Washington University in St. Louis students interested in a unique summer internship experience as a “mini-CEO” at Answers.com in St. Louis are invited to attend a Career Center event at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 29 in the lower level of Mallinckrodt Center.
In 2006, alumni David Karandish and Chris Sims, both 2005 computer science graduates in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, founded AFCV Holdings, with the goal of better organizing the Internet consumer’s online retail experience.
Now known as Answers.com, the company is a profitable portfolio of search and community answers-driven websites that help consumers find what they are looking for and advertisers reach more than 150 million unique users each month.
While still headquartered in University City’s Delmar Loop, Answers.com has offices in Jerusalem, New York and Mountain View, California and Bejing, China.
This summer, Karandish and Sims will offer a unique internship opportunity to WUSTL students.
They plan to hire 20 student interns from multiple disciplines. The interns will take on a “mini-CEO” role, and each will be responsible for one of the more than 150 vertical sites owned by Answers.com.
The students will work together as a team and have the opportunity to interact with the company founders and the executive team.
Interns will be responsible for building content, designing sites and addressing business issues. Students will have a once-in-lifetime glimpse into the strategic operations of one of the hottest Internet companies in the country.
The pillars of the Answers.com internships are that the students will be challenged, will have opportunities to learn, will have autonomy and will make a difference.
“This is a great opportunity for our students,” says Ken Harrington, managing director of the Skandalaris Center for EntrepreneurialStudies. “Answers.com has hosted an intern through our Skandalaris Summer Entrepreneurial Internship Program for the last several years.
“Their past interns have contributed to the success of the company, and now David and Chris are giving back by supporting this entire cohort of students who will work together in a dynamic, fast-growing company. We hope to see more of our intern-supported ventures graduate to this model as they move from the startup to high growth phase.”
Answers.com is helping to introduce WUSTL students to the opportunities available at startups, particularly in information technology, Harrington says.
“The support system has never been stronger, from the Wash U Tech Entrepreneurs student group on campus to funding and infrastructure available from the community,” he says. “The Answers.com summer internship program offers an exciting opportunity for entrepreneurial students to connect to the community.”
Karandish will present an overview of the company at the March 29 event and will be accompanied by other members of his team who will be working with the student interns, including other WUSTL alumni.
For more information, students can call Jim Beirne, director of external relations at the Career Center, at (314) 935-5956.