Professional Internship

• Duration and number of hours
• Requirements
• Registration
• Documents to be submitted

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. 

Components and completion of the module

The Professional Internship Module (MA8101, MA8102, MA8103) is compulsory in all degree programs at the Department of Mathematics. It is a pass/fail credit requirement in each study program and constists of two parts: the internship itself and a written report. In their report, students refer to their duties and responsibilities, as well as the application process and business environment. If both 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 can then view your account and grade report in TUMonline to see whether the module has been recognized.

Duration and number of hours

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.

Special case: Mathematics in Data Science Master's program

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 weeks full-time or work experience of the same duration as a student worker or self-employment in this area.

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.

Requirements: content, level and restrictions

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 a 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.

Students enrolled in the Mathematics in Science and Engineering Master's program can complete their internship at industrial employers only and not at universities, research institutes or administrative authorities.

Special case: vocational education and training

If you seek credit recognition for vocational education and training you have already completed, please send copies of all relevant certificates to internship-ma(at)asa.cit.tum.de

Looking for an internship?

Get ideas, inspiration, contacts and valuable tips by reading former interns' reports in our moodle course. Benefit from application tips and gather information concerning companies and their internship programs.

Documents to be submitted after completion

After completion of your internship send the confirmation of the successfully completed professional internship and your report to internship-ma(at)asa.cit.tum.de

Written report – guidelines and information

The report should be submitted as pdf file in A4 format and contain at least 2,000 words of text. It does not have to be a glossy project like a thesis. However, it is expected that the text is illustrated (like in a presentation) at appropriate points with pictures, graphics, tables etc. The report should provide insights into the tasks you were given and act as a guideline to help other students find a suitable internship position, e.g. by giving answers to:

• Which information do you find particularly interesting?
• 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: