While in college at George Washington University in Washington, DC, I had 4 internships and before college, I interned at three different companies in high school.
All of my internships were during the summer and in college, three of the four internships were paid. The unpaid internship was with a startup company that was working on a restaurant customer loyalty app similar to LevelUp or Belly. Ironically, I learned the most during this unpaid internship about business and technology.
If you’ve just entered college or loathe the idea of working for a company for no pay, some of the tips below will be helpful in securing a paid internship. These tips will be more helpful if you’re looking in the business field. Sometimes, unpaid internships are necessary in other fields, especially if there are prerequisite skills or experiences for going into a field like law or medicine.
1. Don’t look for unpaid internships.
This seems like common sense, but if you’re set on working to get a paid internship, don’t bother looking at unpaid internships or internships with a crappy stipend. It’s not worth your time. Instead, focus all of your efforts on finding and applying to paid internships. Don’t be afraid that you won’t get something. Just keep at it. You can ALWAYS get an unpaid internship. Trust me.
2. Catalogue what you are good at and how you can prove it.
The reason I had such a good batting percentage with paid internships is that I only applied to internships where the position or the company resonated very well with my skill set or interests. If you’re horrible at writing and are applying to a paid copywriting internship, that’s not a very good match.
Your value will go up immensely in the eyes of a potential employer if you are good at a particular skill and can prove it with concrete examples. Your job on an interview is to persuade the employer to take a chance on you. The more ammunition you have going in, the easier it will be to convince them of your worth as an intern.
3. Be passionate about learning and working hard.
There’s nothing worse than a sterile interview where someone comes in wearing a nice suit, speaks plainly, and doesn’t have any kind of discernible excitement or eagerness to work at the company. You won’t stand out or be memorable.
Instead, be genuinely passionate. Ask questions. Do your homework on the company. Be curious about what the company values and how the company views the problems in its industry.
Don’t worry about being “over eager.” If you can get across that you’re competent AND passionate, I guarantee you will be one of the top choices. Employers want to get their worth. If they are investing $10 per hour in you, they want you to be able to produce $20 per hour worth of value or at least learn enough to become a potential employee down the road.
4. Don’t worry about not having previous experience.
My internships included: a fashion internship, an internship at a nonprofit, two internships at medical device companies, one at a media company, another at a startup, and finally one at a startup accelerator program.
Obviously, I did not have previous experience in all of these areas, but I always tried to frame my previous experience in school and with projects on my own (websites, blogs) as meeting the criteria of the job posting. In addition, I always did a lot of homework on the company and the industry so they wouldn’t be skeptical that I didn’t know my stuff.
5. Smile and be present in the moment.
If you’ve ever taken a performance course like ballroom dancing or a sales interpersonal relations course, you will always be told to smile. It sets people at ease and conveys that you are happy (Depression is looked down upon in the workforce. Who wants depressed coworkers?). It also makes people think that you like them, which makes people feel better about themselves.
There are few things worse than automatic responses. Forget about everything and be present in the moment. Take two seconds before you respond to a question to seem more thoughtful. Listen carefully to what your potential employer says. Don’t just rattle off answers you have memorized. Engage in a discussion. People don’t want coworkers that are robots, they want human beings!
The best way to be confident and comfortable in the present moment is to do your homework and prepare bullet points for answers to typical questions.
6. Apply to internship placement programs.
I tried out the HACU National Internship Program in college with some good success. Although I didn’t end up taking any of those internships, I was offered a few with pretty good wages. I wouldn’t recommend applying to any where you have to pay an outrageous fee before taking a hard look at the guarantees and benefits the program offers.
7. Introduce yourself and ask to meet people in the office
A great way to make a good impression is to show your employer that you’re someone that other people would want to work with. Ask if you’ll get a chance to meet any of the people you will be working with. Interact with the secretaries and other employees that you meet during your interview. Remember names. Ask them questions about the work environment and the company. Ask them what they think about developments in the industry. Get their card and send them an email after saying it was nice to meet them during the interview.
8. Tailor your resume and cover letter to each employer.
Depending on what type of internship I was applying to, I would change around my resume and cover letter so that it was more appealing to the hiring manager. If I was applying to a sales internship, I wouldn’t even include my fashion or medical device internships on the resume. I would highlight my experience with the startup and how I interacted with real customers and persuaded individuals to sign up for the beta of our product. Tell them what they want to hear. Do NOT send a generic resume or cover letter.
9. Build relationships, not transactions
Not every personality type is open to off-topic discussion, but if you think the hiring manager is sociable, ask them questions about their life. Start with questions about the job, but if you see an picture of their kid on the desk, ask them about it. Ask them what they did before working at this company. Try to have relaxed conversation.
Believe me, people like to talk about themselves. Some more than others. If you can get them to talk about a part of their life that brings them joy or evoke a memory that makes them smile, they will remember that you made them happy and you will make a better impression.
10. Engage in “white lies,” but not too much.
If you really want a paid internship and the employer asks you whether you would like doing data entry, engage in a “white lie.” Seriously? I don’t know of anyone that likes data entry. When employers would ask me this, I’d say something along these lines.
“At the end of the day, I want to add value to the company. I want to learn a lot and I’ve set aside this entire summer to work hard and get my foot in the door. If data entry is part of the internship, of course I’m okay with it. My main concern is that after my internship is over, I’ll be able to say I learned something about this company and this industry. As long as data entry is coupled with real world experience, I’m still excited about this position.”
Also – no matter what happens, always be positive. In the initial stages, employers are looking for small things to disqualify applicants over. Just be sure not to let them check any of those boxes like: has a temper, not enthusiastic, badmouths previous boss, etc. Being completely positive is a bit of a white lie, but let’s be honest, appearances matter.
If you have any questions about my experiences or applying to internships in general, leave a comment below.