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Sprints, Competitions and Mini-Experiences

Many career fields and industries have mini-experiences. Here are some options to explore. This isn’t an exhaustive list so make sure to do your own searching to find programs that are a good fit for you!

Micro-Experiences and Micro-Internships

Micro-experiences and micro-internships are short-term, (often) paid, professional assignments that are similar to those given to new hires or interns. These projects enable you to demonstrate skills, explore career paths and build your network as you seek the right full-time role.

  • Parker Dewey Micro-internships: Micro-Internships with Parker Dewey are short-term, paid, professional projects open to all college students and recent graduates of U.S.-based institutions. From working directly with an entrepreneur to supporting a large enterprise, you’ll have the opportunity to explore different roles and company cultures as you gain valuable experience.
  • UT Inventors Program: Interested in Entrepreneurship? The UT Inventors Program empowers you and a team of fellow STEM undergraduates to turn scientific discovery into societal impact. 
  • MindSumo: MindSumo helps employers crowdsource breakthrough ideas quickly and affordably with help from creative problem solvers. You can sign up to be a “problem solver” and build skills while getting paid. 
  • The Forage: Provides bite-sized 5-6 hour virtual work experience programs that give students a genuine career advantage with Fortune 500 companies.

Sprints

Sprints are one-day or weekend-long events that bring teams together to work on meaningful, interesting real-world problems. 

  • Science Sprint or Inventors Sprint: Through the CNS TIDES Office at UT, you’ll join a team of other UT students to solve a problem together over the course of a Saturday.

Hackathons and Game Jams

Hackathon: Sprint-like design event in which computer programmers and others involved in software development, including graphic designers, interface designers, product managers, project managers, domain experts and others collaborate intensively on software projects.

Game Jam: Accelerated opportunistic game creation event where a game is created in a relatively short timeframe using given design constraint(s) and end results are shared publicly.

  • Itch.io: Platform that hosts Game Jams

Case Competitions

Case competitions can play a role in highlighting the many skills involved in case writing, teaching and learning. They can benefit faculty, researchers and students and offer the opportunity to showcase expertise at business schools and universities.