It’s internship-search season yet again! As someone who struggled with finding one myself, I thought I would give some tips because I realized this information can be surprisingly hard to find all in one place.
To preface, I was searching for pre-law opportunities because I wanted to gain insight into the legal field to see if it was something I would be interested in pursuing after graduation. This information may vary from what computer science students or business students typically do, as every field is different. Please keep that in mind.
Go into the process with the right frame of mind
The goal of an internship is to gain experience in a field you are interested in. While Michigan students always say that a stellar internship helps you land a job after graduation, and that is certainly true, having this mentality of only beefing up your resume is going to make this process miserable for you.
Every rejection, unanswered email, and setback will feel like a punch in the gut with this mindset, so it is essential to focus on the most crucial detail: your internship is a place for you to learn. Remember that you’re only an undergrad, so you’re not expected to have extensive experience and to have cured cancer to get an internship. Big companies can bring extraordinary opportunities, but smaller companies are helpful too. Something I learned through my experience is that smaller companies can sometimes provide a much better experience.
For instance, I interned at both a smaller law firm and a big law firm and found that the small firm allowed me to do so many more interesting tasks, like going to court, calling clients, writing court documents, and more, than the big law firm, which had me scanning old HR files all day. While not all companies are like this, this can be the case for some internships, so don’t completely write off smaller companies because they may provide a really great experience.
START EARLY! But not too early
When I tell you to start thinking about this over the summer, I mean it! I know that feels really early and it may be later when you read this article, but you’ll know for next time that starting early is the best thing you can do.
I suggest meeting with a Michigan career counselor over the summer to discuss plans, potential fields you could go into, and more just to give yourself an idea of what you want to do because when the time comes, you don’t want to freeze or procrastinate because you’re unsure of what you want. I found that when I don’t know what I want, I put off applications and procrastinate because homework is “more important” and takes less time. That’s why doing this step over the summer when you have less work is so much more helpful because it gets one possible path of procrastination out of the way.
Meeting with the counselor also gives you a game plan of when to get applications out, which can be super helpful because every field has different application timelines. You can meet with a counselor at your home school or with the University Career Center (UCC). I have met with both the LSA Opportunity Hub and the UCC and found both to be helpful, though I will say LSA was a little bit better because they gave me more of an action plan.
It is important to start early, but it is also important to consider that you don’t have to have an internship your freshman year. If you’re just starting college in the fall, I fully support taking a break if you are financially able. I did this and I don’t regret it at all. It gives you time to spend with family and friends and a break before college begins. My high school experience was stressful and I was very burned out, so having that time off helped me prepare for the new, very different school year ahead of me.
Alternatively, you can even take a retail or service job during this time because those jobs are very helpful and look really good on resumes. They show that you know how to communicate with people and handle stressful situations. I did this the summer going into my sophomore year because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do yet, so I thought getting work experience in this area would be helpful, and to be honest, it was really helpful. I learned how to deal with difficult people, very busy and high pressure situations, and that retail was definitely not the right sort of job for me. Today, I still mention my retail experience in interviews because it shows some soft skills that other candidates may not have.
Where to find applications
Finding applications can be the hardest part, but there are a lot of places you can do so! You can use school resources like Handshake and the University Career Center career track emails or web pages that list opportunities. Moreover, I found some internships by simply googling “law internship in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan” and some popped up on LinkedIn and Indeed.
I cold emailed some of the firms that only took law students and asked if they would be willing to take undergrads, and some got back. I’ll touch on cold emailing next, but it can be very helpful if you struggle to find job posts that are specific to your interests.
I also used LinkedIn for inspirational purposes and this is how I found one of my internships. I would make connections based on what career I was thinking of pursuing, which was law for me. I found one of my internships because I found a pre-law Michigan student’s LinkedIn and saw that she had a law internship in Bloomfield Hills. I cold emailed the law firm and they got back saying that they take undergrads! So searching Michigan student LinkedIn accounts can be very helpful, especially if they live in the area you want an internship in.
The art of cold emailing
Cold emailing is hard, but if you draft it right, you can increase your chance of getting a response! This may be different depending on the field you want to intern in, but what I did was research lawyers by my house based on what area of law they practiced in. From here, I gathered a bunch of firm email addresses and gathered them into one email. I blind-copied them each in an email since my message applied them all.
In the email, I made sure to:
- Introduce myself
- Mention my major and plans (I had planned to double major or minor at the time) and school
- Briefly mention academics (like my GPA and interests) and how I can provide a transcript upon request
- Tell the lawyers why I was interested in law
- State that I was willing to do this for no pay because I wanted the experience more than anything else
- Attach my resume!
- Keep my email under 250 words because people don’t have the time to read more
Part 5 is optional because not everyone can afford to do an internship for no pay, but if you are able to afford it, it can be a way to significantly increase your chances of getting a response or even an offer.
Resources
Some resources that may help your search might be the UCC website, the LSA Opportunity Hub Canvas Page (found on their website), LSA Engage, the UCC Resume Workshop, and the UCC Internship Workshop. The UCC holds workshops every week, so if you go to Handshake, you should be able to find some sessions at a time that works for you. I heard that there is also a 1-credit ALA class that helps students find internships as well!
Also, early in the fall and winter semesters there is a multi-day career fair that brings in companies from all over looking to hire UMich students. I would highly recommend going because it not only may help you make a good connection to get an internship, because hiring managers take resumes while you are there and may remember you if you make a good connection, but it would also help you gain experience talking to hiring managers.
Utilize Connections Whenever Possible
Every UMich workshop or career center meeting I’ve been to emphasizes networking as one of the most important things you can do. I used to think that they were being overkill, but I learned firsthand that it can really help.
During my internship search, I remembered one of my dad’s friends is a lawyer, so I emailed him asking if he knew of any internship opportunities for undergrads around where I live. He ended up connecting me with a place he interned at in the past and got me in direct communication with the HR department. It was incredibly useful and landed me a big law internship as an undergrad.
Also, if the place you end up interning at has any networking events, I highly recommend going to those as well because I ended up meeting lawyers who were willing to give me their contact information to answer any questions I had about the law school application process. They were very helpful and kind and I have a feeling they are going to be very useful connections if I ever go to law school!
A Last bit of advice
My experience as a stressed-out sophomore searching for internships is clear as day in my head, so I hope that you remember that everything is going to work out, even when it doesn’t feel like it. Take breaks, take care of yourself, and if that means deleting the LinkedIn app from your phone for a while, do it.
Most importantly, you’re not behind — everyone’s on their own timeline and every career path looks different. Just because you don’t have an internship with Google this summer doesn’t mean that you are going to be any less successful than anyone else.