The Ultimate Guide to Internships
Internships are often seen as a stepping stone into the workforce or even a career path. They offer valuable experience and training and can open doors to new opportunities. Students report feeling they are more prepared for career jobs after pursing internships. If chosen correctly, an internship can be a great way to kick-off your career and learn things that can't be taught in a classroom. Unfortunately, it's not always the case and sometimes internships leave students feeling frustrated. Wizeprep has put together this guide to help you find an internship that is right for you and will provide value to your college and life experience.
We view internships—both with us and generally for students at any company—as crucial components to any good work or educational experience. We offer our student marketing reps the first chance at securing one of our competitive summer internships at Wizeprep, so we take internships very seriously (see what people say about working with us). Student internships, including internships for freshmen, can be really beneficial to your professional (and personal!) growth.
There are a number of things to consider as you think through the right internship for you, and we are here to help with this ultimate guide to college internships, especially as you prepare for the internship you want even if you have no previous experience.
What is an internship?
Often students will talk about applying for internships, and you’ll find your classmates sharing tips on how to find an internship or what internships to avoid. But what exactly is an internship? How does an internship differ from a straight up part-time job?
An internship is a short-term work experience with an organization or a company. Most often internships are offered to students (but not always). There are both unpaid and paid internships.
The difference between an internship and a part-time job is that a part-time job usually doesn’t have a fixed end date, but an internship is for a limited time, and you know that right at the start.
While an argument can be made for the value found in unpaid internships, this ultimate guide to internships will focus on paid internships. We generally find that unpaid internships can be out of reach for those who don’t have the financial freedom to work for free; thus while some valuable work experience can very certainly be gained by unpaid internships, we’ll focus on the paid ones in this guide to all things student internships!
1. Planning to Apply for your Internship
So, you’re thinking that an internship might be right for you. You will have the time either during the term or on your summer break to take on an internship to learn the hands-on professional skills that you might only be able to get first-hand experience by working for a company or organization.
There are a variety of types of internships and reasons you might think about applying for and securing an internship, and this guide gives you some of the key questions you should ask yourself as you look into researching and figuring out what is the best internship for you and how to secure it.
What are your first steps and how do you prepare for an internship?
Before even applying for your first internship, there are a few things that you need to know to get ready for an internship. Most importantly, you want to think long and hard (and research) what type of company or organization you want to seek out for your first internship.
There are different types of companies and organizations, and they each have their pros and cons. Some questions you should ask yourself as you begin researching and thinking about internships in your area for which you might want to apply:
- Do I want to be in a big or small company for my internship? A bigger company might give you insight into how large corporations work, what their divisions look like, and you might get good name brand recognition for interning at a big, well known company. A smaller company might give you much more hands-on experience in a more ride range of roles. So it’s really up to you to consider what might be the best fit for your personality and what you are looking for.
- Do I want to be in a for-profit corporation or a not-for-profit organization for my internship? For-profit companies are standard corporations—whether big or small—that are structured around the primary goal of increasing profitability. Interning at a company structured around profits can let you see standard corporate metrics that let you see how business works. Not-for-profit organizations are structured generally around social goods where the strategic aim isn’t about profits but about achieving other social aims and objectives, and you might like to intern at an organization that has a cause that speaks to you.
- Do I want to do a specific role in my internship, or am I up for any tasks in my internship? A typical stereotype of the “intern” is that they do little more than get coffee for the more senior employees. That’s not always the case, but some internships are very specific in what they are recruiting for, while others may have more open-ended descriptions. Do you want to fit in a clearly defined role for your internship or are you the type that is good with ambiguity? These are questions you should ask even before you begin your internship search.
- Do I want a work-from-home internship or an in-person internship? In the post-pandemic world, many work places still have a variety of workplace options. Some are hybrid; some are fully remote; and some are regular office jobs. You need to know what the type of working context is so that you can prepare to be on the job during the specified hours and/or be able to log in remotely if need be. No matter the working conditions, you want to take the opportunity to be as professional as possible for your internship, when it happens.
Once you’ve done some preliminary work by answering those key questions about internships, you will start to feel like you know everything there is to know about internships, and you’ll be ready to find the best internship for you!
What kind of preparation for your internship should you do?
