Hey guys!
Good afternoon to you all.
My name's Greg, and today, I'm going to be telling you how I landed a college-level internship
as a high school junior, and used that experience to impress all of the colleges I applied to,
including several Ivy League colleges.
I have news for you guys.
Summer is coming!
Not sure what you're going to do yet?
Well, I have an idea for you.
What about interning at a small business that relates to your passions, the things that
you love, while potentially making bank and getting a letter of recommendation from a
CEO?
Turns out that this type of internship looks fantastic on your college application.
In fact, I've been told personally, by the person that reviewed my Princeton application,
that the internship I undertook at a local startup was a huge bonus to my application.
I'm not even sure I could've gotten in without it!
Now, most people think that you need a family friend or some sort of connection in order
to get one of these internships.
But, this is not the case at all.
In fact, using the method I'm about to share with you, I got three interviews to different
startups with zero connections to any of them.
That isn't to say that you shouldn't check with your family and friends first; if they
have connections that will get you internships, that's definitely an easy road to take, and
one that you want to take advantage of.
Go out and do it now!
If you couldn't find any through your connections, don't worry.
I was in the same situation as you.
Here's a step by step process on how you can work at a great company this summer as well.
Step 1, create a list of companies.
When I first decided that I wanted to do an internship over the summer, I sat down, and
wrote a ranked list of ten companies that I thought I'd be a good fit for.
To find companies to put on this list, I went through the top 500 fastest growing companies
in my local city, Philadelphia.
There's lists like this for basically every city, all you have to do is Google them.
Now there are other ways to find businesses, but I highly recommend using a list like this.
Why?
First off, if a business is growing very fast, they're most likely a startup, and they're
doing very well.
What does that mean for you?
Startups are much more likely to give high school students internships than big companies
are, because they have more to lose, and they have a lot more going on...
AND, if they're growing so fast, they must be looking for more employees to keep up with
this growth!
Also, if you do work at a startup, you get a much better chance of being able to see
how all the different departments work.
You'll get to know everyone, and you'll hopefully have met with the CEO.
You'll sort of feel like you're in a family, and you'll feel a lot more comfortable asking
the CEO for a recommendation letter at the end of your interview.
The next thing to consider when you're looking at which company to work at, is how well this
video relates to your passions.
For those of you who haven't seen my "How to get into an ivy league" video, I discuss
passions in detail there, you should go check it out.
Now, in my case, one of my principal passions was Chinese language study, so the company
I ended up working at was a translation and interpretation company.
I also had a theater company on my list, because that's another thing I was really excited
about in high school.
The reason that this is so crucial is that when you write a college application, your
aim should be to write a story, and this story has to be a clear and focused one in which
everything relates to each other.
That's why the company you work at has to relate to the other things you're doing, or
else it just looks like padding.
The last factor to consider is location, and your transportation options.
This is one that I wish I focused more on.
The company I ended up interning with over the summer was about 45 minutes from my house,
and with traffic it was easily over an hour.
This is, however, probably the least important factor that I've laid out today.
Step 2, write a resume.
Now that you have your list of, say, ten companies, the next step is to create a resume that will
make you look like a star student.
In case you're unfamiliar with the term, a resume is a document that should list your
GPA, the honors classes that you've taken, the clubs that you're leadership in, or even
a part of, the programs you've participated in, any special skills you have, languages,
and your contact information.
Luckily, my dad works in recruiting, so he was able to help me a lot with this.
Now, I know that many of you are not as fortunate as me in this regard, but luckily, our sponsor,
Crimson education, has you covered.
Crimson offers top of the line college admissions consulting, and will put together a whole
team of specialists just to work on your specific application for you.
This includes writing a resume that pops, and will allow any business or college that
reviews your application to admit you with little to no hesitation.
Ninety-nine percent of Crimson students end up at one of their top choice colleges, and
they've even got admissions consulting for Oxford and Cambridge as well!
In addition to their college consulting services, Crimson also offers leadership training courses
that will allow you to confidently speak, perform, and ace your college interviews.
They also have a fantastic SAT and ACT tutoring program, which I did a little review on in
my last video.
Crimson tutoring is one hundred percent online so that they can ensure that you are matched
with the best tutors, regardless of your location.
I can personally vouch for their services, as one of their tutors is my best friend at
Princeton right now, and he's honestly one of the smartest guys I know!
