what to do after applying for an internship
Just as companies and organizations take adapted to remote work and hiring over the final few months, they've also had to rethink their internship programs. Merely how will this new normal affect your internship search, and what you demand to do as a candidate?
For starters, the entire interview process will likely exist virtual, which means you lot won't accept the chance to impress hiring managers in person. You can also look many internship opportunities to be remote—so competition may be fiercer at present that students and new grads are non limited to applying for positions where they alive.
The upshot? You'll need to work a piddling harder—and smarter—to stand out every bit a candidate. Read on to find out how to exercise just that.
1. Heave Your Online Presence with a Personal Website
While having a solid online presence has been important for a while now, in the COVID era, it's downright essential. "With the current land of the world, our online presence is a big part of how recruiters see the states," says Malvika Aeron, founder and Managing director of Accelerate Plus, a career consulting business firm that helps students transition into the workplace. "Students and recent grads have to find artistic means to stand out."
In addition to polishing your LinkedIn profile and ensuring that your social media handles are career-friendly (or set to private), a personal website is a corking manner to showcase your personality, highlight not-piece of work related experience (like side hustles, class projects, volunteer piece of work, or relevant interests), and connect the dots between your work history, current skills, and goals for an internship.
"If you accept examples of your work that volition align with the opportunity you're targeting, a personal website is the perfect place to feature information technology. Case studies, visual elements, analytics, course capstones, or group work can all help to enhance the experience you lot have on your resume," says Dana Hundley, the Internship Plan Director at the Oakland Museum of California and co-founder of Career Cooperative. Y'all tin can also include a personal bio, glowing recommendations from professors, or notable achievements on your site—annihilation that y'all believe volition help to paint a fuller picture of what you bring to the table.
"Just be certain the content on your website is consequent with the types of internships you're applying for," advises Hundley. "Everything in your task search tool kit serves a different purpose, simply they should all tell the same story."
Sites like Squarespace make creating an impressive personal website a breeze (even for non-designers, with easy-to-customize templates that are ideal for everything from robust visual portfolios to minimalist, single-folio sites.
Students get 50% off your get-go Squarespace website or domain! Details here.
two. Highlight the Correct Experience on Your Resume
Recruiters frequently review hundreds of resumes a day (potentially even more in the COVID-xix era), and so incorporating your relevant experience, choosing the right format, tailoring the content of your resume for each task, and using the right keywords will be essential to a successful search. (Yous can read more on how to write a tiptop-notch internship resume here.)
To really differentiate yourself, exist certain to feature whatever remote work technologies you're familiar with. "Anything from Google Docs to Slack or Zoom can be incredibly valuable," says Hundley. "Some of these organizations are new to remote work, so your skills might be especially useful."
Don't have much work experience? Think about any big projects y'all worked on in schoolhouse and include those under a section called "Projects" (along with anything else that might make sense there, like a volunteer projection). You can add together this department to your personal website as well. If you completed whatsoever of these projects since the pandemic started, make sure to highlight how you were able to reach them while working remotely. How did you have to adapt? In what means were you resourceful? Showing that you were able to succeed even during this challenging fourth dimension can help yous stand out.
3. Aggrandize Your Network
While yous should definitely tell everyone you know that yous're looking for an internship (here are some email templates to get you started), information technology's important to focus on making new contacts, too. Reach out to recruiters, interact with organizations you're interested in on social media, connect with people who work at companies you want to work for, or nourish online events. During virtual events, Hundley recommends introducing yourself in the chat section and sharing the URL to your LinkedIn profile (which should include a link to your personal website) to make it like shooting fish in a barrel for others to connect with y'all.
Networking tin also mean contacting employers directly to ask for an internship. "Reaching out to prospective employers to pitch an opportunity is a great way to do selling yourself and discussing the skills y'all tin can bring to a project," says Hundley.
4. Embrace the Informational Interview
Advisory interviews are a groovy way to acquire about career paths, companies, and industries that pique your interest. "Students shouldn't exist shy about reaching out to people to effigy out what will be the right fit for them," says Aeron.
And while asking strangers for help might feel a flake intimidating, you may be surprised by how many people are willing to conversation. "These days, people seem to be fifty-fifty more willing to assist someone who reaches out to them, every bit they know we're all going through a tough time," says Hundley.
Once you go an advisory interview lined up, ready bated fourth dimension to prepare. Most of these conversations will somewhen atomic number 82 to a word about your goals, so be prepare to talk nearly yourself, too. "Always be prepared to speak about your experience in a fashion that makes it clear what yous'd bring to an internship," Hundley adds.
Don't forget to send a give thanks you note afterward, and keep in impact with anyone who's taken the time to help you. "I always recommend checking in with the people you lot've talked to every couple of months. It helps foster a 18-carat relationship—not a transactional one," says Aeron.
5. Seek Out Feedback
Applying for an internship isn't an exact science, so you tin can't wait to become everything correct on your offset pass. "The best fashion to land an internship is to keep working on perfecting your awarding," says Aeron. "If you get rejected, send an e-mail back to say you appreciate the response and inquire for feedback on your application. Some volition reply, others won't. But even with a few replies, you identify opportunities for improvement."
And remember that information technology's okay to enquire people you know for advice. Get a grammatically gifted friend to review your resume or personal website, enlist your roommate to assist you exercise your interviewing skills, or hit up a onetime classmate to enquire how they landed their new internship—and of course, repay the favors wherever you can.
While COVID-19 has complicated countless chore and internship searches, it'southward likewise created a unique opportunity to build an awesome online presence (including a website!), practice your virtual networking skills, and get a more than resilient and adaptable candidate. These are all skills that will serve you well long after the pandemic is over.
Source: https://www.themuse.com/advice/tips-standout-candidate-internship
0 Response to "what to do after applying for an internship"
Post a Comment