- Find internship opportunities through schools, job boards, and career fairs.
- Create a professional résumé that details your background, experience, and references. Be concise so it's easy to skim and include a cover letter.
- Prepare answers to common interview questions ahead of time. After the interview, send a followup email to thank the recruiter for their time.
Finding Internships
Search generic job sites. Websites that are used for job seekers usually include internships as well. Try sites like Indeed, Monster, CareerBuilder, Glassdoor, and ZipRecruiter. In the search bar, type “intern” and any phrases that relate to your specific career field like “finance” or “medicine.” There will also be an option for setting a geographic location for your search so you can find jobs near you.
Search intern-specific sites. There are sites that cater specifically to interns and entry-level job seekers. Try sites like internships.com, LookSharp, Internmatch, and YouTern. Look for message boards or sites that are specific to your preferred career field.
Attend career fairs. Colleges and high schools often hold career fairs that will include a number of internship opportunities. These are a great option for finding internships because you can make a personal impression on the recruiter and ask questions about the position. If you are a student, ask someone in your school’s administrative office or career services office when these take place. Ask the recruiter questions like what kind of work you’ll be doing during the internship, what kind of opportunities it could lead to, and what the company culture is like. Most career fairs that aren’t held at schools will be for full-time jobs. If you do plan to attend one of these fairs, ask the event organizer if any internships will be available. Think of your conversations with recruiters as interviews. Bring a resume, dress nicely, and exude confidence at the fairs so you make a good impression.
Ask your teachers. Teachers and professors often know of internship or assistantship opportunities that may not be published on a job site. They themselves may be looking for an assistant to help out with certain tasks. If you are in college, you could also approach the administrators or your major’s department. It’s best to approach a teacher you know fairly well and whose subject matter you are interested in. Say something like “I am really enjoying our class. Do you know of any relevant internship opportunities?”
Application Process
Create a résumé. If you’re applying for an internship, it’s likely you don’t have much job experience. However, you’ll still need a professional-looking résumé to demonstrate your background and interests. If you don’t have much professional experience, try to think of other experiences that could be relevant. Include information about volunteer work and extracurricular school activities or teams you participated in. Include the courses you have taken in school, your GPA, and standardized testing schools as well, especially if you feel like your résumé is too short. Be descriptive in including your job functions, not just the names and dates of your employment. Instead of just saying that you served as an office assistant, describe duties like sending company-wide emails, drafting press releases, reordering office supplies, receiving and redirecting phone calls, and handling mail intake. If you do have a lot experience to fill up your résumé, try to be concise. A résumé should be no longer than two pages long. Design it so that the information can easily be gleamed by a skim read. Bullet points are a good way to emphasize the most important information. Ask a teacher or a professional to read your résumé and give advice.
Gather references. Many employers desire references to back up the information they’ll see on your résumé. Contact teachers, previous employers, or professionals that know you well ahead of time and make sure they are okay with being contacted by the employers you apply to. Have at least 3 recommenders in mind. Provide no more than 5 per job application. Try to give your recommender some guidance as to what qualities you want emphasized in the letter.
Create a portfolio. For certain job fields, a work sample portfolio will go a long way toward landing you an internship. If you’re applying for something related to writing, art, computer programming, research, or a performance field like dancing or acting, your work samples will likely speak louder than your résumé or cover letter. Provide a short description for each sample that gives the context for its creation. Describe the sample’s purpose and whether you made it for a job, school assignment, or recreation. If you have a large number of samples, be selective about what you include. Choose 3-5 samples of your best work. Consider changing your portfolio around for different jobs if certain samples are more directly applicable than your best. There are numerous free and premium online platforms for developing portfolios. Portfolio Gen, Carbonmade, eFolio, and Coroloft are some free options. Big Black Bad, Parade, and Pixpa are some premium options. If you have some web design skills, you could use an open source site like WordPress, Blogger, or TypePad.
Craft your cover letters. Cover letters are an opportunity to make a personal appeal to potential employers. Discuss your background, your interests, why you would be a valuable to the employer, and why the experience would be valuable for your long-term pursuits. Avoid repeating the content from your résumé. Instead, express exactly how your experience prepares you for the internship you’re applying for. Write a unique cover letter for each internship you apply to. Employers can easily tell if you’re using a cookie cutter letter and may reflect negatively on you. Try to find a specific person to contact and address the letter to them. If you can’t find a specific contact person, address it as “Dear wikiHow hiring manager.”
Acing the Interview
Dress well and groom yourself. Looking clean and professional is essential to demonstrating that you belong in a work environment. Consider the appearance of people working at the company you’re applying to and try to replicate that as best as possible. For some internships, you can dress more casually. Always shower, brush your teeth, and comb your hair before your interview. For men in a corporate environment, a suit is most ideal. If you don’t have a suit, wear a dress shirt, dress shows, and dress slacks with a tie. Make sure everything is properly laundered and ironed. For women in a corporate environment, pantsuits or a professional dress should be worn. You can wear high heels or flats, as long as they are professional looking. Try to conceal any tattoos and remove nontraditional piercings.
Exude confidence. One of the biggest things employers are looking for in an interview is composure and confidence. Sit upright, maintain eye contact, and speak up. If you think you may come off as nervous, try to practice some potential answers in front of mirror beforehand. Try to think positively and imagine yourself succeeding in getting the internship to build confidence. Find the technique that works for you. Living in the moment in the interview and not thinking of the outcome may take the pressure off and help you relax.
Prepare for generic questions. Consider the questions you’ll be asked ahead of time. You’re more likely to be nervous if you have to think of your answer on the spot. “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” “What made you decide to apply for this internship?” “Describe a time when you had to meet a deadline,” “Describe a time you had to work with a team,” “Describe a time you had to deal with a problem customer,” are common questions you’ll hear in a job or internship interview. While it’s good to be prepared, don’t overthink your answers. The main purpose of these questions is to see how well you think on your feet and sounding over-rehearsed can reflect negatively on you.
Emphasize how you can help them. A common mistake internship and job applicants make is overemphasizing how great the experience will be for them. Try to phrase all of your answers in ways that demonstrate your value to the employer. Instead of saying “This would be a great opportunity for me to learn more about sales,” say something like “I think my passion for developing sales skills will really contribute to your team’s goals.”
Ask questions of your own. Interviews will almost always end with the interviewer asking if you have any questions. Even if you don’t have anything particularly pressing to ask, coming up with a question or two will demonstrate that you’re engaged. If you can’t think of anything specific, ask something like “When do you think you’ll be making your hiring decision?” “How long has the company been around?” or “What is the typical day-to-day like in the office?”
Send a follow-up email or note. Job and internship-seekers often send a follow-up message to thank the potential employer for their time and restate their excitement about the position. You should wait two or three days before sending the follow-up. A good follow-up should say something like “I just wanted to reach out and thank you for your time the other day. I sincerely enjoyed learning more about the company and position. Please let me know if you have any additional questions about my background or need anything else from me. I look forward to discussing further.”
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