Grant to help push jobs site

CREATIVE THINKING: From left: Creative Circle Media Solutions programmer Meagan Barney, CEO Bill Ostendorf and Lead Programmer Tim Benson. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
CREATIVE THINKING: From left: Creative Circle Media Solutions programmer Meagan Barney, CEO Bill Ostendorf and Lead Programmer Tim Benson. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

When Jonathan Wright, 20, of Cumberland, used the bridge.jobs website to find an internship in videography, his future employer already had him in her sights.
Gail Ahlers is CEO and artistic director of Pawtucket-based Ahlers Designs, which crafts gifts and awards to commemorate milestones. With a small staff and subcontractors, her 25-year-old firm has only used interns over the past three years, Ahlers said, but in 2013 filled seven of nine internships through the bridge.jobs site. Two of those internships involved Wright.
“The most valuable thing I drew from it was the opportunity to work directly with the owner of a small business,” said Wright. “It taught me a lot of communication skills as well as to discipline myself, and to conduct interviews.”
The rewards were mutual, Ahlers said, since she was able to delegate to Wright shooting promotional video that is intended to help rebrand the company.
“Jonathan had more sophisticated video software on his computer than I had,” Ahlers said. “It’s really a passion of his. And our goal was to make the most professional video possible. When you have a company with a unique niche like I do, a word is not as strong as an image, and a video is going to be dynamically exciting, so he really helped clarify our message.”
Despite connections like that one last year, the bridge.jobs site launched at the end of 2012 has so far attracted far more would-be interns than it has employers.
As of January, 2014, about 2,400 students had registered on the bridge.jobs website looking for internships, while only 380 employers had registered, said Charles P. Kelley, executive director of the R.I. Student Loan Authority, which spearheaded development of the site.
“So our goal is to encourage more business organizations to come forward and expand or start internship programs,” Kelley said.
Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee and Kelley were among those on hand at GTECH Corp. in Providence Jan. 9 to kick off a campaign to encourage participation from more employers. A $100,000 grant from the Rhode Island Foundation through the Make It Happen initiative is being used to market the site in print and in social media, specifically targeting smaller employers, Kelley said. The site is not just for students, but adults looking to jump-start a career, head out in a new direction, or extricate themselves from unemployment, Kelley said. The site is already being used in conjunction with Chafee’s and lawmakers’ Workforce Immersion Program, which helps subsidize the cost of employers hiring interns, Kelley said.
Last year was the year intended to build the participation of students and other potential interns, and that has worked, Kelley said. But when it comes down to counteracting “brain drain” and keeping Rhode Island students here, added foundation CEO Neil Steinberg, the website should help – if more companies get involved.
A simple interface has made the site easy for employers and those seeking internships to connect, interns and employers say. And connecting with students is particularly easy, Ahlers and Kelley said, because all of the state’s colleges and universities, which each have historically asked employers to do different things to promote internships, are also participating.
Patrick Wholey, general manager and president of WPRI-TV CBS 12, WNAC-TV Fox 64 and myRITV in East Providence, has had his staff actively exploring the site, though it’s only one of many tools the company uses to try to find strong intern prospects.
“Our angle here as a corporation is to spread a wide net and find the best candidates available, and this is another resource,” he said.
So far, Kelley has been unable to track how well bridge.jobs is doing its job in connecting interns and employers, but his staff is trying to find ways to give employers incentive to report their experiences. However, one employer not only nabbed a student for an internship through the website but made the connection permanent, and is planning on using the site again.
Bill Ostendorf, CEO and founder of Creative Circle Media Solutions, a custom Web-design and development firm in East Providence, hired Maegan Barney, 29, of Warwick as a Web programmer in June, Barney said. She accepted a full-time position at the end of December, and is doing exactly what she wants to vocationally as she completes an associate degree in general studies at the Community College of Rhode Island, she said.
Ostendorf was pleased with the four connections he made to potential interns that led to hiring Barney.
“I got 32 applicants for three different possible internships, interviewed four and hired one,” Ostendorf.
From at least one college’s perspective, the website is an important addition to students’ toolbox for finding internships.
Demetria Moran, assistant director of Counseling and Employer Relations with Rhode Island College’s Career Development Center, who attended the GTECH press conference, said in a phone interview that the bridge.jobs site complements the reach of students who are already using databases provided by RIC and all of the state’s colleges and universities.
“We recommend it alongside other resources to put students in a position to assess best opportunities and ensure that they will be successful candidates,” Moran said.
The website isn’t the only tool available to employers, Kelley said: The first of six traditional, on-the-ground seminars demonstrating how businesses can develop and deploy internships was held Jan. 17 at Roger Williams University. Two more have been scheduled: one on Feb. 13 at Bryant University and one on March 11 at RIC, he said. •

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