How to Get An Internship
Are you a college student looking for an internship? Are you frustrated because you can’t get an interview? If you don’t have an internship on your resumé, you won’t be as competitive in your future job search. Employers want real work experience, even for entry level positions.
Find the internship you need
to launch your career
We know how to find internships for college students. More importantly, we identify opportunities that are relevant to your career path that:
- Develop skills that are not taught in the classroom
- Provide career-specific technical training
- Build your professional network
- May result in a full-time job offer
Securing the right internship can determine whether you get your desired job in the future
We don’t want you to settle, because there’s a lot at stake.
Our process works
Applicant tracking systems filter out 75% of all applications, recruiters only spend 6-7 seconds reading a resumé when they see it, and hundreds of applicants are vying for coveted internships. That’s how competitive the job market is.
- We reconstruct your resumé so it is organized, clear, and can be read easily
- Your career strategist creates a professional LinkedIn profile to maximize your online visibility
- We identify potential connections in your network who can help advance you through the internship search process
- Your coach crafts cover letters that align your skills with the requirements for each job application
- Our Interview Skills Specialist trains you to handle today’s most common questions
- Our team thoroughly prepares you for each interview and debriefs with you after
- We spend countless hours doing research every step of your journey
We meet with you weekly, and sometimes more often, to keep you moving forward, so you stay on top of application deadlines, post-interview thank you notes, reviewing your inbound and outbound communication, building your network, and preparing for the next interview – always keeping the focus on securing the internship that will set you up for future success.
Find the right Internship
We treat your internship search as if it were our own. We stay with you until you accept an offer, and we are on call – from start to finish.
We save you time
Priority Candidates knows how to make the internship search process efficient. We research each company and brief you with meaningful insights, preparing you as you move through the application process, because it’s our job to help you be the best candidate you can be.
We are job sourcing specialists. Your Priority Candidates coach is your personal job scout, keeping an eye out for new internships as they are posted.
Many students waste time and effort applying for positions they aren’t qualified for. We identify the opportunities that are the best fit for you.
Our career coaches have helped college students find internships in these & other areas
advocacy internships
commercial real estate internships
computer engineering internships
computer programming internships
computer science internships
communications & pr interships
consulting internships
corporate finance internships
data analyst internships
digital marketing internships
ecommerce internships
environmental engineering internships
environmental science internships
fashion marketing internships
finance internships
government affairs internships
healthcare marketing internships
investment banking internships
legislative internships
public affairs internships
quantitative analysis
Let’s talk about how you can find career success
Frequently Asked Questions
This can vary depending on the type of internship you are looking for. Recruiting for some summer internships between junior and senior year can start early in the spring semester of sophomore year, in the late spring/early summer after sophomore year, or the fall or spring of junior year. Deciding on the type of internship you want to pursue will influence the timing of when applications are submitted and when recruiting for those positions will be completed.
This depends on the types of roles you are pursuing. On average, we estimate 30+ applications.
An ATS is a software application that helps companies organize and track candidate applications. This allows companies to search and filter resumes to identify the most qualified candidates for each role. The system scans resumes for keyword matches and uses algorithms for data analysis to identify the candidates that are the strongest fit. This process happens before anyone in human resources/talent acquisition reviews an applicant resume.
Resumes for college students and recent graduates should not be more than 1 page. You can maximize the amount of content on a page by adjusting spacing and by your choice of font. However, the font size should not be smaller than 10.5 and ideally, 11.
Networking is one of the most important things to do during your internship search. It starts with identifying people in your school communities (including alum), friends and colleagues, and family relationships. You should look for those people that are in careers that you are interested in pursuing and connect with them to learn more about what they do, how they got to where they are today, along with any advice that they can share about their journey.
We encourage our clients to start preparing for internship application season early so we can identify and address any skills gaps. We can then provide suggestions about short online courses and certifications that can help meet the skills requirements. In addition, our coaching programs include a credit for technology training that can be used for Excel, Tableau, SQL, or other training that your specific internship role might require.
Your internship search can become complicated if you go abroad. The time difference, lack of strong internet connectivity, and ability to actively network can be impacted by being overseas. We recommend that whatever semester most of the recruiting occurs for your desired roles, you remain based at your school. Also, you must consider when your semester abroad will end and make sure that you are back home in advance of your required start date, which is generally the first week in June.