An Inside Look at Student Internships

Oct. 17, 2022
by Ami Jones, student writer
intern Nicholas Tillotson

One of the many great opportunities with the School of Mining and Mineral Resources is the chance at testing the waters of a potential career with a student internship. Read about some of the ways students have been involved throughout their time at the University of Arizona to prepare themselves for their future careers. Here’s a snapshot of several students who have spent their summers as an intern.

Interning on-site versus off-site

Many interns have the opportunity to go to a mine site to do their internship. Graduate student Nicholas Tillotson, Mining Engineering with a focus in metallurgy, spent his summer at the Freeport-McMoRan mine in Bagdad, Arizona. While on site, Tillotson worked as a metallurgist in the SX plant, helping other metallurgists with their projects.

A typical week for him involved working four 10 hour-shifts Monday through Thursday. For Tillotson, his experience at Freeport-McMoRan provided an amazing learning experience. Through his work, he gained more confidence as a metallurgist, and he also was given many tours around the site to see what others were working on. This helped give him an idea about if he was in the right field.

Internships help students decide what “career paths you want to pursue,” says Biraj Lama, graduate student, Mining Engineering. Rather than finding an on-site internship, Lama was a consulting intern for the WSP consulting firm in Phoenix, Arizona. Lama was able to work in an office setting consulting for the slope stability team for places like the Bingham Canyon mine in Utah. For Lama, working for a consulting firm helped him decide what he wanted to do after his Master’s program, especially if he wanted to work in a city or on a mine site.

Our mining students have compiled several tips to help you find an internship. Good luck!

  • Start early.

Companies open their applications as early as October for the following summer. If you send an application in early, “your probability goes up,” says Caelen Burand, fourth year student advanced Master’s in mining and geological engineering.

  • Get someone else to check your resume.

It’s hard to find your own errors. “UArizona has a lot of opportunities [to check your resume]” says Biraj Lama, who sent his resume to other students in the SME chapter to check for mistakes and other advice.

  • Apply to multiple places.

In his first year at the University of Arizona, Burand applied to over 20 internships, and received several offers to choose between. He spent the next two summers working for Nevada Gold Mines, first as an intern with the engineering geology team working on ore control, and the second summer producing a fragmentation analysis app for smartphones. 

  • Find out what the hiring process is like.

Does the company do video interviews? Do you need to send a project? Nicholas Tillotson says you should know what to expect from the hiring timeline to prepare yourself in case you need to send other applications. It is also helpful to know how long it will take, in case students need to find summer housing.

What do students learn from the internship experience?
UArizona student mining intern

“I wish I would have understood what the point of an internship was from the point of view of the company [before applying],” says Caelen Burand. To Burand, he witnessed the merging of companies and values and was able to see firsthand how the impact of a company’s mission on individual employees.

Companies invest in their interns. While on site both Tillotson and Burand were given tours and other opportunities to learn more about the company and different careers they could pursue. Interns also have an opportunity to learn many technical skills necessary for their field, including coding. Not only are there many opportunities for paid internships, some companies will also pay for housing and other expenses for interns living on-site.

UArizona Student Resources for Internships and Jobs in the Mining Industry