I’ve tried to talk to my advisors a few times but they’re terrible at actual advising about anything other than registration requirements and class planning to meet those requirements. I’ve had my resume reviewed several times by the career department and done several mock interviews.
I went to three career fairs in the past few months and applied to quite a few of those recruitters, but no response other than a few rejections. Furthermore, my school offers a website that hosts all the job openings and internships available which I check almost daily for new postings.
I’m getting no responses and it’s making me super nervous since across CC, everyone agrees that an internship will make or break you in getting a good job on graduation (not always but usually).
TL;DR & Conclusion: Outside of my school’s resources, how could I find an internship?
I wouldn’t stress too much, to be honest. An internship is decidedly not make-or-break in terms of getting good jobs after graduation - the fact of the matter is that there are far more companies that have the resources for entry level employees but not the resources for internships the summer before, and the economy for new college graduates has improved dramatically in the past five years.
That said, take a look on job boards associated with your school. Besides that, you may want to start researching options and looking on company websites for leads. If you are really set on getting an internship, you can consider cold-calling (well, cold-emailing or connecting on LinkedIn) people to see what’s out there. There are plenty of stories of that kind of aggressiveness working out for the student!
I say it all the time… I put out dozens of applications for internships and got rejected from all of them without even getting an interview. I put out more than 50 applications for full time jobs before getting an offer. Did it suck? Yes. Did it all work out in the end? Also yes.
You can try sites like indeed. They sometimes post internships on there. You can also try a temp agency. They may not have internships put they may have summer temp jobs. Also google local CPA firms in the area. Find a contact person within the firm and send them your resume with a kick ass cover letter. Make sure you follow up after you send the resume.
You can try interning abroad? There are often scholarships for these and will give you a bit of a holiday in the summer as well. I went to Bali a year ago for an internship and found it through an internship website, they connect you with a company. This way you always get your internship and if you’re lucky, the startup that they connect you with, grows fast enough or might offer you a job in the future. My friend interned at Couchsurfing.com when it was still quite small, he’s still working there. I found mine through http://startmeup.careers. Hope this isn’t too cheecky
