S19 (English, teaching) was asked back to his private high school to teach at their “freshman experience” program for incoming freshmen each year. They approached him. He keeps in touch with many of his high school teachers and admins, so this was a “who you know” situation.
S21 (chemistry) was invited to intern his first year with one of his chem professors. They had hit it off during the year and I believe he asked her about intern opportunities.
His second year he searched and found an opportunity at another college. I think he found this through resources at school, whether the career center or chem dept.
All of these were paid, very well in fact. I was surprised to be honest.
D20 received one of her internships by applying for it after being contacted by the company recruiter via Handshake. Definitely showed her the value of having an up-to-date presence on networking/jobs sites like Handshake and Linkedin.
She was offered her second internship while she was on study abroad and doing a work assignment in-country as part of an academic class. They were so impressed by her that they offered her a summer placement.
She also did a research internship with one of her CS professors. That was offered to her after she took her first class with that professor. So definitely a “who you know, how well you did firsthand” kind of opportunities.
All three of those internships were paid.
She applied for and got a VSFS internship. A friend of hers who had an internship through VSFS told her about the program and helped her understand how to craft a good application as the process is a bit fiddly if you’ve never gone through it. Those internships aren’t paid and run through the academic year so definitely aren’t going to appeal to everyone, but she learned a lot and appreciated being offered the opportunity to use skills from both of her majors on the project she worked on.
Edited to Add: VSFS internships can often be used for college credit. They can also lead to be offered a paid position in the department you intern for, that happened with D20’s friend who told her about the program.
D22 did a lot as a first-year student that helped her land two internship offers the first week of her second year. Ultimately, she applied online when the internship openings were posted nationally and was picked for interviews.
But these are things she did/opportunities her school offered to her as a freshman to improve her chances:
She sought advice from instructors in her major.
She joined a club aimed at her intended profession and spoke to industry professionals invited to present at club meetings.
She went to multiple meet-and-greet and club fair events and introduced herself.
She took a one-credit class on how to succeed in the profession (offered by her college with a scholarship to cover the tuition). It was taught by an industry professional.
She added a second major that enhances her first at the suggestion of her advisor.
She took on an on-campus leadership position and a separate on-campus job that is at least tangentially related to her career interests. She also worked fast food over the summer and all her interviewers wanted to talk about it; a good fast food worker knows how to hustle and handle difficult customers and many employers appreciate that, it appears.
She went to the career center and got advice on polishing her resume, especially with respect to AI screening.
She prepared cover letters that referred to specific events she had attended and people she met, and tied her own interests to specific corporate initiatives, etc.
She got great grades.
She researched early over the summer and stayed on top of dates when jobs opened.
She kept her linkedin and Handshake profiles updated.
Bottom line: hustle and hard work and stepping out of her comfort zone to shake hands and talk to people
Her school helped by offering helpful classes, clubs, events, advising, on-campus jobs useful for career prep, and career services — but it was on her to take advantage of them.
My daughter got a summer internship after first year by looking through a university website listing internships offered in her area of interest, and applying.
For the summer after sophomore year, she had two internship offers. One was from a prof for whom she had been doing paid research during the year. She had gotten that position by responding to an ad on the department server, and then going through their screening process which involved summarizing an assigned scientific article, analyzing a dataset in R, and being interviewed by different people on the project.
The other position found her: a TA in one of her courses asked her to apply and recommended her to her doctoral supervisor who hired her.
My daughter is in engineering. She found the first internship after sophomore year on handshake. The internship after junior year was through school’s job fair. She did have research experience in high school and did the REU program sophomore year. I think each experience helped her build on the next to get the next position.
I’d note - handshake, like indeed or LinkedIn, often lead to the company’s job website. And yes it’s great - and kids love the auto emails they send of company’s showing interest. Most of the jobs on handshake show up earlier on indeed.
Our S landed internships (CS) in several ways, but there is one thing he did that I hope others may consider. He actually set some goals in advance for what he wanted to accomplish with his internships. Sure, he wanted to gain experience but it was more than that. His criteria included: job related to the CS field he was interested in (machine learning), pay had to cover all expenses with some savings (this turned out not to be a problem at all), and he wanted to experience a range of work environments from small startups to large corporate environments. In all he had 4 internships (since he perused an MSCS).
Internship #1, was with a very early stage startup. He made contact with the ceo at a poster session from one of his CS classes.
Internship #2, was with a mid-stage startup. He was introduced to the startup ceo by a guest lecturer (from USC) at a CS class.
Internship #3 Google. A recruiter reached out to him over LinkedIn, but he went through the entire process.
Internship #4, late stage, unicorn startup. They reached out to him over LinkedIn.
In the end, he really liked startup culture far better than the large corporate environment. After graduation, he received employment offers from several large corporations and several startups. He stayed with the company from Internship #4.
S22 applied to many jobs last year and ended up with a few interviews and 2 offers. He used Indeed to find a lot of the openings. And I made a list of local places who hire engineers in the summer. We have a lot, so he had a long list. He also reached out to people he knew. One of those ended up telling someone about S22 and that was one of the offers and the job he took. The connection was a great first step help, but he still went through the interview process, etc. He is welcome to return next year, but they also suggested he look in other areas of engineering just to gain different experiences. So he is applying around again, but is more targeted in what type of job he wants.
