Internship season is upon us, and the search for a worthwhile thing to do this summer seems endless. Last year it took me a few months of searching to find an opportunity; during that time I was super worried that I wouldn’t find anything.
There’s really no way to make the internship search easy unless you’re lucky enough to have good connections, but if you’re dedicated and creative, you’ll eventually find something!
You have to start your search somewhere, so here are a few places you can look for a great summer opportunity.
- Handshake: LILAC and CPD do a ton of advertising for Bryn Mawr’s Handshake site, and for good reason—you have a better chance of getting an internship if the college has a connection with that organization. There aren’t tons of internships on there, which is good in the sense that you won’t be too overwhelmed. If you don’t find anything you like there, you can move on to the other sites on this list.
-
Indeed: Indeed is useful for finding full-time and part-time jobs and for finding internships! There’s no shortage of job postings on here, and their search tool is very useful (you can filter by pay, location and distance from that location, time period, and more).
-
Internships.com: Internships.com is tailored especially for college students, while Indeed is not. It’s run by Chegg, a company you may be familiar with if you’ve ever searched for textbook rentals. The internship job postings are very detailed, so you know exactly what you could be getting into before you even leave the website.
Bonus: Make your own opportunity!
The bad thing about all of these websites is that there are tons of other college students just like you looking for internships there—i.e. there’s a lot of competition to deal with. One way to overcome this problem is to create your own internship, which is what I did last summer. There’s a large chance you won’t be paid, but you can negotiate for less hours so that you can work a part-time job to make some extra cash. Contact non-profits, school districts, and business in your area and see if they’ll be willing to take you on for a summer opportunity.
And finally, don’t forget that LILAC offers summer funding for a select number of students who are working unpaid internships! Be sure to check out their page if you find a great unpaid opportunity.