For many STEM majors, the summer internship search is where all dreams go to die. The process puts your professional communication skills in a spotlight that they sometimes aren’t ready for, or other times, you have no idea where to start your search.
While I wouldn’t recommend you wait for an internship to fall in your lap — because unfortunately, it’s not that easy — you don’t have to let the stress take over your life.
Even if you aren’t looking for an internship, I find my method to be great for helping you build your professional skills, and you may accidentally end up with some offers anyway!
Rubbing Elbows
Career fairs are an asset; they put you in a huge room with hundreds of people who are actually hired to market and recruit for their company. So, just keep in mind that they are here to search for good candidates.
Many people go into career and internship fairs with an actual map, labelled with the desirability of the company, and they are willing to wait in line to speak with recruiters.
At the end of the day, unless you know that your resume is made of solid gold, and you’ve dreamed of working for this company since you were a child, it’s better to just keep walking past the line.
The ideal method is something I call the “Yap Strategy.” Essentially, you just need to talk to people. Talk to any booth without a line, talk to the recruiters that smile at you, talk to companies that aren’t advertising to your major, talk to the companies at the end of the table who are stuck in the corner and look lonely, and most importantly, talk to your peers. Let them know who’s looking for their major, and they may, in turn, share similar tips with you.
Presentation
The difference between a candidate and a good candidate is presentation. You are trying to sell yourself as a hire that will benefit the company as a whole, and what’s the best way to do that? Become the kind of business professional you see in the movies.
Make sure your outfit is business professional and fits you well, wear dress shoes that look sleek but are still walkable, spend some time doing your makeup, and smile the entire time.
You want to make a good impression, and dressing for the job you want sets you apart from the people who show up in jeans and sneakers.
Your resume should be seamless, and you should know every single thing on it. Print out 20 and make it your goal to give away every one of them.
The Conversation
You may want to test your handshake out on friends before it premieres at the career fair. After you introduce yourself, start with a pitch that you practiced in the mirror beforehand. The goal is to have a long conversation that emphasizes your personality. Most recruiters are looking for a person, not a college transcript. That part comes later; your personality gets your foot in the door.
Connect with the recruiter through some shared interests or knowledge. Some of my most meaningful conversations at internship fairs started about the weather and ended about the importance of paying forward opportunities to the younger generation.
When the conversation reaches an organic end, thank them for coming to the career fair. They may ask for your resume, and when they do, you can ask for a business card or LinkedIn connection in return. Rinse and repeat until you are out of resumes (or your heels start to hurt).
Follow-up
After about a week, many companies send emails either rejecting you or asking to schedule an interview. If there’s a company you haven’t heard back from yet, but really want to, bust out that business card or LinkedIn profile you asked for to follow up with the recruiter. When you send your emails to the recruiter or your company contact, I recommend using the wonderful feature “Schedule Send” to send your email at 7 or 8 a.m. so it’s at the top of their inbox.
Nailing your Interview
The interview is the most stressful part of this process. While the initial connection is about conversation, the interview is when you have to combine your social skills with everything else on your resume. You are typically going to be interviewed by the leaders of whatever team you’d work with, so research the company and write some questions in advance to ask at the end.
Then, you need to write a polite email thanking the interviewers for their time and letting them know you appreciate learning more about what an intern would be involved in. Schedule to send it on the very next business day.
Contingency: Cold Approach
There’s no shortage of intern positions in any field, and if you can’t find one you like, employing a cold email approach isn’t as scary as it sounds.
Find companies in your area and cold email the hiring department, asking if they would be willing to take on an intern. This is where you typically have to pitch yourself over email and hope that the company may have a secret intern position or that the hiring department is willing to create one.
Chasing an internship generally isn’t the way to go; you want to be eager but also open to trying new things. Internships are a great opportunity to actually get field experience in your ideal career, but they can also help you develop new professional interests. Hopefully, my tips will help you land the summer internship of your dreams without the stress!
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