Intern Memo Profile: University of Dreams

Today Intern Memo sits down with Eric Lochtefeld, the founder and CEO of University of Dreams, an amazing internship program based out of cerebral Northern California. This program caught our eye last summer because it's just so goddamn helpful to students who want internships in fields that aren't always easy to break into. Check their site for more information, but basically the point of this program is to help students find internships that they're excited about. It costs a bit of money, but if you're stuck on summer plans, need housing and are interested in weekly seminars and weekend excursions, this might be the jump start you need.

Intern Memo: How'd the University of Dreams get started?

Eric Lochtefeld: It goes pretty far back. I was an event producer coming out of college, and I helped in starting the Vans Warped tour. When I got involved with that, I had access to all these cool companies, and I just had this fascinating insight on how cool careers can be if you choose wisely. I had friends with the same background, same qualifications and opportunities, but they were in careers they couldn't stand. I started to think about how a person values their career and what steps they take to go in the right direction, and I wanted to do something about this

IM: Once you accept someone into the program, what's the process for finding a job? Do you accept people knowing where they'll be placed?

EL: The process is very refined. The first thing we do is assign the participant once they've enrolled to a particular agent in a market. Each agent has been in the industry they represent and therefore has a unique insight into the field. The first thing the agent does is get them ready to apply in the industry they're into. We refine the resume, give interview tips, then sit the intern down for a long conversation with the agent to determine the best opportunities. The student gives his top five choices. Then we go after the first choice.

IM: So basically the student tells the agent what he's interested in and then the agent gets him the job?

EL: No. We go to the employer, who's already a client of ours, and all we ask if they are interested in interviewing our candidate. The student then schedules the interview, and we get out of the way. Afterwards, we go to the employer and ask if they're interested in making an offer. If they say yes, we go to the student and ask, "Do you still want this?" The student has the ultimate choice. The one misconception about University of Dreams is that we do everything for the student. It's not true. We give them tutorials on the interview process. We help them with their resume. Then we provide the introduction. You can imagine what kind of advantage that is to a student. You can take your chances on applying online, but who knows what will happen? Last year MTV got 500,000 resumes for internships. Good luck trying to get noticed. If you're some kid in Iowa and you go to your career center and say your dream is to work in a Hollywood Studio, what can they really do? Not to diminish from the value of that career center, but we work with Universal, Paramount, Dreamworks and we know the heads of HR at each company.

IM: So when your students aren't working, they're in seminars. What are you looking to impart?

EL: We'll have panels with 8 different HR departments at different corporations. We get CEOs. We once flew in someone from Ghana whose life story we thought was real inspiring. We try to give our students exposure to the real world, but the major theme is "how'd you get to where you are? What do you like about your job?" Maybe you'll have one thing all summer that speaks to you, but it can change your life. At the end of the summer, all of our students fill out a survey about their experience. Last summer, 85% of our students said it was the summer of their lives. University of Dreams is about changing the way you view life after college and realizing that life could be awesome if you choose the right career. We just help people get there.

Intern Memo's not jockeying for honorary degrees from the University of Dreams here, but we really think this program is awesome, so check it out. Summerinternships.com

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