Hi everyone, my name is Weronika and I'm a third-year student of Economics at UCL.
Today I'm going to talk about a topic that is pretty much this big mystery thing that a lot of people
feel very stressed about in university - and that is looking for, applying, and finding an internship.
I want this to kind of be a video that I personally would like to have watched a year ago when I was
applying for my internships, because when I was starting my second year, I was really lost and I
was applying for a lot of things and writing all my applications and I wasn't sure how to
structure them, when to send the applications... it was just a big mess that I had to figure out and
navigate on my own and I think having a little help is always useful, so I'm here to kind of
help you, give you some of my tips, explain how the process goes, what are the stages and how to make
sure that you actually get that return offer and have a summer internship! So as I mentioned I'm
already in my third year - I know, scary - and this summer, between my second and third year, I did
an internship at an economic consultancy called Frontier Economics. It was actually an internship
in Brussels which was quite interesting. It was the company that I wanted to get into the
most and I feel like, because I undertook specific steps to help me succeed, I was kind of able to
get that position that I wanted. There's also a resource, which I would like to mention, which is
UCL Careers. It's very helpful in terms of any kind of applications; whether that's internships
or jobs later in life. You can book a session with a career advisor who's going to help you kind of
determine maybe what you want to go into, what kind of things you want to apply for or, later
on, while you're like writing your CV, drafting it, you can book a one-on-one session where they
kind of like review it and have a look at it. I think that's really useful as well, I remember I
did that so definitely do use that, and UCL Careers will be linked in the description below. So, without
further ado, let's talk about logistics - how to prepare your application, how to actually find
out what internship you want to do and, you know, how to go on all about that. So I would say the
timeline of your internship applications will really vary depending on the industry and
the type of internship you want to get into. I was personally applying to a lot of economic.
management consultancies, which have quite like a structured application process and it begins quite
early - but it really, really varies on your industry. Some applications may close as early as in like
September or October (if it's like investment banks, maybe) and some applications literally like you can
still apply in spring. That's why I would recommend you to do your research. Just, you know, beware of
the deadlines and the significant dates and when you should start like thinking of it or actually
working on your CV, cover letter, etc. so that you're not like completely surprised that everything is
closed by like January. I'm not saying that's the case, don't stress out, but it's really good to know
these things in advance before even beginning your application process. So, how to actually find an
internship that you would like to do? This depends on whether you know which industry you want to go
in - if you already know that you want to apply, for example, for a neuroscience research internship, it
already gives you that advantage because you have an idea of what you want to do. But also,
again, don't stress out, like if you have no clue what to apply for but you know you would like an
internship, what I would recommend doing is just googling jobs after and your degree, so for
example "Jobs after Economics". That's what I literally did and that's how I also like found out
about a lot of different types of jobs that people have, because I feel like it's a topic that's
not often talked about and you kind of do have to do your own research about that. Once you find
something that you're interested in, I would look up companies within that sector. So, for example for
me that was economic consulting, as I said. That was my number one priority but, as I said,
I also applied for some management consultancies as well as, I think, research agencies, think thanks...
there was like a lot of things I applied for. And so, I would say, look up the companies
like "economy consulting + internship + London", for example. Things like that, and you'll eventually
find a decent list. The third step is making a spreadsheet and I think it's very, very important.
I know it sounds so boring and you just want to skip over this part but, you know, hear me out - making a
spreadsheet will take you, what, 20 minutes, and it will be your lifesaver because you'll be easily
able to track all of your deadlines: start dates of applying, links to applications, outcome
of your process, because if you're sending out a lot of applications, you may sometimes get
lost whether you've actually gotten a response from that company, so whether you need to send
a follow-up email and yeah, just fill it in as you go based on the information on the website.
