Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

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Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by bdavery »

My start-up company is offering paid 14-week quizbowl internships for between two and five college students from May 14 to August 17, 2012.

You will work by computer wherever you are and e-mail me regular stuff, so there are no official work hours and no specific place you must show up.

Each week, you will work an average of 20 hours (some weeks less, some weeks more; it depends how good you get at what you'll be doing). Each successful intern will receive $1,400 after all requirements have been completed (which is $100 per work week).

The internship has weekly deadlines; if you miss even a single deadline, you’re fired and the deal is off. However, as long as you meet weekly deadlines, you can work another job or do another internship during the day, go to summer school, vacation anywhere you want, etc.

All tuition/fees your college charges to get the credit onto your transcript are your responsibility. As part of your application, you will have to send me all paperwork from your school that I have to fill out to get the internship approved by your school.

To receive application materials that explain in detail what you will be doing (and which you must keep confidential other than showing your school people and your parents) , you must:

1) be an undergraduate (no entering freshmen or grad students)
2) be at a point in your undergrad career where your college will allow you to get official credit toward your degree for a paid internship related to your major. Check into this before applying, as some schools require you to have finished a certain number of years or credits before they will give you credit for an internship.
3) be available May 14 – August 17 to get the work done
4) have played in at least one ACF Regional or NAQT SCT (and preferably, at least one ACF National or NAQT ICT), and
5) have an officially declared major in English, history, or some aspect of fine arts (other majors may be available some other year)

Deadline to submit a finished application is Friday, April 13, 2012 at 9 pm Eastern time. Successful candidates will be notified on or before Friday, April 20.

E-mail [email protected] to get the application materials. In your cover letter, note clearly and specifically how you fulfill each of the 5 requirements above.

All questions will be answered privately and not on this board. Questions that come up a lot may be combined into an FAQ sometime between now and the application deadline.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Tees-Exe Line »

I have no idea who you are or what exactly your company does, but you're really advertising a job at $5 an hour? I realize that there are loopholes that make this legal for official internships that get school recognition, so universities and businesses can jointly take advantage of cheap labor, and you could probably get this work done for you for free, frankly. But that doesn't mean it's socially acceptable.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by grapesmoker »

Yeah, I mean, TOP SECRET work has got to be worth at least $7/hr.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Sir Thopas »

May 14th?!
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by grapesmoker »

Sir Thopas wrote:May 14th?!
Does this date hold some special significance I'm not aware of?
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Sir Thopas »

grapesmoker wrote:
Sir Thopas wrote:May 14th?!
Does this date hold some special significance I'm not aware of?
No, just who the hell is out of school by May 14th?
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by grapesmoker »

Sir Thopas wrote:
grapesmoker wrote:
Sir Thopas wrote:May 14th?!
Does this date hold some special significance I'm not aware of?
No, just who the hell is out of school by May 14th?
Berkeley used to end by then. I think end dates vary pretty widely.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Cheynem »

Yeah. The schools where I did my undergrad and masters were done by late April.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Charley Pride »

Does the startup at least have a cool name? I propose "Questionable BrAvery".*

*If you use this, you pay me.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Frater Taciturnus »

Sir Thopas wrote:
grapesmoker wrote:
Sir Thopas wrote:May 14th?!
Does this date hold some special significance I'm not aware of?
No, just who the hell is out of school by May 14th?
The last exam at VCU ends at 3:50 PM May 11th, so yeah plenty of people.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Charley Pride »

Sir Thopas wrote:
grapesmoker wrote:
Sir Thopas wrote:May 14th?!
Does this date hold some special significance I'm not aware of?
No, just who the hell is out of school by May 14th?
Right. It seems like you'd be starting "work" as finals rolled around.

The lack of any meaningful details about the work itself makes this sound like one of those schemes that hire you to do quota-based work and fire you when you fail to meet the ridiculous quotas, thus squeezing free labor out of you. There's always another schmuck who'll take your place.

ALSO. Why would anyone give internship credit for this?
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Windows ME »

Sir Thopas wrote:
grapesmoker wrote:
Sir Thopas wrote:May 14th?!
Does this date hold some special significance I'm not aware of?
No, just who the hell is out of school by May 14th?
All of Canada.

Though the Canadian dollar is doing quite fine, so I don't think he's advertising $5/hr to us.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Windows ME »

fourplustwo wrote:
Sir Thopas wrote:
grapesmoker wrote:
Sir Thopas wrote:May 14th?!
Does this date hold some special significance I'm not aware of?
No, just who the hell is out of school by May 14th?
All of Canada.

