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UNIX Internship Programs? 169

Posted by Cliff from the getting-experience-while-still-in-school dept.
startingInUnix asks: "I went to my college career fair today looking for a summer internships. Alot of the companies there (and on the web) that have internships are mostly Microsoft camps. I'm having trouble finding any place that offers UNIX positions. Does anyone out there have a business that looks for UNIX interns?"
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UNIX Internship Programs? More

UNIX Internship Programs?

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  • Try any university research lab (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I got an internship in an astrophysics department where they use Unix to run simulations because they're supercomputers like it. Anywhere where computational research is done (applied math, physics, chemistry, biochemistry, or where ever else the university buys supercomputers) has a good chance of using Unix, and if they have supercomputers they can probably use coders. Brush up on your Fortran first, though.

  • Re:don't look for Microsoft (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The problem is that Microsoft jobs can usually be filled with a monkey or similary, an ape. Linux or UNIX jobs usually require a BA or BS in something, which says that you've been to a university, which means you've probably at least been somewhat exposed to UNIX. Now the problem is that I am looking to intern, I know UNIX, but I can't find anyone who wants to hire me because I don't come with papers (BA/BS) I'm in school right now though.

    -AC #3842049

  • Re:The only true UNIX is Linux (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Sorry but Solaris/AIX/HP-UX/SCO can do things that would give Linus wet dreams.

    So does Windows. But most Slashdot readers really mean Linux when they say Unix.

  • Big Blue (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    IBM take a lot of students in the UK through several different schemes. Given the size of the company most students end up getting a job very close to the one that they asked for.

    With regard to UNIX, I spent time working with AIX on powerPC and with Mandrake/RedHat on x86 during the time that I have worked there. If you want to get your hands onto the serious boxen then I suggest that you find a storage group. The SSD group at Hursley (who make SSA) has a fair amount of kit lying around and makes pretty cool stuff. There's probably plenty of labs in the US that do similar stuff.

    good luck

  • Intel (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I interned for a division of Intel where I did BSD/Linux stuff.

  • Hewlett-Packard (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    HP in Richardson, TX (suburb of Dallas) takes a bunch of co-ops all the time (and sometimes summer interns). That site does (in addition to other stuff) HP-UX development and works on big iron machines.
  • Sun Microsystems in San Diego has Internships. Last summer we had a bunch. We're building more offices so try next summer. http://www.sunsandiego.com/ [sunsandiego.com] (I think the home page is a little tacky :-), but it has some real information behind it).

    Background: We design the mainframe-class Enterprise 10000 servers (hardware and software) here in San Diego. We also have regular jobs too.

  • If you want to work on Unix itself, rather than just using it, Compaq [compaq.com] hires interns to work on parts of Tru64 UNIX [compaq.com]. Feel free to mail me at bobbell@zk3.dec.com [mailto] for more info.
  • Go2Net often has unix interns. Just yesterday we
    hired one of them on full time.

    Check out http://www.go2netjobs.com

    We are a web company, that does a bit of everything. metacrawler is us, hypermart is us, we also own dogpile and several other sites.
  • Actually, that plummet at the end of June was a result of a dividend paid to shareholders: the stock in the various companies SGI was holding. That aside, SGI's price has done a fairly decent job of following the trends on the NASDAQ since March.

    Move on. Nothing to see here.
  • Of course, probably any large high-tech company will do Unix interns.

    And at the white house, they do all kinds of interns.

    Man am I asking for it this time... =)
    -----
  • Am I the only one that picked up on the sarcasm/attempt at humor? Or do you guys just take everything seriously?
  • It's called a joke for crying out loud.
  • Whoa, the job market has tons of jobs, if your not happy MOVE on..
    I soon realized I had to leave a smaller town and move on, if I wanted a career.
    Some of my friends STILL have not left, I keep offering them jobs, but they have a damn confidence problem...
    There seems to be a problem with people underestimating their value.
    DAMN it people, goto DICE/Monster and post your resume!

    Also, if they don't give a damn about you, why do you want to work there?
    Only reason to take a job is, training, experience, or they pay you piles of money...
    There is no reason you cant look for a new job, while you have one.

  • Normally it goes from tech support - NOC -> Admins.
    NOCS do the indepth troubleshooting, since they are the 24/7 support.
    Admins are on call 24/7 but they only take critial problems after hours...

    -Brook

  • For example Yahoo! runs on FreeBSD mainly, and has internships.

    ---
  • Huh? I went to my job fair and had the opposite experience. As a matter of fact, pretty much everyone I talked to asked me about my Unix experience and complimented me on it.

    Perhaps you were looking for the wrong type of job? Most of my conversations focused on server side application programming and performance tools, and when I asked, none of the companies even mentioned Microsoft as a development platform, other than to say that they did have some NT in their operations.

