Welcome to the Making It a Reality podcast I’m Kelly Barnett, Director of the Newhouse Career Development Center here at Syracuse University, and today we’re going to talk about internships. Whether you’re a current student or you’re an alumnus who just graduated and you’re looking to use an internship as a way to get your foot in the door someplace, it’s going to be a very proactive process which means there’s going to be a lot of leg work and research for you to do upfront but it’s going to be a very doable process. So we’re going to walk through step-by-step on how to make this happen and we’ll start with our first step which is really establishing you criteria. What we’re looking to do here is create a filter through which you can look at internship opportunities and determine if they’re going to be the right fit for you.
Ok, so the first thing you want to think about it what’s your motivation. For younger students it’s usually exploration. They haven’t done a lot outside the classroom yet so it’s important to go out into the working world and see what types of things you like to do, the things you don’t like to do. This is going to be really helpful for you as you go forward looking at your major and also thinking about the internships you want to have in the future and your career for down the road. Older students, there may be some element of exploration in there, but they’re usually looking to fill in those holes on their resume that might still exist. You might have a certain skill set that maybe you want to bulk up on or you haven’t really had any internship experience where you got to use a certain program or equipment and so what you want to do is make sure you’re making note of that. These are important things that you’re looking to get out of your internship. So that’s going to be the first step.
The second thing is to think about where you are going to be. If it’s during the academic year you’ll already be on campus, great, that makes it easy. This is where limitations can be really helpful. An internship search where you have lots of different opportunities can feel overwhelming. You can go anywhere, you can do anything. There are so many different internships out there. So, having some limitations, putting some parameters on the search is really going to be a good thing. If you’re going to be in a different location, maybe its over the summer, you’re going to go home or you’re going to go to a large market, that’s definitely going to affect things so we need to make note of that. Regardless of where you are, whether it’s your home town in the middle of nowhere or if it’s a huge city, the good news is there are internships everywhere. You just have to be willing to look for them. There are more internships out there than there are interns to fill them, so if you want an internship, as long as you are going about this in a logical fashion, we’re going step by step here, you make sure that you submit really great application materials, which is something my office can certainly help you with too, and you pay attention to deadlines, which we’ll talk more about later, you’re going to get an internship if you want one. Ok, it’s just you have to be willing to do the work up front, because it is such a proactive process.
The third thing we really have to think about when we’re creating this filter is credit. Now grad students, unfortunately you have to pay for every credit as you go, a lot of you have internships as part of a component of your program. So this is more of a no-brainer for you. When it comes to undergrads, there are some other considerations that we need to make. The first thing is, you have to have junior standing in order to intern for credit. This doesn’t mean that you can’t intern until you’re a junior, it just means that if you see an internship that’s listed for credit, and that credit it mandatory, the internship company will not let you come and intern there unless you are earning credit. You will not be able to do that unless you have junior standing. And our undergrads have junior standing once they successfully complete their sophomore year. A lot of students might come in with some additional credits so they may be actual juniors before their junior year, so you can always go down to Newhouse’s advising and records office which is in 316 Newhouse 3, and talk to someone down there about where you are in your degree and if you are a junior to make sure that Newhouse would approve that internship. There are internships out there though that do not require credit, you can take advantage of those even when you’re a first-year student. So, you don’t have to be a junior to intern, but you have to be a junior to intern for credit. If you have further questions on that you can come on down to the Career Development Center and we can talk more about that.
The other thing to consider about credit is cost. Again grad students, you’re paying by the credit, so this isn’t anything really new to you. But for undergrads, you need to know that your academic year tuition does not cover summer internships. If you want to intern during that academic year, and you are not already taking 19 credits, then you can intern for credit. It’s not a problem as long as you have that number of credits available and you have junior standing. That’s fine! However, if it’s over the summer, you’re not covered by that academic year tuition, so you will have to pay out of pocket which can be expensive. So if you see an internship that say’s it’s for credit, if you’re a younger student, you’re not a junior yet and you would like to intern there, you can be proactive and call the company and ask if it’s possible to intern without earning credit. The reason that this is an ok approach is that every school and college is different, so the company may not realize that by requiring credit, they’re being restricting. Your other option if you are somebody who is concerned about paying out of pocket for that credit over the summer, you can call them again and ask that same question. They may say “Oh it’s mandatory” and that situation you can’t really get around it. However, if it is a situation where they say “Oh well I guess you don’t have to take it for credit” then you don’t have to and that’s great news! You’d be surprised how many times that happens.