Though the Canadian dollar is doing quite fine, so I don't think he's advertising $5/hr to us.
(On a somewhat related note this is why it's a bitch to get Canadian teams out to ACF Nationals. April 20-21st is practically in the middle of exam period [at least ICT is before]. I hope the organizers next year push it a week or two back as I'd really like to haul my team out there next year.)
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Matt Weiner »

HSAPQ will be hiring writers for the 2012-2013 academic year starting in late April. Anyone who will graduate high school this year or is already in or out of college may apply. If you want to write good questions of the sort Bryce Avery despises, for a minimum of $2 per question, you are encouraged to apply when the announcement goes up. I am sure NAQT is also looking to pay for good questions.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Black-throated Antshrike »

grapesmoker wrote:Yeah, I mean, TOP SECRET work has got to be worth at least $7/hr.
Which is still below minimum wage.....
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Charbroil »

Matt Weiner wrote:HSAPQ will be hiring writers for the 2012-2013 academic year starting in late April. Anyone who will graduate high school this year or is already in or out of college may apply. If you want to write good questions of the sort Bryce Avery despises, for a minimum of $2 per question, you are encouraged to apply when the announcement goes up. I am sure NAQT is also looking to pay for good questions.
The same with us at Olympia, except that we're currently hiring both high schoolers and college students.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Coldblueberry »

Why does he have this requirement "4) have played in at least one ACF Regional or NAQT SCT (and preferably, at least one ACF National or NAQT ICT)"?

His website looks like it only provides one liners and stuff.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Golran »

Probably because he is trying to massively improve his question quality or branch out into the collegiate game. Perhaps he believes that participation in higher-level tournaments will contribute to the perceived legitimacy of his questions.

Also, it is not entirely certain that this is question writing, it could be editing, or instructing others on how to write questions.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Black-throated Antshrike »

Golran wrote:branch out into the collegiate game.
This would be one of the most entertaining things to happen in a while. And by this, I mean entertainingly terrible.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by grapesmoker »

Golran wrote: Also, it is not entirely certain that this is question writing, it could be editing, or instructing others on how to write questions.
If people want to know how to write questions, they can read these forums for free.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by No Rules Westbrook »

Not if they want to learn how to write questions about anime.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by bdavery »

I appreciate the feedback (snarky as much of it was). I will use some of the feedback to update the offer as follows:


My start-up company, Foothills Education LLC, is offering paid 14-week quizbowl internships for three college students from May 14 to August 17, 2012. You will be helping to write an iPhone app for quizbowl study (the material in the app, not the code for the app). People outside the U.S. are welcome to apply.

The specific dates are because many colleges are out for summer by then, and I want to be done by the time college starts again in the fall at most places. The plan is, within a few weeks after you’re done and paid, the app you worked on will be available for sale.

You will work by computer wherever you are and e-mail me regular stuff, so there are no official work hours and no specific place you must show up. Each week, you will work an average of 20 hours (some weeks less, some weeks more; it depends how good you are at what you will be doing). Each successful intern will receive $2,000 after all requirements have been completed (which is about the federal minimum wage for 20 hours for 14 weeks).

AFAIK, paid internships for English, history, political science, humanities and fine arts majors are fairly hard to come by. Those majors were picked for reasons related to the business—and to try and be helpful to those people. You will be getting paid for studying quizbowl.

The internship has weekly deadlines; if you miss even a single deadline, you’re fired and the deal is off. However, as long as you meet weekly deadlines, you can work another job or do another internship during the day, go to summer school, vacation anywhere you want, etc.

The weekly deadlines are to avoid the problem from my end of people doing nothing for 12 weeks and then either a) cramming half of the needed work, badly, into the last 2 weeks or b) never being heard from again. Those of you who have organized a tournament where someone has just not shown up should understand my concern.

OTOH, if you are worried that I will hire you, take your work and stiff you out of the money somehow--I haven’t ever done that with any of the other employees I’ve ever hired. If you’re worried that I might perform some type of capitalism by paying you for your work and then using your work to make money for myself—well, yes, that is the intent-- just so you know. If that really bothers you, please don’t apply.

If you want credit from your school, then as part of your application, you will have to send me all paperwork from your school that I have to fill out to get the internship approved by your school. All tuition/fees your college charges to get the credit onto your transcript are your responsibility.

If you have no interest in getting college credit and just want the money…that’s OK, too—and less paperwork for me. But you still have to have one of the desired majors, at least for now.

The secrecy of the whole thing is related to the rules for filing patent and trademark applications (which I haven’t had time to do yet) and how much time you have to get them filed after you make your idea public.