  • Just about any embedded design company has a UNIX or UNIX-like development system. Most notibly, the telecomm equipment companies. Those large phone switches, cross connects and Cellular equipment systems all run some form of embedded or non-embedded UNIX or UNIX-like operating system. It's a great place for UNIX lovers! Some of these companies include Lucent, Tellabs, Motorola, and Alcatel.
  • AFAIK, most internships (read: Cheap labor for companies) aren't even paid. It's supposed to be experience. On top of that, if you're even getting paid what my student workers do at my school ($8-9 an hour) that's better than what my friend got interning for the summer at NASA/Goddard.
    --
  • I only speak for the Northeast here. Everybody I know that went to companies in Philly, New York etc had unpaid internships. As far as I had ever been aware, that is. Plus, I know for a fact that my friend who went to Goddard was unpaid.


    --
  • I recently wrote about Extreme Blue, an IBM summer program for extremely smart undergrad programmers. They do a lot of work in Linux. Will that do?

  • I would be interested in offering an Internship and have thought about it for sometime. I work for a leading Sun ASEC and am constantly looking for quilified candidates to fill Unix Instructor positions. An internship would be a great way to save some money, while offering the vaulable experience someone needs before they are "ready" for the workforce. We are based out of Kansas City, but have offices in Virginia Beach, Witchita, Omaha, Tulsa, Salt Lake City and St. Loius.

    --Wrex
    wrexa@bigfoot.com
  • http://jobsearch1.attws.com/jobs/CAMPUS.CFM

    Most of our IT intern positions I've seen are for coders, but I'm sure we have Unix positions, too. We're historically an HP/UX shop, but Solaris is quickly overtaking it.

    No Linux. Officially, that is... ;-)

  • I work for a large aerospace company that is on contract with the U.S. Military. We are always on the lookout for interns in various areas. Our site has many *nix boxen: IBM, Sun, and even x86 running Linux. My last assistant up and quit after the management at his company (not the one I work for) made a major screw-up. The position is open....

    Look to companies in the military/government sector as well as the private sector.
  • They are out there...especially around the NY Financial district where reliable and stable environments are a must for day to day business activities. In fact, I am a product of one such internship. The Company I currently work for (Instinet) hired me on as an intern last summer. At the end of the internship, they kept me on part time, where I would telecommute one day and go in to the office every friday until this past May where I went full time.. We do lots of good stuff, perl hacking, java programming, c/c++, oracle/sybase Databases.. I know they really only take internships over the summer...but you can contact HR if your interested.
  • see here [netcraft.com] and scroll down to the dogfood department. or check the links at here [netcraft.com]. They still haven't got rid of frisbee totally.
  • This looks like monster.com or something...

    Whatever, finding unix jobs as a newbie can be hard, most require some experiense. dotcoms are usually less picky about experiense. use netcraft [netcraft.com] to find dotcoms that haven't been assimilated.
  • First off, it may have been more useful if you would have given a city where you want to work. But aside from that, I recommen finding small companies that are growing. I can recommend a few places in the Chicago area, but that all I know.

    Software Technologies Group: (http://www.stg.com) does a lot of recruiting over most of Nrthern Illinois. They specialize in UNIX systems software (device drivers, monitoring software, etc...) and I have never heard anything bad from any of their current or ex-employees about the company. In fact I am currently an intern there myself.

    Otherwise, try places like Motorola, Lucent, or maybe Sun, HP, or SGI.

    Hope this helps.
    Hockey - Canada's gift to the world

  • You know, you really would think that with all the noise they're making about it, IBM would be a great place to do Linux/open source work.

    The answer, at least in my experience (a summer internship over the summer of '99 plus some recruitment attempts thereafter) is that there is the perfect job or internship for you somewhere in that company, but don't expect to be put in touch with the right people about it by HR.

    Matt Hiller, GCC Engineer, the Red Hat formerly known as Cygnus, Sunnyvale, CA

  • Try Nortel Networks - big multinational corp. with a huge & well established internship program. The boxes on the desks are Windows NT, but they all run eXceed to access the UNIX back-end (don't ask about the pointy-haired management decision to throw away all the HP-UX workstations & use eXceed instead *sigh*) If you're *really* lucky you might get placed in a department that's doing Java development on Solaris.


    --

  • Motorola hires hundreds if not thousands of interns in almost every department. On my last contract at Motorola over the summer of 1999 we had 8 interns for the IT department alone, the software developers had several dozen more.

    Granted these postions concentrated in the Chicago IL, USA area but how enthused are you?
    -Rusty
  • How about an Internet Startup [convio.com]? Most of them are fun places to work and for the obvious reasons many of them run on a Unix platform. We're a pure Java shop, and agnostic in Engineering; over half the developers run NT because the Quake/UT drivers are better (yes, really) but the production kit is FreeBSD, Linux and Solaris.
  • I'm a programmer with about 20 years experience, ten or so with Unix and Linux, and I employ one or two interns constantly, each for three to six months. I've found that monster.com is not a good place to find interns; I have much better luck advertising on jobtrak.com [jobtrak.com]. So don't forget about them.

