expectations​
Successful completion of career services projects is required to pass courses and graduate. Keep the following in mind:
All projects must be completed and passing to continue with the program.
You must pass all Internship coursework to be eligible for an internship, and to graduate.
In general, we have the following expectations for career services projects:
- All project objectives should be successfully completed. If you are unable to complete all objectives by the deadline, you will have a chance to fix and update your project as a resubmission. If you have any concerns about your project, let your advisor know.