Simple tips to help you find an internship.
Cutting through the tough local job market can be quite
challenging for many international students. Paid or unpaid, that’s why internships
are important in giving you real-world experience in the industry you want to
work for.
However, for many overseas students, finding an internship
can sometimes be just as difficult as it is to find a job. To help your chances
of success, here are some simple tips that can help you land that dream
experience.
Explore and weigh your options
There are myriad internship opportunities for
international students. So take your time, assess your options, and choose
what’s best for you. In addition, figure out whether it will be better to go
through the internship process on your own or use an internship placement
agency.
Contact organizations of interest
If there’s a certain company that you are interested in
working for, search their website to see if they offer internship programs to
foreign students. If you can’t find any information, contact the organisation
directly through email and express your sincere interest in future openings.
You can also check some online portals dedicated to helping overseas students
who are seeking internship jobs.
Know your field of interest
Although there are lots of internships available in a
wide range of industries (i.e. business, IT, and engineering), it is still
important to examine your interests, field of study, and other potential
internship areas where you can use your skills just in case there’s no
available position in a field you want to pursue.
Speak with your institution
Every institution has different policies when it comes to
internships. You may want to consult your international student support staff
for available opportunities in the institution. Chances are they have the
resources which you may not be able to access on your own to help steer you in
the right direction.
Create a resume
Now that you have compiled a list of companies and fields of interest where you will likely apply for an internship, it’s time to build a mind-blowing resume. Make sure your resume highlights your core competencies and achievements and that they are relevant to the position you want to pursue.
Final Word
Internships are a
great way to gain firsthand professional experience, while building new skills
and connections. If you’re planning to study abroad or want to gain a more
global perspective, consider pursuing an internship. These programs, usually
tailored to college students, can help build cultural awareness, along with
valuable hard and soft skills. But be wary of disreputable sources, instead
utilize campus resources and personal networks for opportunities to intern abroad.
The 10 Best Websites for Finding an Internship
With this, I don’t want to deter anyone from hunting for
internships the way job seekers should go about their search, by first tapping
their network, relying on personal referrals and targeting companies that
attract them. But because online searches really can work for internships, and
also help you focus on what you want, I’ve put together a list of the best
sites for finding an internship:
1. LinkedIn: Not only should you use
LinkedIn to hunt for internships, you should build a fleshed-out profile and
reach out to everyone you know, especially professional contacts, on the
12-year-old Mountain View, CA professional networking site. Get people you’ve
worked for to write you recommendations. Do include volunteer work.
To search for internship listings, go to the jobs tab at the
top of the page and put “internship” in the search box. Then refine your search
by filling in the boxes on the left side of the page. I searched for “marketing
internship” and a New York City zip code came up with ten pages of listings.
One downside: You can’t filter for paid or unpaid positions.
The most valuable aspect of LinkedIn: instantly seeing which
of your contacts works at a company or knows people who work there. I also
recommend college students get their parents to search their own LinkedIn
networks for contacts. Companies pay varying rates to list internships and jobs
on LinkedIn (a 30-day posting in a City like San Francisco costs $499), so they
are serious about hiring for many of those jobs.
2. Glassdoor: Founded in 2007 and based in
Sausalito, CA, Glassdoor gets its internship listings from several sources,
including company websites, partnerships with job boards and directly from
employers.
But its main attraction is that it offers an instant way to
search for salaries, company reviews and descriptions of job interviews. Its interface
is straightforward, though for smaller companies, the salary and review
functions don’t always bear fruit. In the search fields I tried putting in
“paid marketing internship” and in the location box, New York City, and I got
21 listings. When I clicked on the first listing that came up, for Inspired
Marketing Associates in the Bronx, I found just two company reviews and no
salary listings. But a paid internship for Major League Baseball had 37 reviews
and one internship salary ($1,660/month).