    For info about my internship program, see http://www.kegel.com/academy/ [kegel.com]

  • http://www.bell-labs.com/
    Click on "employment" and look near the bottom of the page, for Intern Program.
  • Check out us, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Our main Web site is http://www.fnal.gov/ with a subpage linked with current employment openings so there must also be something about summer openings on the site also. Have a look around.
  • I work for DynCorp (www.dyncorp.com). We have an intern now from George Mason University who works with UNIX most of the time, but he also does some Windows NT stuff. If you go to college in the Washington DC area then have your placement office contact DynCorp or me personally at jmark@#nospam#dyncorp.com


  • Sun has plenty of internship programs that you could look at.
    Have a search on their jobs [sun.com] page.

  • Not just Unix developing companies are interested in Linux geeks. I worked at Schlumberger Austin Product Center, IT advanced technology group this summer. All but one (that is the web master) CS interns and summer pooling students are Linux geeks. We wrote everything in Linux. In fact, they bought us brand new computers and we wiped the NT drive and installed linux. It was awesome.

    My buddy is signing a contract with them writing in-house Linux stuffs, too.

    When I looked for the intern, IBM's CAD developing group in NY also was looking for UNIX people writing TCL/Tk stuffs under AIX.

  • I went to my college career fair today looking for a summer internships

    The problem is sadly, that neither Microsoft or you it seems are familiar with a concept much of the world is quite comfortable with. We call them seasons. And if there were no unix vendors at your summer job fair it is because they know summer was 2 months ago.

    Why do I get this image of 1 guy and a table of microsoft weenies who have been locked in the gymnasium since the summer job fair.

    Disclaimer - the previous sections were meant to be funny, you may argue that probably this person simply lives in a different portion of the world then myself; and that America's borders do not comprise the entire globe. To you I would say, get bent.

  • First of all, I don't think there's a way that IBM could devote itself to AIX that I couldn't think of.

    Secondly, Sun is a company and it's not "developed." And IBM is a direct competitor with Sun Microsystems, so if you'd like to elaborate..

    And everyone knows that IBM working with Linux is for PR and to satisfy those who don't want to pick up the check for AIX- they can save it for an "upgrade"

    Who wouldn't think of IBM when they think of UNIX developers?

  • I'm not sure I could have worded it better myself.

    My explaination would involve the fact that IBM should not be expected to, nor will they ever, phase out AIX in favor of Linux. People who use AIX don't care that it's not free, it does the job and it does it well. IBM knows they can charge lots of money for that.

  • I'm in a similar situation as you (College student), but have had no problems finding unix internships. There are a LOT of companies out there looking for those skills.

    However, you can't expect them to find you. Go on hotjobs, or monster (or insert job site of choice). Post your resume. But SEARCH for jobs you'd be interested in. Then submit your resume anyway. Mention that you're looking for an internship in your cover letter, and ask if they'd be interested. Some will turn you down. But a surprising number wont.

  • I would avoid Intel. They probably do use unix for their chip design workstations, but the likelyhood of getting an internship developing that software is rather low. Most of the rest of the organization is completely terrified of anything that doesn't come from Microsoft. I speak from experience.

    The work place has a poor reputation for a reason as well. I worked in a "bull pen" last summer. A large cubicle with two large desks and four contractors. It sucked. Not as bad as sharing a compressed cube though...

    On the plus side, they pay well, as long as you get to negotiate your own rate. Their intern program doesn't let you do that, so go the contractor route if you can and you want to work there.
  • You really ought to be careful when insulting someone else's intelligence. At the very least, you ought to spell your insults correctly.

    Your = belongs to you.

    You're = you are.

    Get a fucking clue.
    ________________
    They're - They are
    Their - Belonging to them

  • A question: Is the current version of Realplayer for Unix Realplayer 8? The only version available seems to be 7.0, the last time I checked...
  • I went to my school's job fair this week as well. I stopped at some "e solutions provider" booth and asked them the usual questions, (what do you guys do, could I get an internship, etc). I told them that I was pretty picky about the internships and jobs I like to consider, because I'm a Unix geek and too many places just try to fit companies of all sizes with NT-based solutions.

    Their reply was something to the effect of, "well, that's exactly what we do. We develop strictly for NT, because that's how it's done in business today. NT is simply the standard, and it's the best." I laughed at them and left, but I could have laughed at them all I wanted because in the end, they may be wrong about NT being the best, but they're RIGHT about NT being what people want. It's very saddening, but companies really DO trust Microsoft.

