Articles that spill the secrets about how to land your dream internship are all the rage these days. Collegietes everywhere are working tirelessly to edit their resumes and craft the perfect LinkedIn profile. The unfortunate nature of the internship hunt is that it’s become the most competitive it’s ever been. You may find yourself applying for dozens of positions, landing a handful of interviews, and coming up short with an email from the recruiter apologizing that they cannot offer you the position at this time. Before you begin to stress over the thoughts of not having an internship this summer, let me tell you why you should be proud of being denied a job opportunity.
Any experience you can get in an interview setting its beneficial.
It goes without saying that the interview process is intimidating. You’re being judged on your appearance, your intelligence, your knowledge of the business, and many other factors. It can be hard to stay relaxed in this type of environment, but interviewing becomes easier the more you do it. If you ever leave an interview and think to yourself “I should have said this” or “I feel like I could have asked better questions,” you’ll have all of your personal feedback to draw upon for future interviews. Even if you are denied for the position, you have already gained volumes of experience in comparison to your peers who never applied.
The more you can get your name out there, the better.
One of the biggest keys to getting an internship is through networking. The more jobs you apply to or the more people you connect with on LinkedIn increases the amount of people who see your name in the professional field. After an interview, always connect with your interviewer on LinkedIn and consider sending them a thank-you message as a follow-up. Even if you are not selected for the position, there may be a good chance the interviewer still sees a great amount of potential in you and would be willing to consider your talents in different areas.
Your failures make you more prone to success.
Most of us can relate to the pressure of seeing our peers share all of their amazing accomplishments on Facebook and Instagram. It’s easy for us to think “Why am I not seeing this success? Am I not working hard enough?” Certain things come into your life at certain times and it is not healthy to compare your career-related progress to someone else’s. The bright side to not landing an internship position on your first try is that your failure only motivates you even more to work harder in comparison to the students who accepted a position after their first interview.
Overall, the internship application and interview process is long and time consuming, so make sure you set aside enough time each week to send out those applications. Regardless of the turnout, you should be extremely proud of yourself for starting this process and taking away some valuable key lessons. Keep on applying, collegietes!