Now that you’ve asked yourself some key questions about the type of internship you should do, what are ways that you can become “internship ready”? It’s actually rather easy. An internship is a short-term job placement at the entry level that gives you practical job experience, but also offers you an opportunity to make professional connections.
Most of the time interns are either student interns, or mid-career interns who are changing jobs and starting something new. In either case, you will want to use your internship as a chance to get to know and impress the employees at the workplace so that you can rely on them for mentorship or references in the future.
There are a few things that you can do to make sure that you’re prepared and professional as you approach your new internship:
- If you already have a LinkedIn profile, you can optimize it
- Translate your academic skills as a student into job skills as a worker
Even though you may still be a student, as it pertains to the internship, you are a “worker,” and so it’s helpful to think of yourself as such. For instance, as a student it may be perfectly acceptable to turn your video off when attending online lectures or even to skip a class or two. But as a worker, it’s rarely okay to skip meetings where other people expect you to be in attendance!
What are some top tips on the best time to do an internship?
You may do many different types of internships throughout the course of your life, or you may only ever do one internship. Heck, some of you may never ever do an internship at all. There are no hard and fast rules about internships, but there are general trends about when it’s best to complete your internship.
Often students find their first internships in the summer break between their freshman (first year) and sophomore (second year) of college. The timing of an internship can be important for the rest of your career path, and so a general rule is the earlier you can do your first internship, the better!
Here are some tips on timing your internship:
- Read about the timing of an internship or co-op as well as some pros and cons as you make your own decision.
The specifics of the timing of your potential internship will, of course, be up to you, but a general rule is that the sooner you can get some work experience, the better. Part-time jobs, co-ops, and internships are all helpful ways for students to get practical experience, and internships are very common ways to get your foot in the door with an organization as soon as possible.
What kind of internship opportunities are there for students?
Another aspect of internship planning is knowing just what types of internship opportunities are available to students. A part-time job is something with no end in sight; you could hold your part-time job forever if you never quit or get let go. An co-op placement is part of your degree, and so while it has an end date, it is also likely a component to being able to graduate.
An internship is somewhere between a co-op placement and a part-time job.
Internship opportunities for students can be wide ranging, and it’s good to find the right ones for you. The best internships are associated with the courses you’re studying, and the best way to secure the best internships are to get the best grades in those subjects (which is definitely an area we can help with, as we offer subject- and course-specific study help).
If you see internships in your fields of study—marketing, or accounting, or finance, or statistics, or anything else—then those should be your first choice internships to apply for, because then those internships will help build your experience in the same field in which you’re studying, complementing your academic achievements with practical skills.
That way, not only will you learn more about that field and whether it’s the right field for you to continue studying, but an internship in a related field will also help you build up your network and professional connections in the very industry that you might want to work in one day! So it’s kind of a win-win.
There are some amazing media internships out there if you want to learn how to be a creator or develop your skillset in the digital media industry, which is often a very competitive field to break into.
Our own marketing manager who runs our hilarious TikTok account began first as a student marketing rep and then as a summer intern with us.
So the right internship for you will be one that fits with the workplace style that you think best fist your personality as well as an internship in your field so that you can complement your field of study with some hands-on work experience with your internship.
2. Applying for and Landing your Internship
Once you’ve done all the necessary planning to find the best internship for you, you’ll be ready to move onto the next step in the process and begin applying for internships so that you can land that dream internship.
In addition to making sure that your LinkedIn profile looks good in case potential employers connect with you that way, you also want to brush up and update your resume and be prepared for the application experience.
If you need help with your resume, we suggest these top three resources for creating the best resume to help you land that dream internship:
One thing to think about when it comes to applying for and landing your internship is getting the timing right.
Summer internships usually begin around May or June to take advantage of when most students aren't in full-time classes. And most of these internships get posted by February in advance of that summer season. So you will want to be prepared in advance to get your application in in order to be competitive.
How can my internship application be competitive?
Landing an internship at a top firm can be an impressive feat. Being competitive in the job market after graduating means that you want to have as many things going for you as you can, and having a good internship with a reputable company is a really solid way of building your resume and demonstrating your on-the-job skillset.
There are lots of good reasons for wanting that top internship, but how can you make your application stand out?
