Professional Internship
The first step on the career ladder
During both the Bachelor's and the Master's programs, mathematics students at TUM must complete a professional internship or an equivalent term of professional activity. This offers a great opportunity, as an internship ensures insights into the diverse professional roles and sectors in which mathematicians can work. It can also generate contacts to potential employers. Most importantly, students enhance their applicant profile by completing internships.
Professional Internship and Internship Seminar
Participation in the Internship Seminar is compulsory for the Professional Internship Module (MA8101, MA8102, MA8103) in all degree programs at the Department of Mathematics. The seminar is an opportunity for students to share their experiences and discuss their professional internships with one another. In their oral presentations or in their report, students talk about the content of their internships, their duties and responsibilities, as well as the application process and business environment. The module is a pass/fail credit requirement in each study program.
Components and completion of the module
The Internship Module consists of three parts: seminar points, oral presentation or report, and the professional internship itself, including a certificate of completion from the company. So it may extend over several semesters. If all three parts have been checked and passed, we will carry out the credit recognition of the module in TUMonline; usually this will be at the end of the assessment period or after the lecture period. You then can view your account and grade report in TUMonline to see whether the module has been recognized.
Internship Seminar in winter semester 2022/23
In winter semester 2022/23
- there are fixed registration periods for holding a report
- the internship seminar will take place as an online seminar in Moodle (course "Praktikumsseminar")
- you gain 0.5 seminar points for each valid feedback
- short video reports or written reportsare produced instead of the oral presentations, with a question and discussion forum
- the reports remain visible to all participants after the report date
- you have more time flexibility and you can also see or read and evaluate individual reports
Internship Seminar: dates and periods
The upcoming reports are listed here.
- Registration for reports:
Registration for reports in winter semester 2022/23 will start on October 1st, 2022.
Reports can also be held in subsequent semesters. - Reports must be submitted in Moodle at least 1 week (12:00 / noon) before the report date.
- The reports can be seen in Moodle at least 6 days before the report date.
- The authors are available in their forum for questions and mutual exchange (active phase: 6 days before up to and including the report deadline). Take advantage of this opportunity!
- In order to receive an evaluation point for a report, you must give a feedback in Moodle by 23:59 on the report day.
Looking for an internship?
Get ideas, inspirations, contacts and valuable tips during the presentations and reports in the internship seminar. Take the chance for mutual exchange in the forums. Benefit from the information and the offer of the Career Service. Please note the information in the flyer Working in Germany of the TUM Career Service.
Contact
Please contact me via internship (at) ma.tum.de.
Open consultation hours: Tuesday, 13:00-14:00 via Rocket-Chat #ma_internship_seminar (Video/Tel-Chat possible)
From 14.03.2023 until further notice no office hours with Mrs. Ruf. In urgent cases, please email bachelor@ma.tum.de
Team:
Angela Puchert, Kathrin Ruf
Registration period for reports in winter semester 2022/23
Registration period: October 1 - 30, 2022
For reports from October 18 until January 18
If all dates until Christmas are already fully booked within this registration period, please contact Kathrin Ruf by October 31, 2022.
Registration period: December 15, 2022 - January 15, 2023
For reports in from January 25
Only for students who do their internship during the winter semester and cannot yet present before Christmas.
Reports can also be held in subsequent semesters (please note the registration periods).
Presentation/report before the end of the internship
For longer internships, a presentation/report after the minimum working period is possible, provided that the experience extends well beyond the familiarization phase (inquiries: Kathrin Ruf).
Reports in summer semester 2023
The registration period for reports in summer semester 2023 will start on April 1, 2023.
Vocational orientation and Seminar points: Why attend the Internship Seminar?
The Internship Seminar offers students the opportunity to exchange experiences from their professional internships. Further, application tips and other important information concerning companies are discussed. Registration is required only for your own presentation or report, but you must be registered for the Moodle course.
Online seminar in winter semester 2022/23
The internship seminar takes place as an online seminar in Moodle (course "Praktikumsseminar / Internship Seminar").
Instead of oral presentations, authors present short video reports or written reports, which are accessible for all participants 6 days before the report date. The reports remain accessible after the report day, too.