So I do like to point that out. So once you’ve thought about what you want to get out of the internship, where you’re going to be, and whether or not credit is going to be an issue for you, you’re good to go. I should mention that if you’re a recent grad, and you are interning, if they do require credit, you are going to have to talk to the company about whether or not they would accept a recent graduate, and if that’s a possibility, and they say yes as long as you earn credit, then you can reach out to a local community college to see if they’ll let you matriculate for just that one credit, and that’s an option for you. And again, if you want to discuss this in more detail, call the Career Development Center and we can have a little bit of a chat about that.
Once you’ve established your criteria, then you can start to think about reviewing existing opportunities. The first place I would probably look would be CDCnews or CDCgradnews. That comes to you every Wednesday at 5:10 pm from yours truly and in that I put all of the most recent internships that have been submitted to this office. So we’re not going out and combing through websites trying to find internship leads. These are all things that are submitted to us, either by alumni who are looking to hire Newhouse students, or by companies who know that Newhouse student’s make great interns and would like to get some of those in their office.
So that’s a good place to start. We also put all of the internship opportunities that come into our office into an internship database. That’s something that’s only accessible here at the CDC (313 Newhouse 3), but you can come in any time we’re open. We’ll show you how to use it. You can search by location, by field, and you can print out any of those internship opportunities that are of interest to you.
The problem with that is that there’s a lot of competition. If these are the opportunities that everyone is looking at, especially when we’re in a competitive program, where a lot of your peers may be interested in the same things that you are. We’re all looking at the same opportunities and that becomes a very competitive pool. So you’re going to have to enlist some other sources for your internships, and we’ll talk about that in a minute.
While we’re talking about existing leads, I do want to talk about Orange Link. Orange Link is Syracuse University’s job and internship posting board. There’s a company that comes to Syracuse University and they want to post an opportunity to the whole university community they would put that on Orange Link. You can find Orange Link by either going to syr.edu and typing in ‘Orange Link’ or you can go through MySlice and there’s a link in there where you can sign in. If you have any trouble using Orange Link, you want to over to SU Career Services in 235 Schine Student Center, because they manage that system and they can help you troubleshoot.
The problem with these opportunities is that there is a lot of competition, so like I said, we need to be looking elsewhere. Other places that you might look might be in our industry directories. The CDC has a lot of industry directories that are big reference books that are broken up into different areas of the industry. For example, we have Cisions, TV and Cable Directory, we have a magazine directory, we have O’Dwyer’s that lists PR agencies – you can crack those open. They’re usually a range geographically. You can find the difference companies in your area that might be a good fit for you. And if you were to read one of those while looking online at their website, you know the ones that might jump off the page at you, you’d be able to find some options that way.
Now that’s pretty broad. Those tend to list really big companies. If you’re looking for more of a restricted search, because remember those perimeters are a good thing, then you might want to look at your local yellow pages. I know that seems archaic, because we all use phone books for doorstops, we’re not really using them too often anymore. But, your phone book can actually be really helpful. If you’re looking for an internship doing some sort of like filming or production, maybe you open up to the video section of your phone book and find what’s listed there. It’s a restricted search, but it can be really helpful when you’re looking in a small market.
Another thing that’s good for smaller markets in particular would be chamber of commerce websites. Most small towns have a chamber of commerce. They’re really, really small, and they list every company that’s doing business within the city’s or town’s limits. So looking there would give you a good run down of all the companies that are doing business near you that would be local options for potential internships.
And it’s possible that maybe you’ll find a company in our industry directory or you’ll find a company on the chamber of commerce website or wherever you’re looking, and you check their website and you don’t see any internships posted. This is where you really have to kick in that proactive thing again. You have to pick up the phone and call. And I know that a lot of students in particular are more comfortable behind a keyboard and writing emails to people, but often times especially when you’re seeking out information, email isn’t the best way to go. Unfortunately, emails are too easily ignored or deleted, so we have to be a little more straightforward and we have to pick up the phone and call.