- Be professional. Make sure that you format your resume to be no more than 1 to 2 pages. Leave lots of white space. Make that resume look good. Also, be brief. Indicate your skills, not necessarily tasks completed. If, for example, you've worked as a barista, you don't want to list all the many things that you've done there, but you want to list your skills: time management, customer service, food handling etc.
- Be punctual. If you get to the interview stage--in person or online--make sure that you put a reminder in your calendar so that you show up on time. You might think that the interview begins when everyone says "hello," but your candidacy is being considered even before the interview starts based on whether you are punctual or not. If you can't be on time for the interview, why would the employer think you will be on time for work?
- Be proud. Another way of saying this is to be confident. Be proud of what you've accomplished to date--grades, extracurriculars, work experience, etc.--and speak about what you've done with pride. Now don't be so proud that you come across as thinking you know everything, but present yourself as someone who isn't shy or afraid of a challenge.
Treat the internship application experience the way you would any other serious application. Put in your time and research so that you do a good job, and then wait and see what happens.
And when you land your first interview, make sure to read what mistakes to avoid in an interview setting!
How can I get an internship without any experience?
So you know that you want a competitive internship, and you've done the work to make sure that you are as ready as you can be to apply, but what happens if the internship will be your very first work experience? How do you make yourself sound competitive and professional if you don't have experience under your belt yet?
We have some advice for you so that you can read our tips and tricks to land an internship without any experience:
- Using on-campus guides to land a job (McGill specific, but the information can be applied to other colleges or universities)
Once of our guides for getting a part-time job makes it clear that it's not a problem if you don't already have experience. What that blogger writes is important to bear in mind here. She says:
"Emphasize the soft skills you have that are transferable to the job such as communication, organization, problem solving and teamwork. You can do this by explaining how you utilized these skills in a variety of scenarios such as working in group projects or work you’ve done for school clubs."
And that's very very true. Focus on the skills that you already have and express the fact that you are ready to learn and improve. For instance, if you've babysat before (even if it's for your own brother or sister) you can list that you are responsible and have demonstrated that trait of responsibility by being entrusted with childcare. Or, for instance, if you manage many extracurricular sports along with your schoolwork you might want to highlight your ability to time manage well or prioritize successfully enough to be a competitive athlete and still maintain your GPA. If, for instance, you don't have those official activities as experiences you can write about yet, you might be able to lean into some of your interests. If you're a TikToker you can talk about how you are a digital creator in your spare time. Or if you are really into music, you can mention curating playlists as a creative outlet.
All you need to do is sit down and make a list of the things that you have done or that you are into, and then see if you can map those things down into skills or attributes that might speak to a potential hirer.
What are some tips for landing the internship of your dreams?
In addition to all the advice given above about being competitive and working to make sure you put your best, most professional foot forward to land the internship of your dreams, there are a few other bits of advice that we can give that can help you make sure that the internship you are dreaming about--be it with a fashion magazine, a big tech company, a local microbrewery, or that big name accounting firm--becomes closer to being a reality that we think it's important for you to consider.
One thing for you to consider is the idea of being able to balance everything. Balancing it all is key. Can you balance all the expectations that you have of yourself and that your internship bosses will have of you? You can learn about how to balance the many competing elements that vie for a student's time here, but you can also consider these resources that are specifically focused on helping you land the internship of your dreams:
- Do your research. If you know which company is your dream dream dream company to work with, then do your research on them. That means, look at their website and social media channels. How do they describe themselves? What words to they use? Look up those words and see if you can't incorporate them into your own application materials. For instance, if the company describes itself as "best in class" at something, then if you describe yourself as aspiring to work at a "best in class" organization, then you'll subliminally speak their language and seem like an insider to their organization. The more you research your dream company and incorporate that research into how you describe yourself in your cover letter/interview/resume, then the better your chances of landing that dream internship.
- Know their competitors. If you know that you want to be an intern at a company that is your dream company, who else is in their industry? Do you want to consider a competitor and apply there as well? You never know, that might be your dream internship just as easily as your first choice one. Perhaps your dream internship is, in fact, in a dream industry rather than just a dream company. Broaden your scope a bit in your search to focus on really identifying what that dream might look like. There might be more than one version of that dream internship.