Question and discussion forum: the authors are available to participants in the respective forum for questions and for mutual exchange. In the period from 6 days before up to and including the date of the report, the authors are active in the forum and answer you promptly (within 24 hours). You shouldn't miss this chance to get additional first-hand experience and tips and to make contacts!
After you have viewed or read the reports, you can give feedback to evaluate the report until 23:59on the day of the report in order to receive seminar points. Because of the shorter reports, one valid feedback is equivalent to only half a seminar point. If the feedback is submitted too late or if we get the impression that this evaluation is not sensible - i.e. apparently you have not sufficiently dealt with the report - you will not receive any seminar points.
Take advantage of the time flexibility and the possibility to view or read and evaluate individual reports only.
What is a seminar point?
The report is held in the Internship Seminar. A forum allows questions and discussions on the respective report. After reading or viewing a report, you evaluate the report by an anonymous feedback. For every valid feedback you give, you receive 0.5 seminar points.
How many seminar points do I need?
For the Internship Module in the Bachelor's program, 8 seminar points (corresponds to 16 feedbacks) are required, in the Master's program, 2 seminar points (corresponds to 4 feedbacks) are required. Ideally, you acquire these prior to your internship. Please note: If you have passed the Internship Module within your bachelor's program at TUM the 8 seminar points are sufficient for the Master's program, too.
Seminar point count at a glance
Students are directly informed in the Internship Seminar of how many seminar points they have acquired up to that point. In the grading section of the Moodle course you can see for how many and for which feedbacks you received seminar points.
At the end of the assessment period and after the lecture period, the acquired seminar points are transferred to the database relevant for TUMonline.
Seminar points: How else can they be acquired?
Bachelor students who hold their oral presentation or report in English in the Internship Seminar receive 1 seminar point. Registered participants also receive 1 seminar point for attending Meet My Company.
Planning your participation in the Internship Seminar
Which career fields and companies are you interested in? Start thinking about this in advance and select those presentations or reports in the Internship Seminar that you would particularly like to see or read.
Gain inspiration for professional life
In the Internship Seminar, students report on their experiences at companies. Reports from previous semesters also help in the search for interesting internship positions.
Professional Internship: What is required?
Students should gain genuine professional experience during their studies – proof of this is compulsory in all degree programs. As such, it is initially of little importance whether this is gained as a student worker or intern, as an apprentice, or in connection with an occupation taken up independently.
The following aspects are considered in the review for recognition:
Internships or occupations practiced as a student worker can be undertaken at several different employers, either on a full- or part-time basis. The type of employment contract and whether it is a compulsory or voluntary internship is immaterial for the purposes of recognition. However, in order to qualify, the conditions of employment must amount to a total of at least 4 weeks full-time work.
An internship encompassing at least 4 weeks of full-time practical professional activity is compulsory for all Bachelor's and Master’s programs. Bachelor's students whose internships exceed this duration, can have surplus hours recognized toward a subsequent Master's program, providing that the accomplishments are of Master’s standard. Tip: An internship period of just four weeks is often too short for many companies. Being available for longer periods increases your chances of finding a suitable internship, and the potential to be involved in more interesting tasks is also greater.
Please note that a sufficient level of German language proficiency is needed for many jobs.
If you apply for recognition for your activities as a student worker or for part-time employment, the number of working hours should equate to 4 weeks of full-time work (ca. 160 hours).
For longer internships during the lecture period, you can apply for a leave of absence at the Student Service Center - Student Admission (You need an aproval of the department. Please send an email with your data and study program to the Infopoint Mathematik.).
The activities and tasks completed during the internship must be relevant to your degree program, that is, have a mathematical context or a context relating to one of the minor subjects, Informatics, Physics, Economics, or Electrical Engineering. For example, employment involving the application of knowledge of numerical analysis, stochastics, optimization, computer algebra or similar. As a rule, placements at consultancies can be recognized despite the lack of a direct connection to mathematics. This is because the field does hold potential for mathematicians and draws upon mathematicians’ soft skills.
