Most students these days understand the importance of doing
internships in order to complement their academic studies, to discover what the
real world is like in their given career field and to make themselves more
competitive candidates upon graduation. In fact, the title of the career center
where I work at UMass Boston includes the word “Internships” (Office of Career
Services & Internships) because we want to remind and impress upon students
that internships are vital in terms of rounding out their college experience.
Very often when students come in to meet with me to discuss
how to get an internship, they express some real concern about their ability to
get one due to their lack of experience in their career field. At this point I
reassure them that employers aren’t looking for experience when hiring an
intern because the nature of an internship is to learn about a career field. In
fact, the Merriam-Webster dictionary’s definition of an intern is “a student or
recent graduate who works for a period of time at a job in order to get experience.” So you see, experience
isn’t a requirement to get an internship.
Well then, what are employers looking for when they hire an
intern? As I always point out to my students, employers are looking for a set
of transferrable skills that are relevant to the internship. The skills that
they are seeking are often posted in the job description under a section
entitled “Qualifications” or “Requirements,” and they typically are listed in
order of significance. According to the National Association of Colleges and
Employers (NACE), the top skills sought by employers in 2016 are as follows:
Most students have developed these skills through part-time
jobs, volunteer and community service experience, leadership roles and their
academic studies. When writing their resume and cover letters, they should make
sure to highlight the skills that the employer is seeking, not necessarily the skills
they think are best or strongest. For example, a student may speak another language
but if it’s not required for the internship, there’s no need to mention it in
the cover letter, but it can go on the resume.
Another common question that students often ask me is, “How
many internships should I apply to?” I used to give them a ballpark number like
25, but then I realized there is no magic number. So now I say, “Just keep
applying to as many as possible until you get one.” Quite often students will
apply to a few companies, perhaps their dream companies, and then wait for the
calls to come in. With this approach, they’re wasting valuable time that could
have been spent searching for and applying to more internships. The saying, “It
ain’t over until it’s over,” definitely applies to the internship search. I
advise students to set up email alerts on the popular internship sites which
will generate daily emails with internship matches so they don’t even have to
think about it.