- Network. If you identify the company that is the dream company you'd love to intern for, see if you can't find someone in the organization through LinkedIn who you can connect with. Now while it might be tempting to go all the way to the top and connect with the big boss, what often makes more sense is to connect with some of the junior employees and ask them a bit about what it's like to work at that dream company. They may be able to give you insights into the organization that you can then deploy in your application to make you stand out. For instance, if one of the current employees can tell you about current initiatives that the company really cares about, then you, too, can see if those are things you care about as well. If they are, then you can highlight those elements in your application. For example, if the company is focusing on its diversity initiatives and you come from a minoritized subject position, you may be able to speak to looking for a company that takes diversity seriously.
- Job Shadow. If at all possible, see if you can't volunteer or job shadow in the field that you're interested in before you even apply for an internship. This doesn't have to be a full time gig or a time-consuming commitment, but if you are able to follow someone on the job even for a day or two, you will understand exactly what the job or the company does, and that can go a long way to helping you land your dream internship when you apply for it. Often students who apply for medical school will have already done volunteer work at clinics or hospitals, and that same philosophy can apply to other jobs as well. If you know someone who works in the field that you're interested in, see if they won't let you tag along for a day!
There's lots of advice online about finding your dream job or dream internship, and in many ways the advice boils down to a few simple principles: know yourself and know the job. Once you are able to be really true to yourself about what you're looking for in this dream internship, then you can more accurately narrow down the search for the kind of dream internship that will really fit for you.
3. Finding the Right Internship
Speaking of that dream internship...how do you know if it's really going to be the right fit for you. I mean, you might think that working at a super huge corporation sounds amazing to you, but then when you get there you realize that it's anonymous and overwhelming. Or you might think that you want to be part of a fast-paced start up, but then when you get there you realize that the lack of structure and pace is too much for you to handle. There are lots of things that can make an internship that is perfect for one person be a nightmare for another. So how do you know if you're setting yourself up for your dream internship or a nightmare that you wish would be over?
We have a few tried and tested strategies to help you make sure that the internships you set out to land are the ones that will be the right ones for you.
How do I know if an internship is right for me?
An internship will be right for you if it has that magical blend of tapping into your interests but also asking you to stretch a bit and learn some skills. You want to learn skills that you are keen to develop, that fit with your personality. Some of our Wizeprep interns develop presentation, research, and organizational skills that they are able to take forward into their futures. We've had summer interns work as hiring managers and develop interview skills. Almost all of our interns over the years have honed and developed their skills with various spreadsheets.
So you would need to know what the specific tasks of an internship entail to know in advance whether or not it's going to be a good fit for you. For instance, if you are shy, but you know that you want to work through your shyness and improve your skills of speaking confidently with others, then perhaps an internship where you'll be interviewing people based on a script might be a perfect fit for you.
Or, for instance, if you know that you want to improve your public speaking skills, then an internship where you will have to make regular presentations to a team might be a perfect fit for you.
Whereas if your dream internship is one where you are able to hone and refine your top level coding abilities, then doing either of the above tasks would be like a nightmare for you! Instead, you would want to make sure that you were part of a dev team that is big enough that you would get meaningful code review and feedback in a robust development process where you can see how to contribute as one coder on a project with other developers.
So some ideas to think about to know whether or not an internship is right for you will involve looking at two key variables:
- What are my current skills? Make a list of the things that you know you're good at. These might be simple things such as comfort with a piece of software (like Microsoft Word or Google Sheets), or it might be more of a soft skill like being a good listener. Whatever your skills are, make a list of around 10 of them so that you have a good sense of what you believe your top current skills are, so that as you look for, apply for, and interview for your internships, you are paying attention to those that are looking for people with your skillset.
- What skills do I want to develop? Make a concrete list of the skills that you want to develop. Try to be as precise as possible. For instance, if you want to be better at graphic design, are there particular tools that you'd like to learn or is there a component of design that you'd like to improve. If you want to be better at analyzing data, what about that is appealing? Are you looking to improve your ability to create correlation analyses or run data sets? The more precise you can be about the skills you'd like to develop, the better you'll be able to assess whether they are likely to be the ones on offer in a potential internship.
An internship will be a great fit if it falls at the nexus between those two questions. If you can spend part of your time in your internship excelling at the things that you know you're good at and improving that skillset and part of your time in your internship building the things that you know you want to develop, then you will find that perfect blend of building on your existing strengths while also helping you to develop new skills and strengths.
How do I identify potential red flags in an internship?