    On that note, I think I'm going to do some more drinking.
  • While we don't look for UNIX interns, we do hire college non-grads. If you want to work full time, school part time, and have yer manager call the internship coordinator at your school from time to time, I'm sure many UNIX shops can accomidate you.
  • UUwho?
    digex.net => icix.net
    http://www.intermedia.com/

  • The U.S. National Labs offer lots of internships/positions for computer scientists involving Linux or Unix. Here is an incomplete set links for the curious:

  • My university (CSU Chico) has an Office of Experiencial Education which can be contacted for that purpose. However, I found most succesful internship (which has turned into a part-time job) via a friend who'd previously worked at the company (MontaVista Software).

    Many universities have bulletin boards available for posting job offers; Check not only with the folks who handle internships and such but also the college of computer science -- if you can post closer to where the folks you want hang out, all the better.

    As for what a student's looking for... well, needless to say, it depends. That could vary from experience and technical skills to contacts or simply money for college. Be sensitive about the differences in the cost of living between your location and where you hire your interns from -- my cost of living literally quadrupled when I went to Sunnyvale. If you can provide your interns with housing outright, such will doubtless be most appreciated.

  • If you are a programmer, at least, look at companies that develop so-called embedded systems. The operating systems of choice in this industry are UNIX-like: WindRiver vxWorks [windriver.com] and LynuxWorks LynxOS/BlueCat Linux [lynuxworks.com]. Indeed, many embedded designs are starting to utilize plain Linux.

    What are embedded systems, you ask. Damn smart question - you should be proud of yourself. Fact is, probably most programmers in the world are actually developing such systems. Basically, any electronic/computing device that is not a conventional computer. For instance, gaming devices, cd-rom drives, DNA analyzers (I do that [windriver.com]), telecommunications devices, power utility switches, routers/bridges, medical instruments, .. ..

    Keywords to look for would be firmware development, embedded systems programming, real-time development.

    Best part of it all is that you'll probably get to deal with some of the most interesting development environments that exist. For instance, we developed our said DNA analyzer using ObjecTime [objectime.com], and going forward we'll be using Rational RoseRT [rational.com] - tools that automatically generate C++ code based on the model that you visually draw! (You just fill in the "meat" of each function - the action that takes place in a transition, say). Logic Analyzers, emulators/simulators, virtual platforms, cross-compiler environments -- this is all the stuff that teach you everything about computers - and nice OS designs.

    Now, if you were not actually asking as a programmer, but as a systems administrator or other IT drone, here is the (more limited) tip: Go for the back ends - i.e. web servers, IBM's Net.Commerce development, DNS/Firewall administration, that type of stuff. But those are not real people - the I.T. world is just to stuffed with "management types". If you still have the choice, look for software/firmware development environments - much cooler people and more casual atmosphere.

  • The reason you are finding so many MS internships available is simple: There are more companies that utilize Microsoft technology over UNIX-based technology. No matter what you say about MS, you have to agree that a lot of companies have sprouted up because of MS (of course you could argue that said companies would still spring up without MS).

    In any case, I can empathize with you. I graduated in May, but prior to that, there were about three companies looking for UNIX interns as compared to over 100 looking for those who knew VB/VC/MS-SQL/ASP/etc.

  • You need to check out Telco type NOCS (Network Operations Center) aka 2nd tier tech support.
    If you have any UNIX experience, your basically hired, turnover is high.
    And they train you, since they need things done in certain ways, UNIX and networking basics.
    Tech support is your key into higher paying jobs, they love to promote from within.
    Ask if they do Internships, we hired 3 after they graduated.

    NOC's are a little hidden gold mine. I get to take my friends who are NT tech support, and convert them to the dark side. :)
    The pay is better too.

    -Brook
    Daily dose of pr0n @ thehun.net [thehun.net]

  • My company will be setting up a number of interships.

    What I would like to know is what kinds of experience college students are looking for in an intership?

    Who needs to be contacted at the college to set up an internship?

    What other information should I be looking at while planning on offering interships?

    Lando
  • FedEx uses hundreds of interns, mostly in Unix-related positions.

    The pickings are best in Memphis, Orlando, and Colorado Springs.

    They have been known to bring the same person back for more than one internship.

    -
  • EMC has internships that are Unix-based, so if you're interested in working in Massachusetts or North Carolina (Research Triangle Park), there are possibilities. You can look at www.emc.com.

    (If you don't know, EMC is the leader in very-high-end storage solutions. We're talking over 17 terabytes in one box right now. And yes, I do work for EMC--I use Linux at my desk.)

    Of course, probably any large high-tech company will do Unix interns. As others have suggested, you can search the job sites. If you have a particular geographic area in mind, find out what companies are there, and contact them.
  • WorldCom I know for a fact is looking for a strong background in Unix. 3M and Lucent are some others.


    --
    Mike Hollinger
  • Cisco [cisco.com] is always hiring - and we have a large
    population of *nix geeks - Linux is very popular
    internally and of course there are tons of sun boxes...

