The 5 Best Places to Find Internships Online
If you’re a college students you probably heard from everyone including your neighbor’s dog that you NEED to get an internship.
We’ve all heard the advice that “it’s not what you know but who you know.”
There’s some truth to this, getting internships in college will not only increase your professional network but more importantly in my opinion it gives you tangible proof to show future employers post grad that you are capable of working in a professional environment.
Most of us have a lot banking on getting an internship at some point in our college career and you probably get some advice from advisors or older alums but most of it is probably completely useless in this day and age.
Let face it, someone who went to college 10 years ago has no idea what it’s like to look for internships now. Not only are employers looking for different things now but in an increasingly digital world, employers aren’t actively looking for interns as they previously were, and it’s now up to you to find them.
That being said its not harder to find an internship, just different. So if you're trying to find an internship in 2021 and beyond, where should you look?
Here are 5 places and websites where you can start your internship search to find the perfect job for you.
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Follow Companies you like on social media
This goes back to my earlier point of the job market is changing and we all have to change with. Five years ago we would have never thought that brands would utilize their social media to promote their job posting but here we are.
I follow several companies in the industry that I hope to work in post-grad and almost all of them post on their stories or their page if they have new positions opening up. I actually have applied to several internships by swiping up on Instagram, weird right? You can also find internship by following your college’s career page and other career-oriented Instagram pages like career contessa.
Google them
If you’ve been here before you probably know that I have a career philosophy that its important to be intentional about the jobs you apply to and that includes being reflective at what companies would you like to work at and keeping up with those companies so you know exactly when they have positions open.
Just think about what type of work you’d like to do, what type of people you’d like to work with and start to list companies you admire and google them to find their career pages and see when they have internship and if for some reason they don’t have internship, find their HR email and email them letting them know you’re interested.
It’s important more than ever to be direct and advocate for yourself as a young professional. The more intentional you are about the companies you’d like to work with the more of a chance you have to actually land your dream internship.
learn how I used this tip to land two internships before my sophomore year!
Use LinkedIn
Okay, this one is pretty obvious so I’ll keep it brief but LinkedIn has a great search engine that you can use to find internships from big companies and small companies alike. If a company has an internship posting its probably gonna be on LinkedIn.
Another way you can use Linkedin to find internships is to also be a LinkedIn lurker as I would like to say, which basically means to follow more people who are in a similar field to the ones you’re interested in and see what types of internships they are doing, so this can include people who are post-grad and currently in roles that you could see your self in and looking at their pages to see what types of internship they complete but also people who are currently in school and in your major and see what internships they end up doing.
By staying active on your LinkedIn feed you get an idea of what’s possible for you based on what the people you know are doing.
Check student forums (eg bulletin boards, group chats etc)
Student forums like Facebook groups and GroupMe group chats are also an unexpected and great place to find potential internships. While it’s not the most reliable, if you join career-oriented or interest-based groups there a chance that people will post great opportunities, and they will be easier to get because you actually know someone.
Some of the places I’ve seen internship posted are in my class of 2022 Facebook group chat, my college history major Facebook page, and also within our class-wide group chat. Also, don’t discuss bulletin boards around campus because they occasionally have to post for businesses that are recruiting at your college.
Job boards like Handshake
Okay, I had to include job boards though I will say my biggest advice would be to not use job boards exclusively but instead use a mixture of all of the different places I suggested. Job boards like Handshake can be great (though I wouldn't recommend internship.com) because they have the basic internship opportunities on there and you can occasionally get lucky and find an internship that you like.
It’s great to use job board and cross-reference with the company website, the only drawback with job boards is that they can be very generic and have so many applicants that it’s almost not worth it to apply so that why you have to use your discretion when picking jobs to apply to on there that fits you specifically and not just send an out a bunch of generic applications because I promise you that’s what everyone else is doing.
So there you have it, the 5 best places to find internships online that work for the average student who navigating this process in the digital age. The career world is changing rapidly and we have to adapt but lucky for us it is now easier than ever to find a position that’s well suited to our individual wants and needs we just have to put in the work to find them.
Good luck internship hunting!