Master 2 / MScT 2A

STEEM-2 internships will start from the end of March and shall last 20 to 24 weeks (5 to 6 months).

A STEEM-2 internship must be a research internship.

However, the word research can be appreciated quite widely. It is not necessarily academic research, it may be scientific, technical, industrial or economic research or development, but it is not an execution internship. Indeed, the internship must not consist of carrying out standard works, whether predefined or not, within a department; the internship must have a well-defined objective and must lead to the realization of an original deliverable: a software, an experiment, a study that can be scientific, statistical, economic .... but original!

There is also no restriction on the organization hosting you: academic lab. or company, from start-up to large industrial group, or administration or paraadministrative body, in France or abroad (but this may cause visa problems).

Fundamentally what is important is to assess the managerial capacity of the host organization, how it can guide you in your research and what you can learn there.

When choosing your internship, think about what you plan to do the year after. Do you plan to begin a PhD, to find a job in a company, to launch a start-up or anything else? There will be many opportunities for you, but some of them require a specific internship.

For an academic PhD prefer an internship in an academic lab, it may give you good references and even propose PhD opportunities. A thesis in a company is also conceivable, in this case favour rather important companies, small ones rarely have the means to support a PhD student.

For a future career in a company remember to become the real specialist they will need, the internship is there to train you in a specialty but also to give you the opportunity to prove your scientific and technical competences, often big or small companies use internships to test their future employers, it will be your last student exam so don’t miss it!

Whatever the type of internship you will choose, your ability to present the progress of your work and your results clearly and synthetically is also very important and may influence strongly your future. Therefore, the internship ends with a report and an oral defence, see on SynapseS the dedicated advices for these topics.

You will have to choose an internship at the end of December or during January, to this end you will benefit on the web of a lot of information:
- Dedicated proposals received for STEEM students will be posted.
- The list of internships done by STEEM, REST and WAPE students during the previous years.
- The Polytechnique Career Center internship proposals whatever the discipline.
- You may join the LINKEDIN group “Ecole Polytechnique Energy & Environment Master Programs” that gathers a large number of Alumni, Professors and academic or industrial partners

These links will appear in time on your Polytechnique SynapseS account

Also do not hesitate to contact your professors.

About the procedure:
- Once you will have found an interesting internship, first contact Alexandre STEGNER for his approval of the subject and of the hosting organisation.
- At the end of November you will receive information about internship contract procedure from Mrs Michèle Gesbert, in charge of Master-2 internships.
- A “Convention de Stage” will be signed by you, your host organisation, a STEEM academic referent, and Ecole Polytechnique.