1M/1M: Internships

As I have written in column after column, there is a very serious crisis brewing for our youth. This recession has made it very difficult for young people — students and recent graduates — to find jobs and internships. Last summer, I received about 100 internship applications, and took on about 25 as unpaid interns. Some of them are still working with me.

This year, we have a great program in 1M/1M that can absorb a much larger number of interns — in the thousands, globally – because we have a team of 50 1M/1M ambassadors who can work with them and groom them as Internal Ambassadors (IAs). 1M/1M, as you know, is our initiative to help a million entrepreneurs reach a million dollars in annual revenue, build a trillion dollars of global GDP, and create ten million jobs.

Job Description:

Interns will become 1M/1M Internal Ambassadors and focus on an Entrepreneurship Development Organization [EDO]. An EDO can be a university or college entrepreneurship program, student club, professional organization, alumni club, technical group, social media group, or an incubator.

IAs work on specific EDOs with the aim of recruiting 100 entrepreneurs from that EDO into the 1M/1M program, orient them into the EJ Methodology, and bring them into the strategy roundtables.

In this capacity, you will not only be required to put to use your leadership skills, social networking skills, and communications skills, you will also be required to learn the mechanics of the methodology for early-stage entrepreneurship. Furthermore, you will need to teach the methodology to a large group of entrepreneurs. In this sense, it will be akin to a crash course in entrepreneurship education with the added benefit of building yourself a great global network. Oh, and it doesn’t put you $100,000 in debt!

Finally, you will be writing Deal Radar 2010 posts for my blog highlighting the companies in your EDO that deserve to be showcased.

But those are just a few of the benefits. As an IA, you will:

1. Learn business and entrepreneurship by emersion into global 1M1M community of high-achievers.
2. Get exposure to innovative ideas and business strategies and hopefully start working on your own business
3. Learn critical management skills as you lead and educate.
4. Make connections and build global relationships with possible employers or business partners.
5. By showcasing entrepreneurial ventures from your EDO on my blog’s Deal Radar, you will bring them visibility, recognition, and potentially customer / investor attention.
6. Make a name and build credibility for yourself while promoting entrepreneurship in your community.

Time Commitment:

Please apply if and only if you can commit to spending at least five hours a week on the program. The more you invest, the more you will get out of this project. I am very confident that this program will change your thinking about your career and life forever.

How to Apply:

Study the 1M/1M program page in detail and understand what it entails before you apply, and make sure you are willing to commit the time, energy and intensity that such a project deserves.

Then, make sure you join LinkedIn and complete your LI profile in detail, so that we can quickly and easily view your resume by checking it.

You will find the list of geographies and the corresponding list of ambassadors here. From this list, you need to pick a geography that you want to focus your internship on.

Then, within that geography, you would need to specify an Entrepreneurship Development Organization (EDO) that you are interested in working with as an Internal Ambassador (IA).

Next, go to the LinkedIn group, 1M/1M Ambassadors and send in a Request To Join message which should also serve as your cover letter, and state the following:

* What attracts you to the 1M/1M project
* What are your career aspirations
* Your preferred Geography
* Your chosen EDO [If you are plugged into your school’s entrepreneurship program, student club, or alumni club, those could be excellent EDO choices.]
* Your guarantee that you would be willing to spend at least five hours a week on the program.

Note: These are unpaid internships, and can easily be combined with other paid internships.

Together, we hope to check the staggeringly high Infant Entrepreneur Mortality (IEM) rates that prevail in the entrepreneurship business, and help a million entrepreneurs reach a million dollars in revenue, and beyond. Good luck!

This segment is a part in the series : 1M/1M