And you can just call them up. You can ask to speak with their internship coordinator. If they don’t have one of those, maybe they don’t even have an internship program. You can just ask if there’s anyone you can speak to about helping out over the summer. Tell them that you want to volunteer your time. Sometimes using softer language like that can give you an in at a company or maybe the word intern seems a little scary and paperwork heavy, but a volunteer, oh, they can handle a volunteer. And when you go to put that on your resume after that summer, you can still list that as an internship. You’re still doing hands on work and that’s what counts. So you can really be the start of something great.
In addition to the chamber of commerce and the yellow pages and the industry directories, you can also look at some of the things we have here on campus. Another resource for you is called Vault. Vault is a great subscription service that the SU Career Service office has over in Schine. And they do great lists, like the ‘Top 10 Internships in Social Media’, things like that. So if you’re looking for some brainstorming help, that might be a good thing to check out. Just go over to 235 Schine and ask about it, and they can get you going from there.
I would also recommend everyone read their trade magazines. If you’re not familiar with trade magazines, basically they’re your industry’s publication. So even if you drove a big truck, and you’re a truck driver, there’s an industry magazine out there for you. So needless to say we do have ones for advertising and PR and television & film; there are different publications for those industries. And what you want to do is become familiar with them. This can help you with interviews to show you ‘hey look, I have a solid interest in this industry.’ But it also can be helpful when you’re looking for internship options. Seeing who the movers and shakers are, who’s doing what – those might give you a few indicators of what companies might be looking for interns. So it can give you some good ideas, if not for this summer, than for a future summer.
You also want to make sure that you’re looking at companies’ social media accounts. A lot of times if you can’t find an internship posting on the website, you might want to look at their LinkedIn page or their Facebook page or check on their Twitter to see if they’re tweeting a link to something. Sometimes companies will post their internships on industry boards or job hunting sites, that type of a thing. So it’s good to check the social media to see if there’s anything there that you’re missing. Unfortunately, there’s no industry standard for how internship postings are put out to the public or the timelines that they’re operating on so that can be frustrating, but you just kind of have to take a big picture look at things and say ‘Ok, where else might they be posting?’ So, social media is not to be ignored.
Once you have a list of companies, and I would recommend for the summer you apply to more than 10 companies, and when you’re making this list of companies that you stagger the competitiveness, meaning that you’re not applying to all really competitive places. And you can know if it’s a competitive place basically by if it’s a big name. Is it a company that a lot of people would recognize or a lot of your classmates would recognize? Is it one that you’ve discussed in class? Is it a big brand name? Those are all probably pretty competitive, so you want to make sure that not every internship on your list is at one of those companies.
You need to have some variety. So think about this like you did your approach to college. You had your reach schools that were really competitive, you have your middle ground one that are pretty comfortable you’re a solid candidate, and ones that are maybe not your first choice. They’re your fall back schools. For internships, this means they’re companies, and opportunities that will still allow you to get great hands on experience and build good skills, that will allow you to use this is as a stepping stone to whatever your next opportunity might be, but maybe it’s just not your first choice. If you kind of have some variety like that, you’re being very realistic and that’s a good thing. I’d much rather you have the problem of ‘Oh no, which offer do I pick?’ than ‘Uh oh, I don’t have any offers at all.’ So having multiple opportunities, and making sure that you have variety in terms of how competitive they are, that’s going to set you up really well.
Once you have all of you companies listed, and again more than 10, you can start to create a little spreadsheet. I’m a big fan of Google Drive. If you’ve listened to our job hunting podcast, you know I’ve talked about this before, Google Drive is great because you can create an Excel spreadsheet in which you can keep yourself really, really organized. I like Google Drive better, better than Excel, because you can access it from any device so that’s a real plus in my book. What you want to do there is have the companies you’re applying to, the contact person, the person to whom you’re sending your cover letter, any application requirements. Application requirements vary from company to company. I think most employers ask you to submit a resume and a cover letter, and if you need help on those you can come to our Resume and Cover Letter Writing seminars. But depending on the opportunity, they might ask for a writing sample, or they might ask for creative work. If you’re like a creative advertising major or graphic design or photo – those type of people you definitely should have some sort of portfolio, so that’s something to be thinking about moving forward, but you’re going to keep all of the information (the things that they need from you, the information that you need to apply) put it all in a spreadsheet.