In the description of this video, there is a link to fill out an interest form.
If you fill this out, a Crimson expert will do a free consultation of your grades and
extracurriculars and will give you guidance as to how you can make the most out of summer,
I highly recommend it.
Now, like I said before, Crimson is a great resource to create a resume that will have
employers fighting to hire you.
There are also free tutorials here on YouTube, but a lot of them are for people who are applying
for real jobs, and note that a high school student's resume will be a lot different than
a college graduate's resume.
Let me know in the comments if you'd like me to do a video on how to write a good resume,
I'll certainly do it if there's enough demand.
Step 3 is to write a cover letter.
So you've got your list of companies and you've got a shiny resume to go along with it.
But you can't just send out a resume to potential employers without any context.
Along with your resume, you have to send what is called a cover letter.
This is a short message that you'll send to your employers, that is attached to your resume.
There are two goals of the cover letter.
The first is to introduce yourself and to show all the skills that you have, and demonstrate
your passions and skills to the employer.
And second, to show the employer how these skills can be used in their business.
To show you what I mean, I'm going to give you a real life example of a cover letter
that I used to get an internship at a marketing firm in my area.
Notice that I address the letter to the CEO directly.
This shows right off the bat that I’ve done my research on the company, and am not afraid
to personally address someone important.
“To whom it may concern” or something like that is sort of weak and vague.
Now, take a second to read the first paragraph.
Notice how I get right to the point.
I explain how I found the company, and why I’m writing him.
CEOs of startups don’t have much time, and won’t read through your whole letter if
you dance around the point for too long.
Now, let's read the second paragraph.
In the second paragraph, I elaborate on what I’m hoping to accomplish at the company--
giving Mr. Cooper a lot of things that I’d be interested in doing shows that I’m both
flexible and am not afraid to work in several different areas at once, two traits that every
successful startup admires.
Let's move on to the third.
The third paragraph is the meat of the letter-- in it, I mention a few things I’ve done
that relate to marketing and promotion, and also indicate that these things are listed
in my resume, making me look both accomplished and credible.
I then use this experience to argue that hiring me would be a good decision for Mr. Cooper’s
company.
Notice that I don’t use language like “I think” or “I want”-- I use very strong
language to indicate that I’m confident in what I’m selling.
This is the most important paragraph, because you’ve got to convince the CEO who’s reading
the letter that they want YOU, which is no easy task, considering that you're in high
school.
Let's move on to the last few paragraphs of the letter.
The next few paragraphs are pretty standard-- note that I show I’m really dedicated to
working for the company by saying things like “I’m willing to work for minimum wage”
and “I can take care of my transportation.”
The less resources the company has to use to employ you, the greater the chance of their
CEO giving you a shot.
Also, the ‘references’ that I mentioned included my favorite high school teacher and
a family friend that has talked with me a lot-- you don’t need any real work experience
to include a line like this, and it shows that you're confident in your abilities.
Be sure to sound polite but assertive throughout the whole letter to maximize your chances
of getting an interview.
Also, this should be obvious, but make sure the letter that you're sending to each of
your companies is substantially different.
Because you're probably going to have a few different things that you're interested in,
you're going to want to showcase different things that you've done that relate more closely
to each company.
For example, if I was writing a cover letter to a translation company, I would highlight
my study abroad experience in China instead of my YouTube marketing success.
Guys, congrats for making it this far.
There's only one more step to this process.
Step 4, send it out.
Once you've written all of your cover letters, print each one out along with enough copies
of your resume to attach one copy to each cover letter.
It is very important that you send a physical envelope to each CEO instead of sending your
cover letter and resume in an email.
CEOs get hundreds of emails a day and don't have the time to look through all of them,
so chances are, if you just send out an email, they're going to delete it within two seconds
without even looking at it.
On the flipside, if you send out a letter by snail mail, they have to physically open
it to read it, and sending out a real letter in this day and age shows both dedication
and will be a good first impression.
After you send out all your applications, all you gotta do is wait.
I sent out ten different cover letters.
I got four responses, and three interviews.
By the end of the whole process, I got to choose which company I wanted to work at.
If you'd like me to do a video on interview tips, please let me know in the comments so
I know that you guys want to see that.
Subscribe if you're into this kind of content and want to get into the best college that
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Thanks for watching, and don't forget to enjoy your summer!