Merely using commercial programs such as EXCEL or exclusively creating web pages is insufficient for an professional internship to be recognized, as is the simple dissemination of school knowledge of mathematics, tutoring or teaching. Purely administrative tasks or research internships without any clear application context are also insufficient. Any doubts? Then send an email in advance, containing a short description of the prospective tasks, toKathrin Ruf.
Students enrolled in the Mathematics in Data Science Master's program must be able to prove the completion of a professional internship lasting at least 6 weeksfull-time or work experience of the same duration as a student worker or self-employment in this area.
If you seek credit recognition for vocational education and training you have already completed, please send copies of all relevant certificates to Kathrin Ruf.
Need assistance with a job search or application?
Take advantage of our Career Services.
Internship abroad?
Contact Carola Jumpertz or check the information on "paths abroad".
Generell information on Internship abroad.
Verification of compulsory internship
To verify to the company that an internship is a required component of your degree program, you can attach the following letter with your proof of enrollment:
If the company needs an individualized confirmation, you can request for it here.
Professional Internship Certificate: What must be included?
To have your work experience or internship recognized, you must submit a copy of the certificate of completion from the company and any other necessary documents digitally as one single PDF (max. 2 MB) in the Moodle course. The certificate must include the following information:
- your name
- duration of the internship
- number of hours worked per week
- name of the company (address if possible)
- short description of activities
- name and contact details of your internship advisor (should any queries arise)
The certificate must be issued on the company’s official letterhead or be stamped with the company's stamp. Points not listed must be documented when the certificate is handed in (e.g. weekly working hours by excerpt from the contract).
Incomplete documents will be rejected and must be submitted again.
Certificate documents are checked for recognition on a monthly basis. After recognition, you can see how many weeks have been recognized in the corresponding grading block in Moodle.
Hint
The submission of the certificate documents is completely independent in terms of time from the report registration or the report date.
Having surplus weeks recognized
If you complete more than the number of weeks of internship required by the TUM Bachelor’s program in Mathematics, you can, in general, have these recognized toward the Master's degree program. To this end, Master's students should send a short email to the Infopoint Mathematics
Presentation or Report: What requirements do I need to consider?
Following your internship, you register for the Internship Seminar using our registration form, in order to secure a slot for your presentation or report. Please note the new registration periods!
This date (and the associated deadlines and forum period) is binding as an examination date. Should you nevertheless be prevented from fulfilling your tasks for valid reasons, you must immediately inform the contact person responsible, in emergencies only no later than 24 hours prior to the scheduled date or the associated deadlines. Otherwise the module will be considered as failed.
Reports in Winter Semester 2022/23
Switching to the online seminar format requires some adjustments to the presentation on the internship and the subsequent group discussion in the internship seminar.
Documents to be submitted
Instead of an oral presentations, short video reports or written reports are to be produced, as well as key facts on the internship and the company. In addition each author formulates 2 questions on the report, which are to be answered by the seminar participants in the feedback.
The report, the key facts sheet and the questions on the report have to be submitted in Moodle (course "Praktikumsseminar") and will be accessible for all course participants after the report has been activated. They stay accessible even after the report date.
You add the report, key facts and questions about the report on your report page in Moodle. They will be accessible to course participants after the report has been activated, even after the report date. More information about this can be found in the Moodle course.
Deadlines
Uploading the documents in Moodle must be done no later than 1 week (7 days) before the report date at 12:00 (noon). For example, for the report date on Monday, November 2, the deadline is Monday, October 26 at 12:00 (noon). The documents will be checked and made visible to the course participants the following day. If the documents are submitted incompletely or after the deadline or if the requirements are not met, the report will be rejected and is automatically failed.
Question and discussion period
This semester the group discussion will be replaced by a question and discussion forum in Moodle. Your binding and active forum period lasts 1 week. It starts with the publication or from the day after the submission deadline of your report and ends on your reporting day at 23:59. Binding and active means that you have to respond actively and promptly (within 24 hours) to questions and discussion posts about your report during this period. If you are not sufficiently active, you automatically fail the presentation or report. We therefore recommend that you subscribe to your forum. Outside of the active forum time it would be nice if you respond to forum posts, but this is not mandatory.