We all know what red flags are, those little warnings that let us know that something isn't quite right. We might find those little red flags in a relationship or a workplace or any other context where our little voice is trying to tell us something.
Generally workplace red flags, including those that we might want to identify early in a potential internship, will have to do with workplace boundaries. While an internship is often considered a first opportunity for students and entry-level workers to be introduced to workplace standards and expectations, sometimes a workplace and its expectations might be off kilter.
The toughest part about identifying workplace red flags when it comes to internships is the fact that often young interns don't yet have the life experience or perspective to meaningfully interpret the myriad inputs from a workplace context to be able to know what is normal and what is out of scope for a workplace.
Here's a short list of some ways to help you navigate what is or is not toxic or troubling in a workplace if you are grappling with whether or not there are red flags in an internship that you need to be aware of.
- Is it just workplace hierarchy or is it bullying? One thing that might be tough for interns to make sense of is that many workplaces are by definition hierarchical. Vertical reporting structures are very common in many workplaces where there are levels of management with workers each reporting to someone who is up the chain from them. In this structure, it is normal for a direct manager to tell their direct reports what to do and to provide them with feedback--sometimes unpleasant feedback--on the work that is being done. This reporting, especially if done in a constructive manner, is a healthy and normal part of a well-run workplace where people know their tasks and know who they report to and when and what is expected of them. However, this healthy hierarchy can go awry when there are managers who aren't specific in outlining the tasks that they expect from their direct reports and/or their feedback is unnecessarily harsh and unhelpful. But just because a manager tells someone that they didn't do a good enough job, doesn't mean that it is bullying. It is only bullying if there is a relentless critique of someone's work for no reason. It is important to know the difference.
- Are they just being friendly or is it inappropriate? We have all heard about the #MeToo Movement that began as a way to collectively recognize the many ways in which girls and women are often the target of unwanted advances in professional contexts or places not designed to elicit romance. It is one thing to be complimented on one's looks while standing in a bar; it is another thing to be complimented on one's looks while standing in the office. Context is key. However, it can be very difficult to navigate these nuances in today's workplaces as there is an increasing blurriness between personal and professional spaces. Different workplaces also have differing levels of casualness to them. Some workplaces have very clear delineation between work and non-work hours and interactions, and some workplaces purposely blur those lines with ping pong tables and other fun, non-work elements. So where is the line between harassment and just overly friendly or annoying behaviour? The Occupational Health and Safety Act defines workplace harassment as "engaging in a course of vexatious comment or conduct against a worker in a workplace that is known or ought reasonably to be known to be unwelcome." What is key here is that it is a "course of vexatious comment or conduct," which means that it has to be more than once. So if someone's behaviour seems off, but it was just a one-time thing, then that's probably nothing to worry about. If, however, there is continued bad behaviour, then that's a major red flag for you.
- Am I just junior or are they really disorganized? Another red flag (which combines a few listed here) has to do with how well you are trained and how clear the expectations for your work are. Certainly as an intern you might feel more uncomfortable working independently than some of your peers with more experience on the job. That's a normal part of getting used to a workplace setting. However, if you find yourself being asked to complete tasks with little to no training, little to no guidance for who to ask when you have questions, or little to no clarity on what success looks like, then you might be in a very disorganized organization that is raising many red flags. While not all organizations have finely tuned internship programs with specific duties and responsibilities entirely laid out, most organizations should have the capacity to explain your tasks to you and provide you with a mentor or boss who can support you. Certainly they may not be at your beck and call to answer questions 24/7, but there should be a structure so that you know where to turn to get help and answers. Without that, it will be hard for you not to fail at the internship, and no one wants that to happen, so that would be a red flag.
So assuming that the organization you join for your first internship doesn't raise any of these red flags then you should be set for a great experience as an intern, learning new skills on the job and building your resume along the way.
Internships in a Nutshell
We hope you enjoyed this comprehensive summary of all the things to consider in approaching the quest for the perfect internship. There's lots to think about:
- Planning to Apply for your Internship
- Applying for and Landing your Internship
- Finding the Right Internship
Being organized and professional are all parts that you can handle as you begin the process of finding your dream internship, and if you'd like more tips on being organized, here's one of our past interns providing some great advice:
And if you want one, last tip, have a read of this great guide for writing a super cover letter!
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