Sponsor an Intern

• advertising
• advertising and marketing communications (general)
• auction houses (curatorial and non-curatorial)
• buying
• casting
• communications and graphic design
• cosmetics and fragrances
• design: accessories, footwear, handbags, hats, jewelry, fashion apparel, menswear, textiles
• direct and interactive marketing
• display and/or exhibition design
• event planning and management
• fine arts
• forecasting/trends
• galleries  (curatorial and non-curatorial)
• home products development
• global fashion marketing
• interior design
• international trade and marketing: import/export, licensing, logistics, sourcing
• market research
• marketing communications
• media: broadcast, film, print, video
• merchandising
• modeling
• museums  (curatorial and non-curatorial)
• music
• patternmaking/technical design
• photography
• planning and allocation
• product development
• production management
• public relations
• retail management
• showroom sales: accessories, apparel
• styling
• textile development and marketing
• visual arts management: education, library, marketing
• visual merchandising 

Back to top

The Career and Internship Center runs a two-pronged academic program that comprises on-site professional career experience supervised by an organization executive and classroom instruction.

Considerable care is taken to ensure that every internship experience is aligned with the student's major area of study and his or her career interests, and that it meets the operational needs of the sponsor organization. Ours is a student-preferenced program. Sponsors will not hear from a counselor until the counselor has an interested student, so it is incumbent upon the sponsors to make their listings as attractive to students as possible.

• Internships may be paid or unpaid. Please remember that paid internships are much more appealing to students and will frequently attract the most motivated individuals.
• Because FIT's Internships are instructional in nature and relate to the student's academic major and/or career interest, interns DO NOT perform menial, repetitive tasks that are not compatible with instructional goals.
• Interns are not intended to displace regular employees.
• The Career and Internship Center's internship program is a State University of New York program in full compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

Number of Hours

For fall, spring, and summer students, the number of hours spent at a sponsor site depends on whether they are enrolled in a 3-credit class.

• 3-credit class: minimum of 123 hours during the semester/session

Back to top

Our program requires that sponsor organizations provide FIT students with professional, educationally-valid experiences that honor the policies and procedures of FIT, SUNY, and the New York Department of Education.

In addition, prospective sponsor organizations are required to:

• Comply with state regulations related to Workers' Compensation
• Identify executives in their organizations who are willing to provide interns with daily supervision
• Assure that their supervisors have expertise in mentoring, teaching, guiding,  and nurturing their interns
• Interview prospective interns introduced to them by Career and Internship Center counselors; negotiate with and agree to provide interns with the kinds of learning experiences desired by the interns
• Complete an end-of-semester written (multiple choice) evaluation of the intern's work
• Comply with FIT's commitment to producing an environment that is free from all forms of harassment
• Validate the intern's reported hours completed at midterm and final evaluations
• Participate in an on-site visit by FIT of your organization to learn more about the company, your expectations of interns, and to discuss FIT's expectations of internships and sponsors.

Back to top

We work a semester in advance.  

• Students are required to apply for their internships one semester before the semester in which they plan on doing the internship.
• The counseling, interviewing, and selection processes also take place a semester in advance of the actual internship.
• Sponsors requesting students must apply and submit their internships at least 3-4 months prior to the semester for which they hope to attract interns to give their positions the best chance of being considered by our students.

Fall Semester

Fall semester interns begin their on-site work in late August or early September, serve 12 weeks, and finish their internships in mid-December.

Spring Semester

Spring semester interns begin their on-site work in late January or early February, serve a minimum of 12 weeks, and finish their internships in May.

Summer Session

Summer session interns begin their on-site work at the end of May or early June, serve for seven weeks, and finish their internships in mid-July.

Note: If the semester has already begun and you're looking to fill an immediate position, you may post a PAID non-credited internship (PT job) as an assistant.

Back to top

To participate in the program, employers must:

1. Review and electronically sign FIT's Internship Sponsor Organization Acknowledgment.
a. FIT's Internship Sponsor Organization Acknowledgment outlines employer eligibility requirements and details of the program structure; employers are not obligated to place a student by agreeing to these terms.

