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How do you go about finding internships in a competitive environment #Spring25?
I am trying to find summer and fall 2025 internship opportunities, but I often feel I do not hear back from places I apply.
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Doc’s Answer
1️⃣ BOOST YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE
With the current state of the world, our online presence is a large part of how recruiters see us. Polishing your LinkedIn profile and ensuring that your social media handles are career-friendly (or set to private), a personal website is a great way to showcase your personality, highlight non-work related experience (like side hustles, class projects, volunteer work, or relevant interests), and connect the dots between your work history, current skills, and goals for an internship. If you have examples of your work that will align with the opportunity you’re targeting, a personal website is the perfect place to feature it. Case studies, visual elements, analytics, class capstones, or group work can all help to enhance the experience you have on your resume.
2️⃣ HIGHLIGHT RESUME EXPERIENCE
Recruiters often review hundreds of resumes a day, so incorporating your relevant experience, choosing the right format, tailoring the content of your resume for each job, and using the right keywords will be essential to a successful search. To really differentiate yourself, be sure to feature any remote work technologies you’re familiar with. “Anything from Google Docs to Slack or Zoom can be incredibly valuable. Don’t have much work experience. Think about any big projects you worked on in school and include those under a section called “Projects” (along with anything else that might make sense there, like a volunteer project). You can add this section to your personal website as well.
3️⃣ EXPAND YOUR NETWORK
While you should definitely tell everyone you know that you’re looking for an internship, it’s important to focus on making new contacts, too. Reach out to recruiters, interact with organizations you’re interested in on social media, connect with people who work at companies you want to work for, or attend online events. Networking can also mean contacting employers directly to ask for an internship. Reaching out to prospective employers to pitch an opportunity is a great way to practice selling yourself and discussing the skills you can bring to a project.
CONCUSSION
Unless the job description has a deadline on it, it’s best to apply as early as possible because companies start reaching out to candidates as applications come in. What this means is that if you see an internship you are interested in, get your application in as soon as possible. But if you come across an internship you are interested in and it was posted a month ago, it’s still worth a shot to try. Just don’t be discouraged if you don’t hear back.
With the current state of the world, our online presence is a large part of how recruiters see us. Polishing your LinkedIn profile and ensuring that your social media handles are career-friendly (or set to private), a personal website is a great way to showcase your personality, highlight non-work related experience (like side hustles, class projects, volunteer work, or relevant interests), and connect the dots between your work history, current skills, and goals for an internship. If you have examples of your work that will align with the opportunity you’re targeting, a personal website is the perfect place to feature it. Case studies, visual elements, analytics, class capstones, or group work can all help to enhance the experience you have on your resume.
2️⃣ HIGHLIGHT RESUME EXPERIENCE
Recruiters often review hundreds of resumes a day, so incorporating your relevant experience, choosing the right format, tailoring the content of your resume for each job, and using the right keywords will be essential to a successful search. To really differentiate yourself, be sure to feature any remote work technologies you’re familiar with. “Anything from Google Docs to Slack or Zoom can be incredibly valuable. Don’t have much work experience. Think about any big projects you worked on in school and include those under a section called “Projects” (along with anything else that might make sense there, like a volunteer project). You can add this section to your personal website as well.
3️⃣ EXPAND YOUR NETWORK
While you should definitely tell everyone you know that you’re looking for an internship, it’s important to focus on making new contacts, too. Reach out to recruiters, interact with organizations you’re interested in on social media, connect with people who work at companies you want to work for, or attend online events. Networking can also mean contacting employers directly to ask for an internship. Reaching out to prospective employers to pitch an opportunity is a great way to practice selling yourself and discussing the skills you can bring to a project.
CONCUSSION
Unless the job description has a deadline on it, it’s best to apply as early as possible because companies start reaching out to candidates as applications come in. What this means is that if you see an internship you are interested in, get your application in as soon as possible. But if you come across an internship you are interested in and it was posted a month ago, it’s still worth a shot to try. Just don’t be discouraged if you don’t hear back.
Updated
Karthik’s Answer
Good luck with your internship search
Build a strong resume and portfolio - If you're a student, you may not have a rich history of work experience to add to your resume but please highlight key projects from school that are geared towards the internship positions that you are applying for
Highlight any certifications - If you have completed courses or if you have passed any relevant certifications, please highlight them on your resume.
Build your network - Actively build your network through in-person interactions or through online avenues like LinkedIn, and online communities
Attend Career Fairs - Identify career fairs in your region and actively attend them if they are relevant to your field. Attending career fairs is another way to build your network
Apply widely - Don't limit yourself only to certain opportunities. Try to apply as widely, and as early as possible, even for the ones that you think you might not have a shot at.
Karthik recommends the following next steps: