Launching Your Future

4 Steps to Your Internship Search

February 14, 2019

If you’re like most students, you enrolled in college to build a better future for yourself. For many, it’s about these three things:

  1. Having more opportunity
  2. Earning a higher income
  3. Finding a career that you enjoy and that fits your values, strengths and purpose

Did we get that right?

Let’s take the first steps to get you headed in that direction. Unplug from social media, and take the next hour to follow these 4 action items:

The First 4 Steps of the Process

In this post, our intention is to encourage you to start thinking about internships and what YOU want from it.

Understand what an internship is
  • A position in an organization to gain work experience
  • It can be a paid or unpaid position
  • An opportunity to earn college credit for a work experience related to your major
  • Different than a part-time job because they relate to your major or career choice

Now take 5-10 minutes to search online for examples of internships and compare the different job descriptions and qualifications needed.

Learn about the value of internships
  • You get hands-on training and technical experience in your career field of interest
  • You gain experience to build your resume and LinkedIn profile
  • You connect with professionals in your field of interest and build your professional network outside of college
  • Your connections can help you land a job after college

Now take 15-20 minutes to think about your own interests and how it connects to your future plans. How does an internship experience get you closer to your career goals? Reflection time!

It’s okay if you don’t know your career interests. Check out this My Career Interests: Where Do I Start? blog post to start.

Reflect on what you want out of your internship
  • To learn new professional skills
  • Apply what you learned in the classroom
  • Get your foot in the door at a specific organization
  • Get exposure to different careers to help you narrow done your career choice after college

Now take 15 -20 minutes to consider what you want out of your internship experience. What skill sets do you want to gain? This will help you narrow your search of companies/organizations that you will want to work for.

Build Your Tool Box
  • Learn your current strengths
  • Identify your areas of interest
  • Identify opportunities for improvement

Now take the next 10 – 15 mins to start building your tool box by taking this helpful free assessment to understand your strengths.

Now that you have finished doing some prep work, the next step is to reach out and use your campus resources to help find your summer internship.

  • Career service center
  • Diversity and equity/multicultural centers
  • Academic advisor
  • Professor/faculty member in your major
  • CSF coach: email us to connect with your assigned coach
  • Mentor

Remember this is a process, and people are ready to guide you forward!

Look out for next month’s blog on tips to search for your summer internship.