Career fairs, visits to your Career Center on campus, job sites that aggregate opportunities
-- chances are if you’ve been searching for an internship you have tried one or all
of these methods by now.
If so, kudos to you for taking action and getting started!
But what if you aren’t having any luck going through these traditional methods?
Good news, there are more ways to land the internship, and they are working for other
people!
I’m Jenna Rein, and this is The Intern Hustle, and in today’s video I’m going to share
five creative ways to land the internship.
Hey there!
I'm Jenna Rein from theinternhustle.com.
And this is Initiative Muscle Monday.
Helping you to start each week with an intentional step toward a successful future.
Let's do this!
Now I’m assuming you’ve already tried to secure an internship by submitting your
resume and applying.
If you haven’t even done that yet...that’s a good place to start.
But if you have, and you’re not having much luck, let’s review five ways to boost your
chances.
Connect with University Recruiters and Alumni on LinkedIn.
A lot of the larger companies have an entire staff dedicated to recruiting college students
for internships and entry level jobs.
These are the people that usually attend your campus career fairs, but they also hang out
on LinkedIn.
Be proactive and connect with these people on LinkedIn so that you are on their radar
when you submit your application.
And if you’ve already submitted your application...send them a quick follow-up note on LinkedIn.
Pro Tip: All recruiters hang out on LinkedIn.
Have you created (or refreshed) your LinkedIn profile to showcase your skills and your desire
for an internship?
What are you waiting for?
I have a free LinkedIn training that will show you exactly what you need to do.
You can sign up on theinternhustle.com and I’ll also link to it in the description
below this video.
If you are nowhere to be found on LinkedIn when an employer searches for you, shame on
you.
OK, but what if you aren’t applying to a large company with a full recruiting staff?
Well, there may be some alumni from your school that currently work there.
These are great people to connect with, and if they can offer you a warm referral into
the company, it gives you a much better chance of landing the internship.
I teach you how to use the LinkedIn alumni search tool in my LinkedIn training as well...just
sayin’.
Engage with Employers on Social Media.
Not all social media is bad for your professional image.
LinkedIn is an obvious platform that you should be using, but other platforms like Twitter
can be useful as well.
We’re going to focus on Twitter, because while some employers do have company pages
on Facebook and Instagram, chances are your personal profiles on these platforms aren’t
polished enough yet to start drawing attention to yourself over there.
For example: Do NOT engage with companies on social media if you have photos posted
doing beer bongs at last weekend’s frat party.
If you do go the Twitter route -- Your Twitter account also needs to be professional.
Go through your old posts and delete anything that you wouldn’t want a future employer
reviewing.
Then start building up your Twitter presence to benefit your online brand and internship
search.
Retweet company posts made by either the company or leaders at the company.
Share articles you find professionally interesting.
Link out to some of your creative work that is in line with the type of internship position
you are hoping to secure (maybe a blog or a website with a portfolio of your work).
And finally, engage with company leaders by commenting with insightful questions or value-added
thoughts to their tweets.
Showcase Your Creative Content.
In the last section I mentioned linking out to your creative work on Twitter.
Your creativity can come in many different forms.
Perhaps you have a blog related to the industry you are hoping to build a career in.
Maybe you do freelance graphic design work for small businesses in your college town.
Or, maybe you’ve built out case studies for a few companies you admire.
Whatever it may be, share your work on LinkedIn and Twitter.
You can do this on your profile, as well as in your posts.
Later, when you land an interview, you can always point people back to your LinkedIn
profile for examples of your work.
Employers will be impressed by this.
And then there are those super creative individuals in the world who produce videos and go all
out.
There was a guy who did this because he wanted an internship with Jimmy Fallon and it was
brilliant.
He got the internship!
I’ll find the link and put it in the description below just in case you want to check it out.
And look, I’m not saying you need to do something like this every time you apply for
an internship, but I am saying, if you really want something stop sitting around and waiting
for it to find you, get creative and make it impossible for them to turn you down.
Create an Internship Position.
Sometimes an employer may not have any internship positions posted or open within their company.
Usually, these are the smaller companies.
Because, they don’t think they have the time to organize and lead interns so they
just don’t bother with them.
However, these are the exact companies that need interns!
If you have a company in mind that you really want to intern for and they don’t have an
internship position available, I encourage you to create one.
Draft up a job description and concisely list the reasons why you want to intern for the
company and the value you can provide them.
Then find the best person or department to submit this information to and send it in.
Chances are, this proactive action on your part will give the employer confidence in
your ability to intern with them as a self-starter and a solid contributor.
What do you have to lose by trying?
Generate and Share Ideas and Feedback.
A company may have closed its doors on new interns during an application period, but
if it is an internship you really want, then you shouldn’t shut down your efforts.
Try to get an informational interview with someone at the company (again, alumni are
great candidates for this).
Then do your research before you meet with them.
Research and identify what big projects the company is working on or what current challenges
they might be facing as an industry.
From there, craft ideas for potential solutions and when it's appropriate, share these ideas
during your informational interview.
It's going to impress people.
Alternatively, the company could have a product or service that you use.
Offering valuable feedback on their product or service is another way to demonstrate your
commitment to the company.
And people want to work with people who are committed to the company...it may just lead
you to an internship.
All of these ideas require some creativity and work on your part, but nothing worth having
comes easy.
Plus, just imagine how awesome you’ll feel if you land the internship after applying
one of these creative tactics.
It will be well deserved and you will feel that much more a part of the company from
day one.
Do you have other creative ideas to add to these five?
I’d love to hear them...leave them in the comments below!
And if you found this video helpful, please give it a like and share it with a friend
or two.
I’ll be back next week with another video to help you flex your Initiative Muscle.