And number four, after you have that spreadsheet with all the companies that you want to apply
to, I would suggest narrowing down, depending on how many positions you have on your list, like
if it's 10, I think that's fine, but I personally think - and this may be a little controversial - but
quality over quantity when it comes to internships. For me I truly wanted to get an
internship in economic consulting and I also, as I said, applied to 20 management consulting
internships, even though I knew I literally don't want to do that job and I think that
was purposeless on my side, but it's just because so many people stressed me out by saying, you know,
"It's a numbers game", it's like "You have to apply to as many as you can". If you want ANY internship,
then yes, it's a numbers game, but if you want an internship that you'll actually enjoy and that
you'll get something out of, think about that, if you apply for internships that you actually don't
want to get and you'll end up getting them, you'll spend your summer working at a company that
you don't like, and an industry that you don't care about, you're not going to gain any relevant
experience because it's not even an industry that you want to go into. I think I applied to like
30 places which was a bit excessive. I think 10, 20 is plenty but obviously that will depend on you
so take my advice with a grain of salt and, you know, adjust it to your kind of situation.
Now let's talk about more of the practical stuff that you have to prepare for your application, and
that is CV and cover letter. We'll start with the CV - every place that you apply for will require
a CV, I guarantee that. Some places may not require a cover letter but I would say if
it's like, for example, called "optional cover letter", still write it because that's just gonna show that
you actually care and are committed to that company, or at least, you know, you've done your
research. It makes you stand out for sure in a pool of CVs without cover letters - think about that.
When it comes to CVs, there are plenty, plenty, plenty of information, sources, templates online
that you can use and find out how to write your CV. I just prefer to keep it simple, minimalistic,
black font, no pictures, quite, you know, to the point, straight-up, no elaborative language, keep it professional,
I don't know how else to put it. I'm going to tell you about the bits that I had on my CV,
by the way, this is how I'm going about it. The information that you should contain on your CV
include your contact details - so your name at the top and then maybe your phone
and your email, maybe your address. The next bit is education and on that I have included which
university I'm going to, what degree I'm pursuing, what relevant modules I took in first and second year.
If you scored high in your first year maybe include that grade as well, mention it that
you scored like 70% or something, for example. I also included my high school because I got
quite a high score from my IB diploma. Keep that section short at the beginning. And the
next part that I have on my CV is "Work and Leadership Experience" - I don't know why I called
it that way, I think it was in a template so I just used it. By the way you, shouldn't go above one page
on your CV, maybe I should have mentioned that earlier. What I do usually is that I include
the company/organisation name that I had a position at or got experience at.
Then I include my position on the right hand side: I write the dates and then
I write one, two, three bullet points, depending on the scope of the experience and the length
of the experience, about the things I did there, about my responsibilities, maybe outcomes, results
of that project/initiative/whatever that is. And if you're kind of not sure what to put on there
because you're like "Oh, I never worked at a company"... Obviously, you're a second or a third year student,
no one's expecting you to actually have a full-time employment in your desired industry.
The things you can include is committee positions, maybe you've organised some conferences.
Maybe you've had a little research project... You know, just your experiences that show that you're a committed individual, that you're quite ambitious
The next part on my CV I have is "Volunteering Experience & Interests" In that I just included two things and I think
that was some climate activism that I did in high school, I was a part of this initiative,
and I also included my YouTube channel on my CV. I know it may sound a little bit silly but, to be fair,
it shows that I'm creative, I can organize my time well, I am able to engage people
in my content.. You know, whatever shows that you're being a proactive individual,
in your free time, doing things in your life. And the last bit I have, very short, is
just "Language and IT skills" and in that I just simply list the languages that I speak
and in brackets I put the proficiency. And then IT skills, I just put like the programs
that I can work around, which is like Excel or Stata - things like that, whatever you know,
maybe coding languages if you know any, that will be very useful for sure and you can put it there.
Now as I said after you're written your CV and it's all polished up, it's time to write your cover letter.
You won't have to write a new one for every single place you apply to but you will have to
change certain paragraphs and sentences, it really depends on your industry and I can only talk
about my experience. So again, in the header I had my name in bold and under that my contact details
and then what I had was three paragraphs. The first one was "Why this company?" the second was
"Why this specific profession/job?" and the third one is "Why me?" For the first section ("Why this company")
I would just recommend doing your research about the firm you're applying for, what they specialise in,
what kind of projects or initiatives they've done before and, you know, just try to convey the
message that "I'm interested in this and this thing and I see that you're doing a lot of work
in that field, industry, and I'm really curious to find out more about it, and that's
why I follow the work of your company closely", things like that. The second one
as I mentioned is "Why this profession/Why this career?", and I know you may not be fully
decided on this specific job or industry you're going into, but you do kind of have to convince
the recruitment team that you actually have done your research about the job and what
it implies and you're not just applying for whatever. I would mention specific attributes of the job or
skills that are required that you possess, how this job aligns with your interests.
