By: Molly Thomas

It’s the late spring, and hopefully you have a job lined up for the summer. If not, don’t freak out yet! Read up on some tips to land a summer internship, which can obviously be applied to any time of the year as well.

Perfect your resume. Even if you think your resume is perfect, there is often still room for improvement. Look over and edit your resume at least a few times on your own, and also have someone else proofread it for you. They may catch things that you don’t, or provide you with other useful feedback. Make sure that you are grammatically correct, and that your format is on point.

If you can, start your search early. The earlier that you can start looking for potential internships, the better. This allows you plenty of time to weigh your options, pick out the positions that are most appealing to you, and for the application process in general of course. However, don’t let this freak you out if you were unable to do so, I myself landed my current summer internship position having only heard about the position in mid-March.

Network. It can not be stressed enough how important it is to network. So many people I know who have landed a summer internship or a full-time position post grad had the connection to their position through networking. If you’re unsure of how to go about this, look no further. You have so many different options. Join a club on campus related to your ideal profession/industry. Another great way of networking is reaching out to people via LinkedIn or email if they work at your ideal organization or in your ideal profession. Asking them for an informal phone call to learn more about them, their employment journey, or their organization is an amazing networking strategy as it makes you acquainted with that contact. For example, if an internship position opens up or is created in the future at their organization, they’re likely to reach out to you as a potential candidate since they’d be familiar with you and your work ethic.

Apply, apply, apply. You should be applying for any internship position that interests you. There are even features on LinkedIn and Handshake that allow you to have your resume already entered, so that you can quickly apply for positions. Don’t doubt yourself! You never know what opportunities could arise from applying.

Prepare for your interviews. Push yourself beyond just preparing for potential questions they may ask you. Make sure that you do your research on the organization so that you’re educated and knowledgeable on the organization prior to interviewing. This is appealing to employers as it shows your genuine interest in the organization, and that you can prepare well. Additionally, make sure you brainstorm some experience related examples, and highlight these. If you don’t already have experience related to the internship, get out of your comfort zone and jump at any opportunity to get experience.