  • Oracle [oracle.com] is a pretty heavy Unix shop. The URL for the internship program gives some typical internship openings, several of which explicitly give "UNIX" as one of the key technical areas:
    http://www.oracle.com/college/jobs_sam. html [oracle.com]

    and the Internships page itself:
    http://www.oracle.com/college/jobs_int.html [oracle.com]

    Disclaimer: I work for Oracle and like it here, so I am probably biased!

  • We're looking for FT positions, but we do take a number of interns.

    The positions are <a
    href="http://www.solutioninc.com/about/jobs.html ">here</a>.

    We're based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, so a relocation would be required unless you wanted to be sales. Halifax is a cool city for geeks anyway. Lots of broadband, and there are apartment buildings that are connected to our office building via pedways.
  • They might have something at Hotmail. Or maybe their Linux portation group. Heck, now they might be able to get you in at Corel.
  • RealNetworks has a fabulous UNIX development story. We always need interns to do software development and QA. mail us! [mailto]

    BTW: RealPlayer for Unix is available today for the following platforms: Linux i386/PPC/Alpha, Solaris, Irix and AIX, and RealServer is available for Linux/i386, Solaris, Freebsd, Irix, HPUX, and AIX. RealProducer is available for Linux/i386. I know all these projects could use the help of good interns. download them here [real.com].

    Thanks,
    RealNetorks TLC Techlead && RealNetworks Server Devlead.
  • Since for all practical purposes all silicon design tools run exclusively on *nix, a very good starting place is the chip-design industry.

    At last word Intel was hiring anything that wasn't down to room temperature, although that may have to do with their working-environment reputation. Still, there are lots of other companies that design ICs.

    ISPs are another possiblity.
  • I'm very sympathetic to your struggle. There must be only a few ten thousands of companies that use some flavor of Unix today... and what a mighty, mighty challenge it must be, figuring out which companies.

    Glad to see you're willing to help out a newbie, and aren't cynical or bitter like some of those linux zealots over at slashdot.... oh, wait a sec...

    Neil..........

  • VA (Score:2)

    by alehmann ( 50545 )
    This summer I was 14 and I was looking for a cool Linux job. asked at VA and ended up working in a summer internship with them. It rocked! :)
  • I'm sure my company would hire you.

    www.speedyclick.com

    We are lookig for new perl/mod_perl guys.

    They hired me and I'm just a 17 year old punk
    with an ego.
    ;-)

    And yes we are all linux all the time.
  • We are always looking for skilled C programmers and System Engineers for HPUX and Solaris and soon Linux. While I will NOT speak for my company I will say that it is HARD to find people willing to do UNIX internships.

    Maybe it's because you're asking for SKILLED people? How about this: Looking for students who want to program in C and learn UNIX.

    The reason they're doing the internship is because they want to pick UP the skills. I've taken 2 semesters of C, I've been playing with Linux for years, but I couldn't apply to your internship in good faith because I don't consider myself 'Skilled' in either.

    Later, Erik Z

  • Hmm, nothing about internships. Let's try the yellow pages for 'Human Resources' and get a phone number.

    That's interesting, there's nothing human in there. :-)

    Later
    Erik Z
  • Everyone knows? I think IBM's interest in Linux is sincere. IBM have
    been the UNIX vendor whose participation in the UNIX standardisation
    process was most genuine and least Machiavellian, and I think they see
    Linux doing what AIX failed to: provide a kind of default standard for
    UNIX. It would be great if some of their administration tools were to
    migrate over to Linux...
  • Tech support is your key into higher paying jobs, they love to promote from within.

    What the fuck ever. Neither of the two [geis.com] places [nih.gov] I've done tech support for gave a damn about anybody in tech support. As far as the company was concerned, we weren't worth the time of day. I saw an awful lot of really talented people leave because there was no hope of advancement, or even a side-grade into an interesting field that doesn't burn you out. Forget tech support, it is a dead-end career path that only teaches you to hate your fellow man and loathe all known computer software.

    I'd kill myself if I could muster up the self-confidence to know I wouldn't screw it up, but my 3.5 years of tech support have robbed me of even that.

  • Wait a sec... you fed the troll, and you expect to GET karma points from that? That's not the way things work. You saw that it was flamebait, but you took the bait anyway.
    --
    No more e-mail address game - see my user info. Time for revenge.
  • Woah! I think you're not in the same internship field I'm in...

    I know for a fact that freshman/sophmores in college START at $16+/hr (or often higher) at most of the bigger shops (SGI/HP/IBM/etc). After a summer or two, or just more school experience, it's fairly standard for software/UNIX interns to get $20+. And my experience is in the Midwest. I can't speak for anything out East/West (but its probably higher)

  • I was working at NASA Ames Research Center a few years ago as a Unix Sys Admin and I remember that there were probably 5 or 6 interns working in our area. Two of the local community colleges had deals with the center where interns would get to work at Ames, get college credit, and get low wages (like $7/hr at the time. Might be more now). Looking quickly on the web, I see that the program has a webpage at: http://interns.arc.nasa.gov

    The main NASA webpage has a section for student jobs, but it's buried under some huge URL.