Every paragraph, as you can see, you have to adjust it to yourself and make it personal. That's very, very important.
And then for the "Why me?" section - I know it may be the hardest to write
but it's really not the time to be shy or undermine your experiences.
Be confident but also not cocky. Usually firms will have a list of desired qualities or
the "ideal candidate" lists, so see what they're paying attention to, see what kind of skills or qualities
or soft skills they want in their interns, think about your experiences and pick elements for
those experiences - maybe specific responsibilities, specific aspects of certain projects that you did -
that show that you have this quality. For example, for some companies maybe it's important that they
want more creative, problem-solving people and for other ones they really want good communicators.
Do think about how you match the job description and, again, adjust, adjust your experiences and
show that you are a good fit. And so, lastly, I will talk about interviews, which is probably the most
daunting part of the application process for a lot of people because it is a face-to-face
interaction with another human, you often feel like you're on the spot and you have
to answer questions and that's why I think good preparation beforehand and thinking about
the possible questions that may be asked, and what your answer to these questions would be is really,
really helpful to relieve the stress and relieve the pressure and make you feel prepared
and just confident in your skills and your ability to get that job. The recruiter can actually
verify whether you have the desired skills, whether you actually did those stuff, that
you told about in your CV, and whether you're just a likable, communicative, approachable person
that they would like to work with which is very important. Don't underestimate the
importance of soft skills here as well. So how I prepared for my interview is
I kind of anticipated what kind of questions may be asked and I scripted out
outlines of the answers that I would like to give. I wouldn't really memorise them word-to-word.
The questions that you can definitely anticipate and are probably very
likely to show up on the interview is: "Why this profession?", "Why this company?","Why do you think
you're a good fit for this company?", "Tell me a little bit about yourself", "Tell me a little bit
about your education and your university course". These are staple questions that you probably will
be asked at some point or another, if not at every interview. And secondly, behavioural questions it's something
that it's quite an odd concept to me. It's those questions which start with
"Tell me about a time that you XYZ". So like, "Tell me about a time that you led a team" or
"Tell me about a time you solved a difficult problem or overcame an obstacle in your life".
And this something that you can think about your answers beforehand, and also there's this
well-known method - it's called STAR, which stands for Situation Task Action and Result -
you can look it all up, I'm not going to explain it now because I don't really have the time, but it's the
common way of approaching those types of questions, so that your answer is really to the point and
you're not just talking about one aspect of the answer for too long. But also, additionally, keep in mind
that there probably always will be questions that you do not anticipate beforehand;
that's also the purpose of the interview, it's to see whether you're just a person that can
be talked to and can answer questions on the spot and not just recite your answers that you
prepared beforehand, because they already read your CV, they already know you're
probably talented, skilful, and you have the abilities and experiences that they want.
My general tip during an interview is just dress professionally, even if it's a Zoom call,
still keeping it in mind. Be polite, smile, ask questions back, show your interest
and that you've done your research about the company. And so, this is it, I kind of tried to squeeze in
as much of my knowledge as I can, but again, do your research and I'm sure you'll find
many more useful resources and information online. The last disclaimer that I want to make
before I say goodbye is: internships, at the end of the day, are not the end-all-or-be-all
of your life, of your university career. Even if you don't manage to get one, you still probably learnt
so much throughout the application process and you get familiar with it which is really crucial.
It's always a valuable experience, even if it may seem like a really negative thing in the moment
if you, for example, don't manage to get one. But, hopefully, with all these tips and
adequate preparation, you will be able to land one And if you do then congratulations! I know you
probably worked very hard for it. Absolutely last thing that I'm going to mention: do remember
to take care of your mental health throughout the whole process, do not put it aside for the sake of applications
because, at the end of the day, your mental health is what matters the most and you
should not compromise it for some professional experiences for your CV.
That's everything for this video, thank you very much for watching and good luck with your applications!