And then the last really important column that you need to have is a deadline column. This is going to keep you on point to make sure that you’re not missing any deadlines. I think that’s the worst reason to miss out on a really great internship. You miss the deadline! So let’s avoid that. If you’re paying attention to that deadline, you’ll know which ones are the most pressing applications that you have to get out sooner rather than later. If you see an internship that says ‘we have rolling deadlines’ or they don’t have an application deadline listed anywhere, you try to call the company and you can’t find out when the deadline is, apply to that one sooner rather than later. Rolling deadlines mean ‘hey, we’re accepting applications, we’ll decide who we want to interview whenever we feel like it, and we’ll bring you in whenever we feel like it, and make our decision whenever we feel like it’. So it’s good to get those in sooner rather than later to make sure that you’re going to be in the mix to start considering candidates.
Once you have all that information together, you can start applying. And once you apply, you still want to continue your proactive process, meaning: you want to follow up on your applications. So this is the last part of really being proactive. If you have a company that says ‘No phone calls, don’t contact us’, in that scenario you get to be a little more passive, you get the ok to kind of sit tight. I probably would end my cover letter in that scenario with something that says ‘I look forward to hearing from you’. You leave it in their court. However, every other company you really want to follow up. So I would close your letter in those scenarios by saying something like ‘I’ll follow up with you within the next week to see if we can set up a time to talk. With those opportunities, you actually do have to follow up.
If you say you’re going to call, you have to call, and in the timeline that you specified. And when you call, you should identify yourself ‘Hi this is Kelly Barnett’. Tell me what you applied for and when, ‘I recently applied for your Editorial internship on Tuesday’. And then you need to say something that’s going to make you stand out, but it also should be in order to seek information that’s going to be helpful to you. So you should not call and do those first two steps and say, ‘Did you get my stuff?’ Because everyone calls to say ‘Did you get my stuff?’ If your email didn’t bounce back, it’s safe to assume that they received your materials. So what you want to ask instead is ‘I was wondering when you’d be setting up interviews.’ That is useful information. And you’re not asking that same question that everybody else is asking. So after they tell you, and they might give you a specific answer or they might be kind of vague, but either way you can say ‘Thank you so much. I look forward to hearing from you. Have a great day!’ You can hang up, they’ll think ‘Oh she was so pleasant, that was great.’ And you made a good first impression.
Then you’re going to take your cue from whatever they told you. If they were kind of vague and they said ‘Oh probably not for a while, you know we’re just starting to look at applications. Probably at the end of the month we’ll start going through who we want to interview.’ In that scenario, you can say ‘Great thank you so much. I look forward to hearing from you.’ And then you sit tight until the end of the month. At the end of the month, if it rolls around and you still haven’t heard anything, don’t take that to assume that you’re out of the running. A lot of times internship coordinators or whoever is doing the internship process at a company, they have another whole separate job that they have to prioritize. So sometimes internships will get pushed to the back burner and the process is a little drawn out. So don’t take it to mean that you’re out of the running if you haven’t heard from them. What you want to do is again, be proactive, pick up the phone and call and say ‘Hi this is who I am, I spoke to you back when I applied, and you mentioned you might be setting up interviews around now. I was wondering if you’d begun to do so.’ And they’ll either say yes or no, or maybe they’ll set something up right there while you’re on the phone. Once you’re done you can say ‘Thank you so much. I look forward to hearing from you.’ If they didn’t set one up right then, just be pleasant. You can even say, ‘I’m still very excited for this opportunity. I know I’d be a great fit, so I’m really looking forward to hearing from you.’ And it’s quite possible that after you make that phone call, if they take your name, they may go look at your application, so it’s going to be a help to you in any of these scenarios.