    It might not suit you because of the location (Silicon Valley) but if there's a NASA location near you, chances are that they would have a similar program. It's not great pay, but what company are you going to go to where you get to work with HUGE supercomputers:

    Crays, IBM SP-2, SGI O2000, and hundreds of terabytes of online tape robot storage.

    (that list was much more impressive in 1996, I swear!)

    It's definitely an interesting place to work for your $7/hr. (1996 wages) They'd end up hiring most of the interns that were interested.

  • You can do your part to help this --

    Bring your hotshot resume, get them interested, discover they're in bed with Microsoft, offer your disapproval and leave.

    Tech companies these days have to work hard to snatch up able graduates. Other kinds of pressure might not phase them, but this kind is real.
  • Agreed.

    As an aditional point, companies that produce Unix operating systems often receive internal pricing (i.e. supposedly cheaper) on their O/S licenses, so you'll find that Unix is still greatly used in these shops.

    I interned for a year at HP, and although we were far removed from the O/S group, the server platform of choice was, of course, HP/UX.

    Persevere with your search for a Unix position - big shops are still a great way to learn Unix - and the skills and knowledge you'll acquire can easily be applied to Linux (with a few caveats).

    • A good place to start might be http://jobs.hp.com/ [hp.com].
    • Agilent is a spin-off of some HP divisions, they also take interns: http://jobs.agilent.com [agilent.com].
    • Finally, HP spun off it's Mechanical Design Division into CoCreate Software, whose jobs page is here [cocreate.com].
    Good luck!
  • The only jobs I can get are Unix jobs! Please, I'd love to intern at a company playing with Microsoft stuff. Where are you trying to intern?
    --
    Peace,
    Lord Omlette
    ICQ# 77863057
  • ...and come back on a H1B visa.

    Then hang out at websites like usavisanow [usavisanow.com]

    But stay the hell away from fairus [fairus.org], which outlines (in the "Stein Report") the various election year payoffs the American Senators are getting from Sun, Oracle, Microsoft, GE and IBM.
  • I work for Merck. We have thousands of sites around the world, and we are actually having a hard time finding UNIX interns. I live and work in New Jersey ( our headquarters ). If you are in the area or would like me to pass along you resume, email me at work. peter_perfetti@merck.com
  • Unix is just a cheap knockoff of DOS anyways. There are more differences than I can count between Unix and DOS:
    • For example, Unix copied the DOS "more" command, but called it "less", because it didn't do as much.
    • It doesn't matter if you type DOS commands all in capitals or not (so "MORE" and "more" do the same thing), but you have to be real careful not to hit the shift key when you type Unix commands, because the Unix guys couldn't figure out how to make it case insensitive.
    • DOS has much better video games. For example, one of the best video games of all time, Doom, only works on DOS. It would be impossible to program a game like Doom on Unix, because Unix has something called a "colonel", which is kind of like an army officer that prevents prevents video game programers from using the full power of the hardware.
    • DOS comes with a really great editor called "edlin", which was so powerful that most people weren't smart enough to figure out how to actually edit a file with it. In contrast, Unix had a really poor editor called "TeX". You need a special printer to use TeX, and it has to use special fonts. Its not user friendly at all.
    • All the commands in Unix are really short, like "cp" instead of "copy", and "rm" instead of "rename". They had to do this because Unix can only use 300 baud teletypes (teletypes are kind of like typewriters), which are really, really slow. Computers that use DOS are much, much faster than computers that use Unix, so DOS computers are able to use something called a "terminal", which is kind of like a television, but with words on it.
    • Unix computers are so unreliable that the people who made Unix constantly had to look at the directions. So, they put all the directions online, in something called "man" pages. On the other hand, DOS computers never break, so there was no reason to put any of the directions on the computer.
    • DOS computers are made by the same company that makes Microsoft Word, so all DOS computers come with Microsoft Word pre-installed. You can get Microsoft Word for Unix computers, but its really expensive, so most people don't bother. But, Microsoft Word is the international standard for the exchange of text documents through email, so most Unix users aren't able to read email sent to them by DOS users.
    I hope that I have explained to everyone most of the really important differences between Unix and DOS.
  • Our company, Unified Consulting [unifiedconsulting.com] (and LinuxBoxen.com [linuxboxen.com]) is completely student-run and has had great success employing additional student 'interns' both during the summer and school year. We've managed to take advantage of the technology so that between CVS, email, and instant messaging we are able to do 100% telecommuting.

    When choosing a company to do an internship at, it's also important to define what your goals are. Do you want money? General technical experience? Technical experience handling midscale or enterprise level computing? Business experience?