3. Google: Don’t underestimate the power of a
Google search. I put in “paid marketing internship New York City” and got hits
for several of the sites in this piece and others I’m not familiar with,
like FindSpark,
which bills itself as having “the best creative internships & entry level
jobs in NYC.” I like that you can filter for paid internships (I believe that
by law, almost all internships should be paid, but that’s another story),
though when I filtered for paid marketing internship, only one job came up, at
Inc. magazine. Still, Google is a great shortcut.
4. Your school’s job listing site and alumni
network: At my alma mater, Ca' Foscari University, there’s something
called Ca' Foscari Alumni, where alumni post internship listings. If you can
get access to a database like this, you will vault over other potential interns
vying for these jobs. This is a first stop if you are a student.
5. Internships.com: Founded in 2010,
Internships.com is now owned by textbook rental and online tutoring company
Chegg in Santa Clara, CA.
It offers 100,000 listings from 60,000 employers.
Internships.com does not charge employers to list positions. When I searched
for “paid marketing internship” in New York City, I got 10 listings.
One huge advantage the site offers: a “who” button that lets
you see which of your Facebook friends have a connection to a company, either
because they work there or used to work there. Facebook has no job listings and
no other site I could find has the capability to match a job search with your
friends’ résumés.
6. Internmatch.com: Founded in 2009, San
Francisco-based Internmatch has listings from 30,000 companies. It specializes
in internships, and entry level jobs up to two years after graduation.
When I searched for “paid marketing internship” in New York
City I got seven pages of results, even though not all of them were paid, there
were some promising listings.
You can sign up and the site will send you notifications
when new internships in your area of interest are posted. Employers can post up
to 10 listings for free, after which they pay a fee. Some of the big companies
who have listed on the site: Facebook, Zappos, Aflac.
7. YouTern An unusual site, YouTern tries to
mentor and connect would-be interns using social media tools like Twitter.
Internship seekers fill out a profile and interact with
mentors. Founder Mark Babbitt says he has relationships with recruiters at 100
companies and personally refers appropriate candidates. But internship seekers
need to interact with the site before they get referred to jobs. YouTern also
includes a jobs board powered by aggregator SimplyHired.
Babbitt says he has connections with many startups but also
works with established companies like ad firm Ogilvy & Mather. YouTern
launched in 2010 and is based in Lake Tahoe, NV.
8. Idealist: An excellent site to look for both
internships and jobs in the non-profit sector, Idealist, based in Portland, OR,
dates back to 1996. Run as a non-profit, it has listings for organizations
around the world. The site currently lists more than 2,000 internships
worldwide. A couple of current offerings for paid internships: a fundraising
position in Washington, DC for the National Hispanic Council on Aging and a
summer internship at the progressive Nation magazine and Nation Institute.
9. Global Experiences: Founded in 2001 and
based in Annapolis, MD, Global Experiences offers internships where
interns pay instead of getting paid.
The plus: genuine work experience in foreign cities. Global
Experiences works in eight cities—London, Paris, Dublin, Barcelona, Florence,
Milan, Shanghai and Sydney. Prices range from $6,000 to $10,000 per internship
stint. Company founder Emily Merson says that some colleges like Arizona State,
University of Southern California and University of Illinois have partnerships
with the company and pick up the tab. Students must apply but once they’re
accepted, placement is 100% guaranteed.
10. CoolWorks: This
site isn’t for internships per se, but rather for jobs, especially summer
positions, geared toward young people.
According to the website, it offers “job opportunities in
great places like national parks, various resorts, ranches, camps, ski resorts,
and jobs on the water.” Founded in 1995 it’s based, rather exotically, just
outside the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park.
Just one closing tip:
Wether you're looking for an internship of for a full-time
employment, do it actively. Nothing comes without efforts.
The worst thing you could do is throwing your CV on the
internet and hope someone will come and offer you the job of your life: it
doesn't work like that.
Be consistent in what you do and results will come along. And if they don't, try harder.