The holy grail – of internships…

 … does not really exist!

There is no perfect internship, as there is nothing perfect in real life. 

But there is plenty of options available, and as long as we understand both ourselves and the openings at large, we can then work on doing some matchmaking.

 

Here are a few considerations that can help us find the best fit to our needs and aspirations.

First, by keeping an open mind… Sometimes we get so hung up on a particular position, or on a particular company, that we miss on every other opportunity out there. Focus is a good thing, but hyper focus might just be a trap that gets us stressed out. Keeping our options open change the game from a single yes or no answer related to a unique position, to an almost certain chance of a yes for at least one of many positions.

Then, by doing some research. We might really admire a brand or company, but not all work in that company is done internally. For instance, a lot of companies do not do their own advertisement – instead, they brief marketing agencies who in turn build their creatives. In such cases, if we are in love with the marketing of a brand, it might be more interesting to search for internships on the actual agencies than in the branded company itself. Another example is technology – a lot of companies, unless they are technology companies – outsource their IT work – so we might be better served by an internship in one of those outsourced firms than on the original company. Understanding that context can broaden our picks. Research does not need to be boringly done on your own, if that is not your thing. Talking to upper-level students who were interns at the place before is super helpful – they might even know people and make a recommendation about us. Even upper-level students who interviewed for positions and didn’t get them can offer interesting insight on the recruiting and selection process, for instance.

A big lightbulb is understanding what motivates us. It might be making a buck. It might be learning. It might be practicing a specific skill. You get the gist. There is no right or wrong, there is just what makes us tick. Motivating factors change over time, so being aware of what is our current motivation can help us consider options that can potentially match it. If we are to put the time and effort on an internship, we better be doing it for something we are really enthusiastic about.

The next gold nugget is to dig deep for the details of the internship postings. Some might be only open for juniors and seniors, some might have no restrictions. Some might have very specific hours, or locations. We adapt to the job, the job does not adapt to us, so reading the fine print of the postings help us to be better positioned to avoid last minute surprises – and to avoid wasting recruiters’ – and our own – time. It is probably the very first step into any more professional work: details matter – a lot!

And finally, we also need to make sure we adjust our application to best match the postings we are interested in. And I am not referring to lying or embellishing, mind you! It is just that no single application can cover all of what we are or all of who we are. Investing the time to adjust our application to highlight what we have that might be more interesting to each position we are applying for goes a very long way… It makes us independent from whoever is recruiting to make that mental leap – and that mental leap is virtually impossible depending on the number of applications one receives. When we make it easier – and obvious – for people to see why we might be good matches, we are giving ourselves a head start. And in a competitive environment where every position has tens if not hundreds of applicants, any head start represents a leverage to get us further in their selection funnel.

By applying those considerations, we hopefully have now a few applications submitted to different alternatives aligned to our interests, motivations and availability. 

And although we can certainly keep our fingers – and toes – crossed for some of them to become a reality, we can actually do a little bit more than that to get prepared. 

How, you might ask? 

Well, by getting ready for interviews! 

And if it is your first – or not – interview – you might want to stay tuned for my next post, where I delve a bit further in the quest for the not so holy grail of internships!