    If you want money or general tech experience, it might be better to start cracking the books and hacking the code on your own so you can focus on improving your own weaknesses rather than learning what you're assigned by your boss. Or, if it's business experience you want then you should focus on how much contact you will have with key decision makers in the company (and thus how much you will be able to learn from them).

    OTOH, if you want tech experience handling larger UNIX systems then definitely go for your original plan and seek out the companies that use UNIX throughout their business.

  • Just look for an internet startup; a sizeable chunk of them use Sun, and a fair amount Linux. Plus the fact that whatever company you join will probably be out of business in a year won't matter if you just want to intern for a little while.
    --
  • I wouldn't call Unix a fad. Feel free to call Linux a fad, I don't care. Time will tell. Sure, Linux is now a buzzword, but it existed for five years conservetivly before it became as popular as it is now. Most non-UNIX systems wind up taking on aspects of UNIX anyway. UNIX has been around for almost thirty years. Windows can claim 20, but it's really only been usable for 10. Macs also get around 20 years of time. So now the windowing metaphore is here to stay. But then again, so are many UNIXisms.

    UNIX may be old, but it's definately not a fad. Linux's currently popularity may be a fad, but it will still be around even after it's time in the spotlight has faded.

    Although I know many people who predict the death of Linux in the next five to ten years, I still believe that Linux will still have it's place. After all, the various BSDs are still around, and they're based on a UNIX 10-15 years older than Linux!

  • Hey. They adopt gnome. They work to make gnome better. They make StarOffice for Linux. They release StarOffice under GPL. this seems neither evil nor Linux-hateful
  • Currect me if I'm wrong here.
    Basic Unix history tells us:
    *Some guys at AT&T wrote Unix
    *Some guys at Berkely added and altered parts of it
    *Some guys at Berkely realized that a lot of it had been rewritten, rewrote the rest, and declared it as being entirely University of California property
    *Meanwhile there are other systems based on Unix System 5 and such
    *Lots of cross-pollination happens

    Anyway, my point is
    *BSD itself is a complete rewrite of Unix*

    therefore, there is no reason Linux cannot be considered a complete rewrite of Unix
    (though my system has a lot of bsd code in it)

    Here's a couple of places I noted BSD code:

    lynx -dump ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/Networking/netkit /netkit-base.lsm | grep Description
    Description: Basic network tools, fixed and ported from BSD code.

    ls /usr/sbin/*BSD*
    /usr/sbin/ftpd-BSD*

    ls /usr/games
    adventure* canfield* gnomehack* phantasia* robots* wargames*
    arithmetic* cfscores* gomoku* pig* rot13* worm*
    atc* countmail* hunt* pom* sail* worms*
    backgammon* cribbage* mille* ppt* snake* wump*
    banner* dm* monop* primes* snscore* xsoldier*
    battlestar* factor* morse* quiz* teachgammon*
    bcd* fish* nethack* rain* tetris-bsd*
    caesar* fortune* number* random* trek*

  • Stop using the idiotic non-word "alot". If that was on your resume, it would go straight into my trash can. Yes, grammar and spelling count.


    --

  • IBM has devoted itself to Linux/AIX/Sun development in ways you'd never think of, if you didn't read slashdot, where every week it's something new- either the linux watch, the interview with the head of the Linux Dev Center of IBM, all sorts of things.

    Co-ops are hired all the time. If you're serious, I can put your resume' in with HR.

    A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
  • Ok, I know it's flamebait, but I'm gonna say it anyway (please give me some points for pointing out good comparisons). GET A LIFE LOSER! DOS wasn't even built with networking. DOS doesn't have multiple user logins. DOS doesn't have memory controls. DOS doesn't let you run more than one program at a time. DOS isn't even setup right, if it was, they would have something better than C:, D:, E:, or at least make the drive names assignable. You can't get nearly the same control over DOS as you can on Unix. And I'm talking about the latest version of DOS compared with an older version of UNIX!

    You were saying, Orifice? Oh yeah, and somebody should have patented the power button, that was a great innovation too.

  • I just started an an intership working with Tru64 at Woldcom. Pretty exciting stuff
  • Hey, just wanted to let you know that SGI has plenty of UNIX interns throughout the year.

    -Mason
  • Unfortunately, my company can't afford this right now or I'd be recommending it--and not just for the summer.

    We are a Unix/Linux development shop with several development/QA machines (not to mention servers). The programmers are the only people who know Unix, so we get stuck admin'ing that side of things. There isn't much to do, but it adds up--plus when something goes wrong it can eat up a lot of programming time. What I want to do is have a student (even a bright HS student would do, otherwise a college person) come in in the afternoons or 3 days a week or something to do things like:

    -rotate backup tapes
    -add disk space
    -cannibalize old machines to make some good ones
    -massage the mail system into shape
    -setup Samba for file sharing
    Etc.
    --
    An abstained vote is a vote for Bush and Gore.
  • If you're looking for a good intern position working with UNIX or Linux, and don't mind relocating to the west coast for a couple of months, then seriously try Intel (see http://www.intel.com/jobs/usa/students/)& lt;/a> [intel.com]

    They've always got intern positions both for people who want to develop and/or administrate Linux and other UNIX types.