If whenever you’re following up, whether it’s right after you apply or if it’s down the road, once you’re taking your cue from what they’ve told you after that first phone call. Sometimes you might get voicemail, so you really have to be prepared for two realities. You might get the real person and you might get the voicemail. If you do get the voicemail, please be sure to speak slowly. I’m the first to admit that I talk quickly when I get excited, so if you’re somebody who is in that same boat, or when you get nervous you might get a little more hyper, make yourself some little bullets of things you’re going to say on the phone, there’s no shame in that. And also make sure when you’re speaking slowly that you’re also giving your phone number at the start and at the end of that voicemail. Because think about it, if you get a really long voicemail and you need someone’s phone number and it’s only at the end and that last digit gets cut off or it’s kind of garbled so you have to listen to it twice, I have to listen to that whole message a second time to hear the phone number. So make sure you start and end with your phone number.
Um, what else…I should note that most communications internships do not pay, unfortunately that’s just kind of the reality of our industry. It’s not fair. I know that a lot of people have to intern over the summer, but they also have to earn money for school, so that can really be an exercise in time management. But larger companies may pay. They’re the ones that tend to be watched by the government for that rule that we talked about when we were talking about credit. Basically larger companies are monitored by the government to make sure that they’re providing compensation when someone’s doing something for them. When you’re providing work. And so a lot of times, credit can be the loop hole. But more and more companies are offering pay which is a really good thing. If you have more of a technical aspect of your internship, those may have more of the possibility of pay.
Another thing we should talk about is the number of hours. Most internships during the summer are still only around 20 hours a week at the most, but you might get some that are more like full time. Those tend to be more formalized internship programs. During the academic year if you’re interning, companies know that you also have to juggle your class schedule and everything else that you’re involved in. Those are usually only about 10-11 hours a week, so that makes it a lot more manageable then.
So that’s the general run down when it comes to finding an internship. You need to be very organized, you need to know what you’re looking for out of the internship, where you’re gong to be, if credit is a possibility for you. Then you have to go through the obvious postings things that are here in the CDC and CDC News, on Orange Link, but then you also have to go out and seek some additional ones. Looking at company websites, using our industry directories, from there you’re being proactive to find out the information you don’t know, so when you’re filling out that spreadsheet with all the information that you need to know if there’s a hole there, if you don’t know application requirements are or you can’t find a deadline pick up the phone and call the company. I often compare internships to dating and jobs are like marriage so marriage is usually the more permanent, hopefully. So, when it comes to internships, because they tend to be a little bit more temporary its ok that they put a little bit more weight in those people who follow up. So following up is important in both scenarios but internships it’s a crucial component of you getting the internship. You have to follow up, because if I have somebody who is calling me all the time and I’m the internship coordinator and they’re being polite and professional, they’re walking that line between, you know, not being a stalker, I don’t want somebody calling me every single day, but they’re also not somebody who is completely disengaged. They’re being pleasantly persistent. They’re taking my cue from what I tell them when we speak on the phone. That’s somebody who is enthusiastic and that’s somebody who gets it and that getting it quality is one of those intangibles that’s really really good thing to show that you have. That’s the person I am probably going to hire because someone that enthusiastic is definitely going to show up everyday and that goes further than you think, ok? So that follow up is absolutely key. I don’t think I can stress that enough.
Once you have all that information you need, you can apply and then you’re going to follow up. So if you’re somebody who is looking for an internship for the summer or even during the academic year, and you’ve applied to enough internships, you’ve staggered the competitiveness of those internships, we’re not applying to all super competitive places, big names. We have some variety in there. We are being proactive and following up. We’re taking your cue from the person you speak with in terms of how you should follow up and how often. Then you’re in good shape. You’re being realistic. You still may have to wait around to hear back from companies, but you’ve put yourself in a very very good position. If you still feel anxious, go ahead and apply to more companies. It doesn’t hurt to have more irons in the fire, but you can know that you’ve gone about this in a very realistic, methodical, and professional way, and more than likely, you’re going to end up with an internship. If you have any questions about anything I talked about today, please come by or give a call to the Career Development Center. We’re here at 313 Newhouse 3. All of our contact information is also available on the website and thanks for tuning in! I’ll see you back here in two weeks.
