Intern Series: How To Get An Internship- Insights From A Real Intern

You’re in your first year of college or university and everyone keeps talking about “internships”. Based on your experiences you may or may not know what an “internship” all entails but what is evident is that it’s a hot topic of conversation everywhere you go.

Want to learn more about “internships”? Well keep reading below for insights into the best practices in finding and obtaining the internship of your dreams.

Personal Experience

Coming into college I wasn’t familiar with the concept of an “internship”. But that has quickly changed throughout my time at school. I now understand the importance internships provide as young professionals work to define their career paths.

There are many ways to find internship opportunities and you may be familiar with some and unfamiliar with others, so let’s get right into it.

Recruiting and Networking Platforms

Let’s begin with two of the most prevalent recruiting/professional networks out there.

Handshake

Handshake is an online recruiting platform for higher education students that partners with universities and employers to streamline and simplify the recruiting process. (Weber.edu)

Handshake allows you to search for internships based on your specific major, graduation year and even location. It also offers the ability to sign up for company events and info sessions to learn more about the companies you’re interested in.

Many of my peers have received internship offers through the Handshake platform so I highly recommend utilizing this resource. Whether you’re an engineer, graphic designer, or mathematician Handshake has an opportunity for you! Want to learn more? -> watch this quick tutorial on how to best utilize handshake ->

LinkedIn

Now, I could talk about LinkedIn for hours as I like to call it my favorite “professional social media” but I’ll keep it short (I promise).

One of my favorite definitions of LinkedIn is “A social network for professionals to connect, share, and learn. It’s like “Facebook for your career” which goes exactly with my self-proclaimed title of a “professional social media” (yeah I’ll take credit).

It would take too long to explain all of LinkedIn’s capabilities but here are a few:

Find and apply to the internship of your choice
Build and strengthen professional relationships
Learn skills through LinkedIn learning (their online learning platform)
Create and share content (text, multimedia, groups, events & more)

As you can see, LinkedIn has many capabilities so who better explain its use cases than those at LinkedIn themselves? They have an amazing resource library so be sure to check it out if you have any questions or are stuck on how to use the platform.

Company Info Sessions and Career Fairs

The thing about internships is that there is always two sides of the coin. You might be wondering what I mean by this? As you know internships are critical for students, but this applies to employers as well.

Internships help employers build their talent pools, learn from young curious minds, stay-up to date with industry changes and keep up with competition. Companies are constantly competing for the best talent, and this begins with college students like yourself!

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Grab Your Spot

So, whether a company’s info session is virtual, or in-person, be sure to take advantage of the opportunity and remember they not there just to help you but also for you to help them.

The reason companies have info sessions is to inform students of their open roles/internships and prospect for potential candidates. So be sure to go in with a plan, engage with the recruiters, and make sure they remember your name!

Network, Network, Network

Networking might be the most important aspect in obtaining an internship in my opinion. Networking can mean connecting with recruiters on LinkedIn, forming a relationship with your career coach, academic advisor, professors, and peers or putting yourself out there for others to see.

I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve heard someone securing an internship strictly from someone else recommending the position to them. If not for networking, I wouldn’t have had both of my previous internships.

Connecting with recruiters is vital to obtaining an internship whether that be through online platforms such as LinkedIn or Handshake or by attending info sessions. You don’t want a recruiter to see your name for the first time after submitting your application but rather they should be familiar with you through proactive networking.

Pro Tip: Not sure what to say to recruiters? Check out our recent blog post on 4 Tips To Writing The Perfect Elevator Pitch (With Examples) to help you get started.

Once an employer sees you not only applied but are genuinely interested in learning more about the company and role that gets you one step closer to your acceptance offer. And putting yourself out there may be scary but in the long run it’ll pay dividends.

For example, I did the LinkedIn Content Challenge where I posted creative conversation starter content for 30 consecutive days and just from this, I received multiple internship offers as recruiters recognized my work and dedication.

You never know the power of networking until it pays off so start today!

Final Thoughts

The internship process reminds me of the quote:

“seek to first understand then be understood”

because if you don’t have a high-level understanding of the ways to obtain an internship how can you expect employers to offer you a position? Do you research, take time to build your brand and go into your internship interviews confidently. Keep doing this till you land one!

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