    For students, they'll help finding housing and getting a car for the duration of the internship.

    I'm a little biased since I've worked for Intel for over five years. It's always been nice to stay focused on UNIX systems and let other people deal with the Windows world.

    (And yes, these opinions are my own and I'm not a spokesperson for Intel Corporation)

  • University Jobs? (Score:3)

    by MikeFM ( 12491 ) on Friday October 06, 2000 @05:35PM (#725020) Homepage Journal
    Try getting a job at your school. A lot of professors as well as various labs etc tend to look for people to admin their Unix/Linux systems without using up all their grant money. You wouldn't make as much but you'll get to grind your teeth on a lot Unix. :)

    Web firms also tend to need Unix perople.

  • A pair of options... (Score:3)

    by RasputinAXP ( 12807 ) on Friday October 06, 2000 @02:33PM (#725021) Homepage Journal
    1. Depending on the school, they may have summer job openings at the Computer Networking department. Many schools run *nix systems due to financial constraints. They can also be an excellent source of reference for later jobs. Trust me.

    2. Check http://www.geekfinder.com to find out what companies are hiring, and give them a call. They may be looking for an intern. It never hurts to ask.


    --

  • Sun's BoB program (Score:3)

    by ingenthr ( 34535 ) on Friday October 06, 2000 @10:19PM (#725022) Homepage

    Sun has a program called BoB. It stands for the best of the best. While you're in college, and just after you graduate, Sun invests in you by setting up a regimine of 70-90% training and the rest working with Sun people, shadowing engineers, etc. I'm sure there's info on the website, or you can contact the local team or the HR department. Also check out www.sunsandiego.com-- there are some engineering groups there if you're interested in hard core stuff.

    And by the way, Sun is not "evil". Yes, perhaps I'm biased, but I don't think anyone that really knows the organization would think Sun is"evil".

    I run linux on my Sun issued laptop-- and I know I'm not the only one. Unix excels at flexibility, so it's easy to integrate the systems. Use the right tool for the right job....

  • Bell Labs (Score:3)

    by e271828 ( 89234 ) on Friday October 06, 2000 @02:38PM (#725023)
    Bell Labs [bell-labs.com] employs tons of interns every year. I don't know what on earth could beat working with Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson. They pay well too.

    Oh, and as a bonus, they take the kids on a free plane ride one afternoon (one of the planes being flown by Thompson).

  • Try JobTrak (Score:3)

    by JohnsonWax ( 195390 ) on Friday October 06, 2000 @09:38PM (#725024)
    I'm a Student Affairs Director at an engineering school and send a number of my students to do unix internships - more, in fact, than to MS (though MS is more visible). Sun, and other big unix vendors, mostly - but some smaller firms as well.

    We use JobTrak [jobtrak.com], as do many other universities. They have a stronger focus on students than Monster, and have a lot of jobs, internships that don't require experience (and jobs that do, for alums).

    The universities like them since they provide feedback on how their students and alums fare and where they go. That's good because if we send a pile of students to Sun, we'd start talking to them and form stronger relations.

  • Re:Don't bother (Score:4)

    by drix ( 4602 ) on Friday October 06, 2000 @04:35PM (#725025) Homepage
    Heh.. moron. Clickitty [dictionary.com] click [dictionary.com].

    --

  • Look for UNIX developers (Score:5)

    by Durinia ( 72612 ) on Friday October 06, 2000 @02:33PM (#725026)
    If you want to work in UNIX (good for you!), you should start by looking at companies that design the UNIXES themselves. Many times, these companies also develop their own in-house software to make their platform more popular. For example, I interned at SGI for a summer in one of their applications groups, and thats where I got most of my UNIX knowledge. You might also be able to get in on the actual development of the OS itself if you're interested in that. Other candidates are obviously Sun and HP (who is doing some Linux dev as well).

    Just make sure you know your C really well, and you should have a good chance - these places hire an awful lot of interns...

  • Just a thought (Score:5)

    by tetrad ( 131849 ) on Friday October 06, 2000 @02:38PM (#725027)
    I'm very sympathetic to your struggle. There must be only a few ten thousands of companies that use some flavor of Unix today... and what a mighty, mighty challenge it must be, figuring out which companies.

    Here's a wacky idea: try going to hotjobs.com|monster.com, and search for jobs containing the words "unix" and "intern". Just a thought. Or here's a more complicated idea: search for jobs that contain the word "unix" and then contact those company's hr depts about possible internships. If you have trouble with either idea, just feel free to ask slashdot again.

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