Okay in this video, I want to talk to you about searching for internships or finding
internship positions.
You can always use your local internship or job board to find internship that is any internship
positions listed with professional organization, community work centers, schools and then your
typical internship.com career builder, monster, simply hired data and all these.
All of these are fine sources that well, the larger it gets, the more disconnect gets and
the more difficult it is to actually get in an internship from these positions.
So of those examples, the best scenario are the local job boards and your school job posting,
your career center for finding internships.
But a better than that even is to start with your friends and family connections.
Look to them first to see if they have any internship openings or have any connections
that they can refer you to, that they can simply send your resume to, with the statement
"hey, this is a good student, studying business with whatever concentration.
They're interested in this.
If you have a position, please consider them".
In that situation, your using your available resources again to create an opportunity for
you.
For more information on that, refer back to our networking video, for the importance of
connection and how they can create opportunities for you.
After that, after you exhausted your immediate contacts, reach yourself.
Do some internet searching to identify companies that interest you?
That have some level of position or what they do with something you would like to be involved
with or learn about and reach out to them.
The best way to find these companies is to use google search.
Google tends to work better than the others.
No offense to Bing or Yahoo but Google tends to be exponentially better at this.
Put in your zip code and put in the key search for types of business that interest you.
Google maps will bring up any number of business within a driving range for how far you can
travel to that internship.
If you're able to move, then you have way more options than that or lives somewhere
for say a summer and do the internship.
You have far more options.
But if you're looking to do an internship locally, this is an excellent way.
Now, once you found companies that interests you, remember this, when you make contact,
you need to it in a way that it's going to be meaningful.
Email is not the best way, while it is at least a way to make initial contact.
It is not certainly the best way to make an impression.
Email tends to go unanswered.
The best way is to phone directly.
Now, phoning, you know you're going to go through multiple layers of individuals probably
before you get to the person that can actually say yes or have you as an intern.
So, have you elevated your pitch down, be ready to deliver that a couple of times.
But talk to them directly.
Use your elevator pitch.
Tell them you're a student studying ABCD whatever concentration within the business school.
You're looking for professional experience.
Have you ever hosted an intern or would you be willing to?
More often than not, these individuals will say no.
Maybe it will lead because they haven't thought about it ahead of time or if they had thought
about it, they're too busy to undertake that process now.
But, try to not to get off the phone until they've agreed to at least allow you to send
your resume and cover letter.
Don't be pushy in that way but just ask nicely and say, "well, if you ever do have anything,
could I please send you my resume and a cover letter associated with that in case you ever
have a position?"
Well, lots of times when you send this and they have time to think about it, many firms
would like to do an internship situation but they really have never thought about how to
get it started, how to make relations to have it.
So lots of times, when you're the first person to reach out to them and ask for an internship,
they see that as this as their opportunity to go ahead and establish that internship
relationship with your school or academic institution.
They will use you to help set that up.
Be familiar with the process that it takes to get academic credit and things like that
with your school as well because there are often times ask you that.
If possible, if you find someone with interest, stop by their place of business.
Have a resume in hand, be dressed appropriately, be willing to shake hands, introduce yourself,
hand over your resume and thank them for their time.
In any other situations, you're going to exponentially increase the likelihood of your efforts resulting
in an opportunity that you can take advantage of.
So, remember email is the first line that is not very effective.
Phone calls add to the priority greatly and of course personal contact is king.
If you can meet with someone in person.
It generally has much deeper effect than simply calling or emailing.
As for tips and techniques, just remember this, it's far easier to get an internship
than it is to get a job.
But this is great practice for what go through when you're actually looking to get jobs.
When you reach out, and when you're trying to make these connections and you're letting
the work community around know who you are, well that's great branding, great networking
in itself.
That these individuals now know who you are.
It can create a network for you.
Once you've made contact, reach out to these people through LinkedIn or other means to
make connections with them so you can actually stay in contact.
Another tip, when you're emailing about an internship, always use your education institution's
email address.
Your .edu address.
Personal address is from Gmail or whatever largely go unanswered.
Because the reason is because an employer is more apt to disregard that but when they
disregard an email from a school email address, it's more like they're saying no to the academic
institution.
Employers are much more hesitant to do that because again, they're saying no to the institution
above not just the individual.
The internship again, because it's a bite before you try it type of thing and it's a
low risk situation, because it's a temporary time period.
It's the easiest position to reach out from.
So, again, you're far more likely to get an internship through this method than you are
on a job.
When you're doing this, do not make the phone call, do not make the in person introduction
until you practice and honed your elevator pitch which we talked about the elevator pitch
more in a separate video.
The thing to remember is, that you wanted to be professional, you wanted to demonstrate
your value proposition.
But again, you wanted to demonstrate humility and gratefulness for the help you're asking
for when you're asking for an internship.
Lastly, in any situation always make certain that the individual has something to remember
you by.
In casual meeting, it may be that you can only leave your personal card.
In a more formal meeting, leave your resume, try to send them your resume via email, all
of that can at least get the ball rolling or give them a more formal method of saying
yes or no with regard to the internship.
So those are my tips.
That's the value of the internship and why it's so important in the business school experience.
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