Give yourself the best shot at a spring or summer internship

The best way to position yourself for a spring or summer internship to get started now! Spring internships start recruiting in fall semester, but so do some of the more competitive (bigger companies, industry leaders, household names, etc.) summer internships.

A great first step for all students is to attend the Newhouse CDC’s Finding an Internship seminar to learn how best to conduct a proactive internship search. We’ll show you how to find leads, follow up, and make use of all the resources that are available to you. One of the big things we talk about in that seminar is how being organized and planning your application order by deadline (sooner or rolling deadlines = apply to those internships first!) will help to keep you on track.

Having an alumnus or other contact on the inside at the company is another way to help you land that internship you’ve got your eye on. When there is a large pool of applicants, having someone to flag your application for review can go a really long way.
Using tools such as LinkedIn and CareerShift (more on this in the seminar, too!) will help you to make inroads at the companies you want to intern for.

Your task this semester will be to identify those places you’d like to apply, network with contacts in the field/at those specific companies you’re interested in, and try to secure interviews (even if informational) with internship coordinators.

Remember that you can always set up an appointment with the Newhouse CDC via Handshake (click Career Center at the top of the page) to discuss your search and take a look at our resume and cover letter resources while you’re preparing your materials. We are here to help!