Expert: David A. NewMyer - 2/27/2004

Question
Dear Mr. NewMyer,
    I am a second year student at Parks College, out of Saint Louis University. My major is Aviation Management and Economics. I started looking for internships for this up coming summer some time ago. My efforts, however, have not produced any results. Since I am from the Chicagoland are I have gone as far as to obtain a list of companies that own aircraft and fly out of Midway. I called every company on the list and nobody was interested in my services. I really need help in order to ensure I am doing what I love to do and working with airplanes this summer. Any information you can provide me with would be MUCH appreciated. I thank you in advance for you help.
                       Regards,
                       Joe Cirillo  

Answer
Hi, Joe:

Nice to hear from you!  I will try to assist.

We also have an Aviation Management program here at Southern Illinois University Carbondale where I work and it is always a challenge to find internships in this area.

It sounds like you might have a keen interest in working in the corporate or business aviation world since you spent the time to contact the various companies on a list of corporate or business aircraft operators.  However, remember, that corporate or business aircraft operators normally have small management staffs and few management personnel.  And, in general, the corporate and business segment of general aviation employs maybe 50,000 of the 638,000 in the general aviation area overall (general aviation being all that flying other than that done by the airlines or the military).  The kind of opportunities that you are looking for in Aviation Management in general aviation will most likely be with:

1.  Manufacturers (not really any in the Chicago area);

2.  Large FBOs such as Signature Support Services or Priester Aviation or others at Aurora, Palwaukee, Midway, DuPage, Lewis and others;

3.  Aircraft operating companies that serve as either charter, crewing, or fractional ownership providers....FlightStar in Champaign does that as does Priester and, I think, Auster Aviation at Aurora.

Also, keep in mind that the most prevalent Aviation Management internships out there are at AIRPORTS....that is, working for the airport owner, sponsor or operator such as the City of Chicago (for O'Hare or Midway) or an individual airport authority such as the one that owns and operates Dupage or Palwaukee, etc.  Are you a member of the American Association of Airport Executives?  You can join as a student member for $40 and they have a list about three or so pages long of internships at airports nationally that they will send you as a student member (along with their twice-monthly newsletter).  They can be contacted via the web at www.airportnet.org for more information.

Finally, remember that airlines have large staffs and frequently offer internships.  I think that Parks might have some contacts with the various airlines that operated in and out of Chicago.  United might not be a good intern contact for this summer, but, it should be after they emerge from bankruptcy (meaning, in Summer 2005).

One piece of advice:  I would not "cold call" a company to ask for an internship without sending a resume first.  If you do not have a name to send a resume to, it will most likely languish in file 13...so, get names, send resumes to those specific people and then follow up with calls to those people.

Another piece of advice:  As Gary Northam or Allan Stolzer at Parks for some advice since they will likely know as much or more than I do about placing you as an intern via Parks contacts!

Best wishes to you and let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

David A. NewMyer, Ph.D., Professor and Chair
Aviation Management and Flight
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
http://www.aviation.siu.edu