5 Essential Tips For Landing Your Dream Internship

Landing a job isn’t easy in today’s environment. Many companies are cutting costs, which means you need to really stand out. If you go online and send resumes to a bunch of companies that interest you, good luck. You’re going to need it. That will not make you stand out. One way to stand out is to have experience as an intern. This proves that you know the industry at least to a certain extent and that you went the extra mile to get involved in the industry.

Now that we know landing an internship is the key to getting a good job, how do you land the internship? Below are 5 Essential Tips For Landing Your Dream Internship.

1. Start With A List

This is the fun part. It’s where you’re in control and in dreamer mode. Being a dreamer isn’t bad. You need to dream to succeed. Make a list of all the places where you would like to intern. If you want to work at a fitness center, don’t apply at a bakery. Go with your passion.

Some online career sites will tell you to go outside of your comfort zone to confirm what you don’t want. That is absurd advice. Would you change your plans for Italian food for dinner and instead get seafood despite hating seafood? Just to make sure you hate seafood? It’s ludicrous.

You know what you want to do. You just need to trust yourself. If you want to work in a fitness center, then try to land an internship in 10 different fitness centers. Don’t apply at three fitness centers, three bakeries, and four manufacturing plants. Make your list specific to your career goals.

2. Volunteer

This is the simplest and most important tip on this list. If you can volunteer where you want to intern, go for it. It’s going to show that you put in extra effort, which is going to make you stand out. They key to everything with this process is standing out.

3. Network

Talk to your professors, people you see at the gym, the guy working behind the counter at the book store, neighbors walking their dogs, and whoever else you come across. When you talk to these people, ask them if they know of any internship opportunities in your industry. You would be surprised by how often people want to help. And going the in-person route is always going to be more effective than sending resumes online.

4. Prove Your Skills

If you’re a writer, send a sample of your work. Better yet, drop it off in person. If you’re a video game developer, ask for a few minutes to show them what you developed. If you’re in advertising, find a way to show them an ad your created. Once again, the key is to stand out.

5. Nail The Interview

Research the company and the people who will be interviewing you. Figure out how you can help the company based on what you learned. You will also find that when you research the company and the people interviewing you prior to the interview, you will have at least one opportunity to prove that you did this research. This will happen naturally when they ask you questions. And it will impress them.

As far as dress goes, most people think you should dress formal. That’s the safe route. It’s not a bad route, but you’re not going to stand out. If you go with business casual, you won’t look like a robot and you will have an opportunity to show more of your personality by the way you dress. Never under-dress. That won’t work.

The Bottom Line

The common theme here is: Stand Out. If you don’t stand out, then you don’t have much of a chance. Take risks, but make sure they are calculated risks. Once you land that internship, you’re going to find it much easier to land a job after graduation.