Your pay will be based on your job classification and the number of academic credit hours completed in the term ending prior to your internship.
If you live more than 50 miles from Sandia, you can be reimbursed for one round-trip airfare via the most direct route between your home or university and Sandia. If driving, reimbursement is for one round trip on a per-mile basis. Information will be provided in your offer package about Sandia’s travel guidelines. You must adhere to these guidelines in order to be reimbursed.
You will be teamed up with a full-time mentor who will work closely with you to make your internship a rewarding experience.
Bookmark Intern Island—a great way to keep up-to-date on what’s going on and to connect with other interns at Sandia.
Orientation meetings during your first week will help you find your way around.
Throughout your internship, there will be a variety of social activities, such as pizza lunches, ice-cream socials, and a highly rated talent show (if you are here during the summer) to help you schmooze with Sandians and other interns.
Interns work a 40-hour week. If you work with a mentor who participates in Sandia’s 9/80 flexible scheduling, you may opt for that schedule, with your mentor’s permission. In that case, you will work four 9-hour days, Monday through Thursday each week. One Friday you will work 8 hours, and the next Friday you will have off!
If you are a high school or undergraduate intern, living in the area, and working part-time during the school year, you may work up to 25 hours a week. Graduate students may work up to 30 hours a week. All part-time interns may work full-time during official school breaks, under the supervision of their mentors.
Not to worry—you won’t be stuck in the lab all day! You can attend scientific seminars, hands-on workshops, tours of Sandia, and brown bag lunches with Sandia’s staff of talented scientists and engineers.
As a technical intern, you will be given the opportunity to create a poster and/or oral presentation of your project at the Intern Symposium, held at the end of each intern semester. Some interns have also successfully applied to give their presentations at national conferences. Now, THAT will definitely look great on your resume!
In some cases, students have received academic credit at their college or university for participating in the co-op program. Co-op or internship offices at your institution can assist you in determining if academic credit is available. If there is a co-op job opening for which you are qualified, and you have determined that you are eligible, our student programs staffing consultant will work with you and your school representative to make it all happen.
Intern Island is the place where you can find fun stuff to do and fun people to be with. You can plan activities and invite others to join you, or you can search for activities that others have planned.
All Sandia interns and their families are eligible for lifelong membership in the Sandia National Laboratories Federal Credit Union. The credit union is located on-site, making it easy for you to open and maintain a checking and/or savings account. You can also take advantage of automatic paycheck deposits to your credit union or other financial-institution accounts.
If you don’t have any wheels while you’re here, just hop on-board WHEELS (our local bus system)—they offer discount tickets for students! BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) is also readily available for trips around the Bay Area.
Across the street from Sandia, you will find Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). They have two great cafeterias that offer a wide variety of delicious food for breakfast and lunch.*
Scardina’s Deli Café is open on-site from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the lobby of Bldg. 915 (DISL). You can purchase premade sandwiches, salads, and fruit selections, or call (925) 443-0494 by 10:15 a.m. to special-order your selections for pickup at noon the same day. Often (during the summer especially), interns meet one day a week to go to a local restaurant (see the lunch forum in the Bulletin Board to sign up weekly).
Don’t spend your lunchtime cooped up in the lab! Explore the hiking and biking trails around Sandia—or play a game of tennis, and shoot some hoops on our outdoor courts.
*NOTE: Employees (including interns) with gray-striped badges are NOT permitted access to LLNL without an LLNL employee host.
Interns, along with their eligible dependents, who are not covered by another medical plan can enroll in a low-cost PPO plan. Year-round undergraduate- and graduate-student interns, along with their eligible dependents, who are not covered by another medical plan can select coverage from a choice of medical-plan options.
Use of the health services clinic, employee assistance program, Life Design Center, and massage therapy are available for all interns.