How to Find Your Perfect Internship With CareerHunts!

Getting an internship is a question of peak interest for those in college, and rightly so.

With the changing hiring trends, qualifications alone are not enough to get you a high-paying job. Recruiters are always on the lookout for a candidate with prior experience, and while you can not work a job along with college, you can always consider taking up internships.

Internship experiences on your resume can be a highlight and can help you land your dream job. This blog will discuss what an internship is, its meaning, the importance of internships, and answer the million-dollar question- how to get an internship?

Let’s get started!

What is an internship?- meaning and origin

An internship is a short-term job where students can learn the tricks of the trade and gain hands-on learning experience in the field of their interest.

The concept of internships originated from medicine, where doctors without licenses would practice as interns to gain the required experience.

Today, students can find data science, accounting, engineering, digital marketing, data analytics, content writing, journalism, and many more internships with just a click.

With an internship, students can find the right opportunity to get an insight into the profession they want to pursue and make intelligent career choices.

Importance of internships

Before we go ahead and talk about how to get an internship, let us take a step back and understand, what is the importance of internships, and why you need to choose wisely.

1. Great chance for students to build their professional network

Establishing professional connections when you are right out of college is no piece of cake. It takes a lot of effort and effective communication. But, with an internship, you can meet people in your field who can mentor you in the long run.

Interning gives you the chance to acquaint yourself with the experienced people working in your field of choice who can help you get jobs in the future.

2. Internships can help you identify your interests

Internships are the perfect way for freshers to decide their career route. If given short-term opportunities with just enough exposure and time, freshers can ditch researching their dream job online, and find one while experiencing it.

3. Grooms freshers to deal with the job market

Apart from work experience, knowledge of the corporate world and job etiquette is crucial too. But not all of it can be understood theoretically. On-the-job experience and learning can provide a lot more clarity, making internships important for freshers.

With internships, freshers get an opportunity to learn minute aspects of professional life- from scheduling meetings to work-appropriate dressing sense and much more in a short period.

4. Internships can lead to full-time job opportunities

Training the workforce, again and again, can be a time-consuming task for organizations. This is probably why most companies offer full-time opportunities to their interns.

This works well for both the interns and the company as the organizations get a few months to gauge the candidate, contrary to the general hiring procedure where the decision is made based on a comparatively short interview.

As for the interns, they do not have to spend more time on job search, interview preparation, etc., making it easy for them to enter the job market without much discomfort.

5. Recruiters prefer candidates with experience

It is always easy for companies to recruit experienced candidates who are well-versed with the work profile and are aligned with the organization’s mission statement.

But even without experience, an intern, when given a full-time opportunity, can prove to be a great addition to the company as they save time on training, and the recruitment process’ hassle, making it a smooth transition into getting hired by the same company or others.

How to get an internship?

Coming to the question of the hour- How to get an internship?

The short answer is that you build a strong resume, apply to internships you like, and prepare for the interview. Sounds simple, right?

If done right, getting an internship can be simple. So, here is a step-by-step answer to how to get an internship.

1. Identify your area of interest

While there are several reasons to feel burnout, one of the major reasons is working for an industry you do not believe in or know anything about. Since internships are your gateway into the professional world, the first step to finding an internship should be to identify your area of interest.

For example, if you are a creative person, your talents and skills would be wasted in an analytical role and vice versa.

2. Prepare application documents before you begin your internship hunt

Now that you have identified the fields you want to pursue, it is time to work on your application documents. The most crucial documents you will need are a resume & cover letter.

Resume for internships

A resume is a professional document that hosts your qualification, and experience. Usually 1-2 pages long, a resume is a brief but impactful document as it is the first point of communication between the company and the candidate.

Some tips to keep in mind while drafting a resume for an internship are

• Opt for simple fonts like Georgia, Helvetica, Arial, Times New Roman, etc.

• The ideal font size is 14-16pt for headings and sub-headings & 11-12pt for normal text

• Write impressive resume headlines

• Use brevity to draft a concise and clear resume

• Focus on skills and education

• Include keywords relevant to your preferences

• Choose a professional resume template

• Tailor your resume before applying to each internship

Cover Letter for Internships

A cover letter is an additional application sent along with the resume. It is a part of an application but is more conversational than the resume. While a resume is a brief and concise collection of facts, a cover letter can be used to convince the recruiters that you would be a great fit for the organization.

With a cover letter, you can talk about things that did not make it to your resume but are relevant to your professional life.

Some basic tips to keep in mind while writing a cover letter are

• Make an impactful first impression by opening with a unique introduction

• Research the company and include a few anecdotes about the same to reflect your research and passion for the company

• In 2-3 lines, convey why you think you are a good fit for this internship

• Just like the resume, tailor your cover letter to suit the internship opportunity

3. Update your social media profiles

We live in a digital age where the social footprint is more impactful than the physical ones. Social media has grown into a platform for people to showcase their lifestyles, hobbies, and talents, making it one of the most important tools in the hiring process.

Many recruiters check the candidate’s social media accounts before hiring them. So, a good practice is to log on to professional networking sites and make a profile with all relevant professional details.

Some good practices to follow for professional social media platforms are

• Use a professional headshot, preferably with a plain background

• Avoid banter and personal conversations in posts, comments, and public replies

• Share and write content that is relevant to your preferred industry

• Add work experience in a descending chronological order

• Connect with people in your industry and seniors who can help you find opportunities

4. Build a strong professional network

Adding on to the last tip from the previous point, having a good professional network can be a huge plus for people looking for job opportunities.

A strong social network helps you organically discover relevant job openings, and you can also reach out to them to ask for help if you need any.

You can also use the platform to raise concerns, understand new market developments, and connect with companies. With a good networking group, you can find relevant answers with ease.

So, reach out to your teachers, seniors, mentors, or even people on good posts across organizations.

5. Prepare for the interview

By this step, your resume and profile have been shortlisted and you have been called for an in-person interview with the recruiters. The final thing to do now is to ace your interview and to do so, you need to prepare well.

Experienced or fresher, every jobseeker faces interview blues at some point. The only solution for this is to invest time and effort in interview preparation.

As you prepare, here are some basic pointers to keep in mind:

• Prepare to answer crucial interview questions and answers

• Research about the company and tailor your answer accordingly

• Dress to impress

• Get 8-hours of sleep the night before

• Understand interview etiquette

• Participate in a mock interview with your peers

• List questions you want to ask

• Understand the dos and don’ts of non-verbal communication

6. Follow up

The final step to answering how to get an internship is simple- follow up. Post-interview, make sure to follow up with the recruiters since they come across several candidates every day, and a follow-up email from your end will refresh their memory about your job interview.

Conclusion

Questions like how to get an internship often have simple answers, but the implementation takes a lot more than theoretical knowledge, sending resumes, and giving interviews.

Everything that happens before, during, and after the internship interview is a different story, and in this blog, we tried to explain a step-by-step way of landing your preferred internship.

We hope this was helpful and that you will be able to find the right start and make good career choices.

All the best!