It is not too late to apply for internships for the summer, and it’s not too early to plan for fall! Here are a few tips to promise an internship within the next few months:
1. Be sure to find a good fit. Especially if the internship is unpaid, make sure you have an interest in the field or type of work you would be doing, so that your experience is fulfilling. Interns are often given hand-me-downs of busy work and are under paid. As someone who has had very good experiences and very bad experiences with summer internships, I recommend reading reviews of what a company is like to work for beforehand.
2. Resume aesthetics. Regardless of your work history, fine-tune your resume to be organized and detailed. Avoid a bio. Instead, try lists for your skills, experience, and interests. This will minimize clutter. If you lack bulk, try adding descriptions to previous positions. And if this is your first job search experience, it will be a rewarding exercise to develop a list of skills and references (professors, club leaders, etc.) to cushion the page. Finally, “experience” doesn’t have to be in the work force. Have you been part of a club, had a successful presentation in any particular class, or been part of a team? Write it down.
3. Keep an open mind. For example, when I was a freshman and living in New York, I was desperate for an internship and took the first one offered to me: writing for a retail app for the iPad that was moving online. I had to write about baby clothes and pet supplies! As I moved on in the internship, I became better at it and earned a skill: niche marketing. Even if you don’t need the experience and just want a developed resume, consider the feeling of confidently listing a new skill.
4. You are there for you. This is important throughout the whole process. In one of my horror story-type internships, I lost sight of why I was doing it in the first place and really stopped enjoying myself. You won’t gain satisfying experience just making copies or filling excel spreadsheets. Move on from something holding you down. College is a time for growth, and some experiences (especially the unpaid ones) can cause you to regress or, more importantly, be unhappy. Remember why you wanted an internship to begin with. If it is not working out, the process to find a better fit is pretty simple.
Photo designed by the author