2. Register for a CSJB account and post the academic credited internship. NOTE: For some semesters, and some majors, we tend to have more sponsors in our databank than we have students registered in our program, so we highly advise that you make your internship posting as appealing as possible and post as early in the prior semester as possible.
a. On the CSJB login screen, click on the "Register" button.
b. If you are a new employer or contact, your CSJB user account will be reviewed within 6 days.

3. Place an FIT student.
a. Once the internship position has been accepted by the student, employers should provide students with an offer letter and prompt students to report their experience in Symplicity. See PDF, Academic Credited Internship Checklist for Employers

Terms of Agreement for Employers and Privacy Policy
The Fashion Institute of Technology (“FIT”) Career and Internship Center is pleased to extend to you access to the Career Services Job Bank (“CSJB”). As a condition of utilizing the CSJB, you (the “User”) must agree to Symplicity’s terms of use (located at https://www.symplicity.com/terms_of_use) and the following FIT terms and conditions. FIT reserves the right to modify these terms at any time, which will be posted on this page. Use of this site following any modifications constitutes your express acceptance of the revised terms then in effect.

1. Access: Access to post on the CSJB is provided as a courtesy solely to employers posting bona fide paid positions.

2. No FIT Responsibility for User Postings: FIT assumes no responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or genuineness of any posting that the User may make on the CSJB. FIT provides the CSJB and its contents on an “as is” basis and makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the site or its contents, including the credentials of any applicant (although FIT’s policy is to provide applicant access to the CSJB solely to current FIT students and FIT graduates, FIT cannot through the CSJB make any representation or warranty as to any particular student’s degree status or credentials). In addition, FIT does not represent or warrant that the information or contacts provided through this website are accurate, complete, or current. By posting on the CSJB, User represents that it is legally authorized to do so and the posting is for a position that complies with applicable federal, state, and local laws. FIT reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to pre-screen the listings posted on CSJB and to refuse, delete, or clarify any posting for any reason, including but not limited to failure to comply with applicable law or FIT policy.

3. Use of Site: User expressly acknowledges that the use of the CSJB website and service is at your sole risk. FIT is not liable for any direct, incidental, special, or consequential damages that may result from the use of, malfunction, or inability to use the CSJB. This includes, but is not limited to, reliance by a User on any information obtained from CSJB or from FIT in connection with the CSJB that may result from mistakes, omissions, interruptions, deletion of files or e-mail, errors, defects, viruses, delays in operation or transmission, or any failure of performance, whether or not resulting from natural disasters, communications failure, theft, destruction, or unauthorized access of FIT records, programs, or services.

4. Communications: Users acknowledge and understand that communications with respect to any current or former student’s application to any posting from the CSJB must be made directly between the User and the applicant; FIT has no obligation to facilitate any aspect of a student or graduate’s candidacy for any position.

5. Non-discrimination: FIT is an equal opportunity employer and provider of academic services. As such, it expects all Users to provide equal opportunity to job applicants and employees. Users will not discriminate against any individual on the basis of or upon the perceived basis of age, race, color, religion, gender, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, equal pay/compensation, genetic disposition/information, pregnancy, citizenship status, veteran status, or any other basis that is unlawful. View FIT's anti-harassment policy at https://www.fitnyc.edu/documents/policies/cp001-harassment-and-discrimination.pdf.

6. Application Expectations and Guidelines: FIT expects Users to provide job applicants with accurate information regarding job responsibilities, salary, start date, and work schedule. Upon making an offer to a job applicant, these essential terms of employment should be reflected in an offer letter from the User or a written agreement between the User and employee.

7. Non-Compliance: Failure to adhere to FIT’s established community standards, policies and protocols will result in immediate revocation of your ability to use this site. This revocation will be at FIT’s sole discretion.

Privacy Policy: FIT respects the privacy and personal electronic communication of the users of this site, and FIT will not sell, trade or rent a User’s e-mail address or other specific personal information (e.g. name, address) as provided on this site to third-parties.

Rev. 3/09/22

Back to top