To receive application materials that will explain in detail what you will be doing (and which you must keep confidential for the reasons above, other than showing your school people and your parents) , you must:

1) be an undergraduate (no entering freshmen or grad students)
2) be available May 14 – August 17 to get the work done.
3) have played in at least one ACF Regional or NAQT SCT (and preferably, at least one ACF National or NAQT ICT),
4) have an officially declared major in English, humanities, history, political science or some aspect of fine arts.
5) If you want college credit, you must be at a point in your undergrad career where your college will allow you to get official credit toward your degree for a paid internship related to your major. Check into this before applying, as some schools require you to have finished a certain number of years or credits before they will give you credit for an internship.

Deadline to submit a finished application is Friday, April 13, 2012 at 9 pm Eastern time. Successful candidates will be notified on or before Friday, April 20.

E-mail [email protected] to get the application materials. In your cover letter, note clearly and specifically how you fulfill each of the 4 or 5 requirements above.

Questions that come up a lot may be answered on this board again sometime between now and the application deadline.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Maxwell Sniffingwell »

And still, everyone, don't do this.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Black-throated Antshrike »

bdavery wrote: The secrecy of the whole thing is related to the rules for filing patent and trademark applications (which I haven’t had time to do yet) and how much time you have to get them filed after you make your idea public.
So you're going to patent and trademark publicly available information? That's pretty damn bold. Let me know when you start accepting applications for science majors, because I would be more than willing to help you try and patent a perpetual motion device, or something else that is a total load of crap.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Golran »

From my understanding, the patent/TM is regarding the methods through which the information is transmitted, not the information itself. It is possible that in order for the work he needs done to get done, the novel aspect of his idea must be revealed, which is what he is trying to protect.

If he's trying to make a product that will help encourage quizbowl and the gain of knowledge, why is everyone fighting it so vehemently? Yeah, the pay is terrible (There are a huge number of research positions for undergraduates in the sciences that pay $4000+ for 8-10 weeks, and I would assume some similar opportunities are available in the humanities; even summer camp counselors will make more than that), and there may be better monetary opportunities available, but for someone who needs internship credit to graduate, why not learn more about this opportunity*?

*I am assuming contacting for the application materials is non-binding.

tl;dr - Patent probably about transmission method, position may be worth looking into for someone with nothing better to do.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Auroni »

Golran wrote:From my understanding, the patent/TM is regarding the methods through which the information is transmitted, not the information itself. It is possible that in order for the work he needs done to get done, the novel aspect of his idea must be revealed, which is what he is trying to protect.

If he's trying to make a product that will help encourage quizbowl and the gain of knowledge, why is everyone fighting it so vehemently? Yeah, the pay is terrible (There are a huge number of research positions for undergraduates in the sciences that pay $4000+ for 8-10 weeks, and I would assume some similar opportunities are available in the humanities; even summer camp counselors will make more than that), and there may be better monetary opportunities available, but for someone who needs internship credit to graduate, why not learn more about this opportunity*?

*I am assuming contacting for the application materials is non-binding.

tl;dr - Patent probably about transmission method, position may be worth looking into for someone with nothing better to do.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Matt Weiner »

Golran wrote:If he's trying to make a product that will help encourage quizbowl and the gain of knowledge, why is everyone fighting it so vehemently?
Don't criticize people's tone on the board.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

Blanford's Fringe-fingered Lizard wrote:the only person known to threaten people with lawsuits for criticizing his questions
That had to do with revealing details of a Questions Galore bid for Missouri questions, as I recall, rather than "I will sue you because you say my questions are bad"--though maybe I'm just looking at the wrong posts (and he was still in the wrong). So Avery's still quite concerned with secrecy, as is clear from his post, though what brush I've had with how patenting works (via chemistry) suggests that to a certain extent, what you communicate about your product (the app) does, in fact, matter.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

No, he threatened to sue critics of his OAC questions back in like 2003ish.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

Yeah, here we go - viewtopic.php?p=56019#p56019
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Stained Diviner »

It looks to me like he was threatening to sue anybody who divulged his bid in what was supposed to be a closed bidding process.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by grapesmoker »

Hey, here's another reason not to get involved with this: it's almost certainly some form of patent trolling that's going to come back and harm quizbowl down the line.
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Re: Quizbowl internship for summer 2012

Post by Matt Weiner »

Leucippe and Clitophon wrote:It looks to me like he was threatening to sue anybody who divulged his bid in what was supposed to be a closed bidding process.
It wasn't supposed to be a closed bidding process; he made that up as a pretense to threaten a lawsuit against a high school student who had criticized his terrible questions.
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