Career and Internship Services
This University of Minnesota office provides a vital service to our students, assisting and preparing them in a variety of ways to make the right career choices. The mission of Career and Internship Services is to engage students in meaningful career development activities that help them maximize their life experience by providing opportunities to build the skills required for success in life and career and being a facilitator of information as well as a provider of skills related to job, internship, and graduate school planning.
Main website: careerhelp.umn.edu; specific Construction Management career resources page.
Their service further extends to maintaining close collaboration with our program and our industry contacts, planning career events, guiding students on their searches for jobs or internships, and maintaining GoldPASS, a free job hosting and search site where employers and students/alumni can connect with mutual employment opportunities.
The Career and Internship Services program and its dedicated advisor, Ms. Elizabeth Hruska, were identified as a “strength of the program” in the program’s ACCE accreditation site visit report. Ms. Hruska received the highest University honor for advising, the Tate Award, in 2012.
Graduation Satisfaction Survey Results
Each year, our graduating students are offered a survey to track their career destination and satisfaction six months after graduation. This information helps determine whether positive trends are happening with our student placement and job satisfaction. The University is currently implementing a new graduation survey, results of which will be available in early 2023.
Results from the most recent 2019–20 Grad Survey are available online here.
Results for Construction Management graduates are as follows: 96% of CMGT graduates (22 out of 23) completed the survey. All of those who responded are in paid full- or part-time employment following graduation, 95% of them in a job related or closely related to their major. Of those who responded, 94% reported being somewhat or very satisfied with their occupation. The mean income of respondents was $67,142, with a range of $55,000 to $78,000.
Internships
Internships are an integral part of the Construction Management program and an important step in career-building for our students, many of whom receive offers of employment following their internship. Degree-seeking students are required to complete 200 hours of internship employment, although typically students work full-time for three or four months in an internship position. Under the guidance of the faculty advisor, Peter Hilger, constant networking with industry contacts seeking to hire interns is maintained using an employer database that contains over 600 contacts.
Students find their own internships, with support from the program and Career and Internship Services in the form of a virtual career fair. Students prepare a professional resume with advice from Career and Internship Services, and a PDF of all resumes from students seeking internships is distributed electronically to our industry contacts in February each year. Since its inception in fall 2010, this virtual fair has had a significant impact on student hiring and networking.
The University of Minnesota canceled all in-person internships in summer 2020, due to the pandemic shutdown; however, the virtual career fair PDF was issued to all employers in the database.
Employers also list internships on the University GoldPASS job posting website, and notification is shared with students in the program. The following chart shows our internship hires for the past five years, along with the number of student candidates in the virtual career fair.
Internship Hires
| Internship Enrollment Data | AY 2017−18 | AY 2018−19 | AY 2019−20 | AY 2020−21 | AY 2021−22 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall Enrolled | 13 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 11 |
| Spring Enrolled | 15 | 9 | 4 | 7 | 3 |
| Summer Enrolled | 30 | 23 | -* | 22 | 21 |
| Total | 58 | 42 | 14* | 39 | 35 |
Student Candidates in the Virtual Career Fair
| Virtual Career Fair | AY 2017−18 | AY 2018−19 | AY 2019−20 | AY 2020−21 | AY 2021−22 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resumes | 31 | 21 | 15 | 36 | 19 |
* No internships hosted in summer due to the pandemic and University policy.
In addition to the online curriculum requirements for the internship course, students are required to present on a research topic of their choice. Presentations are given to peers and industry guests and hosted at one of our industry Advisory Board constituents.
Since spring 2004, there have been a total of 535 internships with 259 firms, 75 (29%) of whom hired more than one intern. The breadth of employers is one way to measure how well the program is perceived within the industry; further, repeat hiring indicates a confidence in the value of our interns. Therefore, a higher percentage of student interns by firms hiring on multiple occasions indicates confidence in the program.
Internship Density Analysis
| Cumulative Data from 2004 | to 2018 | to 2019 | to 2020** | to 2021 | to 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Internships | 479 | 521 | 535 | 572 | 607 |
| Total Students | 398 | 432 | 444 | 480 | 513 |
| Total Companies | 238 | 253 | 259 | 275 | 287 |
| Students with 2+ Internships | 70 (18%) | 79 (18%) | 81 (18%) | 81 (17%) | 83 (16%) |
| Companies Hosting 2+ Interns | 66 (28%) | 73 (29%) | 75 (29%) | 78 (28%) | 84 (29%) |
| Companies Hosting 3+ Interns | 35 (15%) | 37 (15%) | 38 (15%) | 42 (15%) | 46 (16%) |
| Companies Hosting 6+ Interns | 15 (6%) | 18 (7%) | 18 (7%) | 20 (7%) | 21 (7%) |
| Internships in Companies Hosting 2+ Interns | 307 (64%) | 341 (65%) | 351 (66%) | 375 (66%) | 404 (67%) |
| Internships in Companies Hosting 6+ Interns | 172 (36%) | 202 (39%) | 205 (38%) | 228 (40%) | 243 (40%) |
| Top Three Hiring Companies: Ryan, JE Dunn, McGough | 70 (15%) | 72 (14%) | 73 (14%) | 79 (14%) | 79 (13%) |
| Retention Rate to Date (job offer) * | 100 (68%) | 110 (69%) | 110 (69%) | 115 (70%) | 122 (70%) |
* Since 2006; not all students report.
** Summer 2020 internships cancelled due to pandemic concerns.