Posts Tagged ‘internships’

h1

Intern Spends Summer of Service Supporting Business Investment

August 20, 2014

This post contains external links. Please review our external linking policy.

Sarah Sohn

Sarah Sohn recently completed an internship with SelectUSA.

There’s no such thing as a summer vacation when it comes to supporting the U.S. economy and business investment.

That’s why we were so lucky interns like Sarah Sohn spent their summer supporting the International Trade Administration’s (ITA) SelectUSA team.

We did our best to keep Sarah and our other seven SelectUSA interns on their toes, and we appreciate all of their hard work conducting research, organizing events, briefing program leaders, and being important contributors to our team.

Sarah wrote a great post about her experience working with us, and you can find it on the Harvard Institute of Politics blog.

We’d all like to extend a heartfelt thanks to all of the interns who spent their summer with us this year, in SelectUSA and the various other programs and offices throughout ITA! Your contributions have been a huge part of our success in supporting trade and investment.

If you’re looking for an internship this fall, SelectUSA is recruiting interns to fill a number of roles. You can also find information about other ITA internships on our blog.

Posted in Miscellaneous, SelectUSA | Tagged , | Comments Off on Intern Spends Summer of Service Supporting Business Investment

h1

Make Your Summer Count with an ITA Internship

January 31, 2014

Chris Higginbotham is a Public Affairs Specialist in the International Trade Administration’s Office of Public Affairs (he used writing samples from his internship to get this job).

Our office in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City is looking for interns with a variety of backgrounds and experience. Image shows the Statue of Liberty.

Our office in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City is looking for interns with a variety of backgrounds and experience. (photo courtesy U.S. National Park Service)

I’ve been there. Many of us have.

It’s January and you’re a college student. Maybe you’re a junior; or maybe you are already in grad school . Either way, there’s a nagging thought in the back of your head:

“What am I doing at the end of the semester?”

Your friends are talking about internships and they probably sound cooler than anything you’ve thought of, so you make a list…

“Things I want in my 2014 summer internship:

  • Work someplace cool;
  • Make a difference;
  • Get some real-world experience;
  • Utilize and improve my skillset;
  • Work toward getting a job.”

Good news: the International Trade Administration (ITA) can hit all of those bullets.

Want to work someplace cool and help make a difference? We have 108 offices around the country and in 72 countries around the world. We have offices on both sides of the equator and in both hemispheres. If you like the beach, you can apply to work with our teams in Miami, Honolulu, or Lisbon. There’s also always the headquarters here in Washington, D.C., where you could work in offices like the Advocacy Center, the Trade Compliance Office, or  the Office of Public Affairs (I’m biased, but public affairs can be pretty awesome).

Whatever your major is, it probably fits in with a part of the ITA mission. We support U.S. businesses in the global marketplace, so we need students who are studying business, international relations, marketing, communication, foreign languages, regional studies, economics, and more. That means you’ll be able to apply what you’re learning in school to what you’ll be doing on our team.

Perhaps more importantly, an internship with us means you’ll be supporting the U.S. economy. Exports support nearly ten million American jobs – one of which may be your future job. Your work could help a business find a new market to sell its product or services, or could help a company overcome a trade barrier.

So how do you find out all of the internship opportunities ITA has to offer? Our website is a good place to start. Check out all of our office locations, many of which have pages explaining how to apply for internships.

You should also follow us on social media, where we’ll be sharing a lot of specific internship opportunities during the next few weeks. We’re on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. If you have questions, those platforms are great places for you to ask!

Best of luck to all of you this semester. We offer internships throughout the year, so keep ITA in mind as you look for a great place to start your career!

Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged | Comments Off on Make Your Summer Count with an ITA Internship

h1

Interning at ITA, or Getting the Insider’s View on International Trade

July 26, 2013

Emily King is a graduate student at the George Washington University. She completed an internship
in the International Trade Administration’s Trade Agreements Compliance Program this summer.

Emily King gives a presentation to members of the staff of the Trade Compliance Center.

Emily King gives a presentation to Trade Agreements Compliance Program staff members.

Are you looking for an interesting, challenging internship where you get an insider’s view on international trade?

The International Trade Administration (ITA) is at the forefront of international trade. ITA educates American businesses about the nuts-and-bolts of exporting, and helps U.S. companies to boost exports or enter new markets. The agency is committed to enforcing global trade laws, and developing or implementing policies and programs aimed at countering foreign unfair trade practices. ITA also strives to enhance the export competitiveness of U.S. industry.

The goal is to help American companies compete on a level playing field abroad, increasing their sales and creating jobs here at home.

During my internship, I was part of ITA’s Trade Agreements Compliance (TAC Program) team, which works to break down barriers to market access abroad and monitors and helps promote foreign government compliance with trade agreement obligations. Trade agreements compliance is a pillar of the National Export Initiative (NEI). Since January 2009, the TAC Program has removed more than 420 specific non-tariff barriers affecting a broad range of industries for U.S. companies.

I kept busy reviewing past trade complaints and the actions taken to resolve them, designing new training and outreach materials, including social media content, and preparing management briefings.

One big take-away: I saw first-hand how the U.S. government leverages trade agreements to resolve real-life trade issues.

One instance of this first-hand look was my work on an upcoming video which tells how ITA helped a small California engineering company overcome a foreign government-imposed trade barrier. When this firm, EUR Consulting, was unfairly excluded from competing for a $400,000 Chilean Government procurement opportunity to which it was guaranteed market access under the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement (FTA), ITA leveraged the FTA to persuade Chile to reconsider EUR’s eligibility. When Chile reversed its initial decision, it opened the door to future government contracts.

Working with the TAC Program to help U.S. companies was a satisfying learning experience.  Meaningful experiences where you can get an insider’s look at international trade issues await you at ITA. Take the first step towards your ITA internship experience today.

(This post was edited on Nov. 25, 2013 to reflect changes in the ITA organization structure.)

Posted in Market Access and Compliance | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Interning at ITA, or Getting the Insider’s View on International Trade