Feedback on the report
After the question and discussion period, you will receive an evaluation of the feedback on your report. Please inform us if you have the impression that an evaluation is not sensible - i.e. if a participant has apparently not sufficiently dealt with the report.
Guidelines
- 10-15 minutes, no longer!
- readable and acoustically comprehensible
- Content guidlines see below at "Content on the report"
- Link the video (MP4 format) on your report page
Tips and further information
No glossy video is expected. It is sufficient to see the slides (readable!) and hear you speak and explain (acoustically comprehensible).
The easiest way is probably to record your Powerpoint presentation, or to do a screencast.
Tips for producing videos can be found in In-depth assistance: produce your own instructional videos provided by ProLehre.
Please keep to the time limit! If necessary, shorten the report so that it has10 rather than 15 minutes.
The information you provide in the key facts does not need to be mentioned in the report.
Guidelines
- Format: DIN A4, 2cm margin, 11pt, line spacing1.5
- Continuous text (complete sentences), Exceptions: figures/data/... can be displayed in tables
- at least 5 pages of pure text content (without pictures, table, ...): of which
- approx. 10-15% thematic block Company
- approx. 10-15% thematic block Application
- approx. 40-60% thematic block Internship
- approx. 20-30% thematic block Conclusion and personal assessments
- For thematic blocks and further content guidelines see below at "Content on the report"
- link the PDF on your report page
Tips and further information
The report does not have to be a glossy project like a thesis. You can use this template.
However, it is expected that the text is illustrated (like in a presentation) at appropriate points with pictures, graphics, tables, ... . Please note that large headings and paragraphs are not counted toward the required 5 pages of continuous text.
Structuring the report by using headlines and paragraphs is also desirable, as these make reading easier.
The information you provide in the key facts does not need to be mentioned in the report.
Guidelines
- 2 short questions related to your report
- to answer it, active reading or viewing of the report is necessary, i.e.
the answer cannot simply be found in the description (registration form), the key facts or via Google - to be written on your report page
Examples
"What advice did I give regarding the application?"
"Why did I choose ... ?"
"What did I find particularly good on ... ?"
If not in the short description also: "Which algorithm/programming language did I use?" or "Which math. field did I deal with during my internship?", ...
Presenting or reporting twice?
Have you already delivered a presentation or report about a professional internship during your Bachelor’s mathematics program at the TUM? Then a second presentation or report during your Master's course is not necessary.
How to submit report documents
Content of the presentation or report
There are 4 thematic blocks, all of which must be addressed appropriately. Your main focus should be on the thematic block internship and on the thematic block conclusion. The key points and questions listed below in the thematic blocks serve as an orientation for the design of these blocks. Give a SHORT general overview of each thematic block and then report more on this topic. Key questions may be:
- Which information do you find particularly interesting?
- What is particularly important to you to report on this topic?
- What would you like to have known before the internship?
- What could be of particular interest to your fellow students?
- What should your fellow students know about this topic?
- Is there any special information that one should definitely know?
The thematic blocks and suggestions as to what could be discussed in the individual thematic blocks are:
1. Company
Facts, data, history, corporate culture, industry, competition (benchmark), general conditions, division, business climate
Which points about the company / department do you find particularly interesting or worth mentioning? Why did you choose this company? What professional perspectives does this company offer?
2. Application
What was your goal in finding the job? How did you find the job? How did the application process / interview go? What were your own ideas and expectations of the internship/job? What tips do you have in terms of applying to this company or a similar position?
3. Internship (tasks, activities, supervision)
What were your duties? How did the activity proceed? What knowledge from your previous studies could you apply? What knowledge / soft skills have you newly acquired and where could you use them in your studies or career? How were you supported? How do you rate the support? Where did the internship get you? What will you pay attention to in the future? To whom would you recommend this internship and to whom not? Why?
4. Conclusion and personal assessment
What did you like and what didn't you like? How would you rate the scope and quality of the internship? What knowledge have you gained about the profession of mathematicians? How do you assess the internship activity in relation to the choice of a major / master's degree / topic for the final thesis? Does this internship have an impact on your choice of career? Your personal professional goals for the future? Other ...
Registration form
Here you can find the form to register for your internship report.