Older S - freshman year, no luck locally. Did volunteer work. sophomore year did math research at his school. Junior year he got his internship through an older frat brother. Lived halfway across the country, and it was a great experience.
Younger S - freshman/sophomore years he had an internship abroad for a professional soccer club obtained through his school’s study abroad program. Both years they were cancelled due to covid at the last minute. I scrambled and found/created an covid friendly internship for him and a friend through my employer. At first, I was going to have him do the work on his own for free, but the higher ups loved what he was doing and created the positions. The program still is ongoing today!
Junior year - he found his own through his college’s Handshake. He actually applied for a different position within the company, and didn’t get it. But the hiring person forwarded his info to another department and recommended him there. We are so thankful she did! It was a great experience and he was offered a full time job with the company.
My son who was straight A at UC Berkeley for math and computer science was only offered one internship after junior year, and it was where his dad works. I don’t think he applied for very many, and it was during covid, but I’d say family/friend connections make a big difference. Another close family friend who is brilliant ended up with an internship at a place where her mom had a friend, and it was unpaid. The guy she interviewed with said she was not as qualified as the other candidates, but she was the one who ended up getting it. I find this very discouraging, even though my son benefitted.
My youngest is a CS major and did a hack-a-thon in his sophomore year. His team won one of the events and the company that sponsored that event invited the team out to dinner. At dinner they pitched their company and invited them to apply for internships. It was past their deadline for internships for the coming summer but son applied for the next summer (summer between jr./senior year) and was accepted. He loved his internship and was offered employment after graduation which he readily accepted!
My daughter worked part-time in the last two years of high school.
Before high school graduation, she applied to the internship program sponsored by the city and worked there in the summer, along with several college students.
First semester in college, one of the professors mentioned needing help in a book he was writing. My daughter followed up to ask if she could help, and that turned into a paid internship for two years until the book was published.
In junior year she applied to several places where students interned in previous years and picked one she liked the most to work in the summer.
The summer before senior year she attended campus recruitment events, sent her resume, passed several rounds of screening, testing, and interview, and got an offer.
In her case there’s no parent connection since we work in different fields. She made her own connections and it worked out quite well.
Two of her best friends did very similar things (asking higher class students where they interned and sending applications) to get their internships. The asking started freshmen year. They kept collecting information and comparing notes with each other. It wasn’t hard to do, given that they had residential college system on campus and had regular and frequent interactions with upper class students.
Not something that his school had to help with, as it happens. My kid (philosophy/poli sci major) volunteered in high school with the county Dems. That led to him meeting a candidate for the state house. They stayed in touch and he wrote to her once he was away at college and asked whether there might be an internship or job next summer, in 2024. She wrote back right away and said yes!
So, volunteering paid off, in more ways than one
She had one through her college - she asked her professor in environmental science and he helper her apply for an online internship (summer 2020) related to environmental education overseas. Her other one included some privilege. My wife spoke with a friend and colleague in my kid’s field of interest, and the friend said that he was willing talk with our daughter. He also said that he bad experiences with undergrads in the past, so he is not promising anything. They did talk, he told her that he was willing to interview her for a position as an undergraduate in his lab for the summer. She did very well in the interview, but only did the internship the next year (because COVID).
She impressed him enough that he invited her to be an intern the following year, and she REALLY impressed him that year. He really wanted her to join his lab after graduation as a grad student, and I saw his LoRs for her, and they were outstanding. Ironically, because of our kid, the friend was willing to take on an undergrad that second year, and that undergrad did not turn out very well.
In Vet med they don’t really call them internships but basically that is what they are.
The summers after Freshman and Sophomore Year were a continuation of a summer position he had from high school, found through a contact on FB saying a vet she knew was looking for an equine vet tech to travel. He called to see if the person would take an intern and he ended up working for him for three summers. After Junior year he got an internship at a vet in West Virginia (during COVID) through a contact in his Fraternity. He was able to work and learn the entire summer and live in the vets basement! At that point he started veterinary school and got internships at the school doing research, and from a cold call to a vet in Idaho doing work he was interested in.
Co-op/Internship programs are very popular with students in Canada and are pretty common at many universities. Most are voluntary but some are mandatory and are integrated into specific programs. The most popular programs are for those in the fields of Engineering, CS, and Business and then some other majors have mandatory practicums like Nursing and Education. The programs usually provide coaching on how to prepare resumes and cover letters, creating social media profiles (e.g. Linkedin), and job search and interview techniques. The co-op offices also frequently arrange on campus job fairs and do other outreach to potential employers. Positions are posted on internal job boards for enrolled students though they are also welcome to arrange for their own co-ops from outside of the program so long as they meet work and pay requirements. Many source positions from hiring sites like Indeed.
S22 participated in his faculty co-op program and had a 4 month placement the summer after 2nd year and an 8 month one in between his 3rd year and 4th years.
S20 is currently in his third year of Electrical Engineering is in the process of applying to internships right now through his faculty program. If he manages to land a position he will be on internship starting in May for 12-16 months.
