I’m attending my fall cs career fair and there are too many internships listed. I’m not sure how to best filter down. I want to eventually gain experience in data science because I want to be a data scientist but I’m willing to settle for simple programming this summer. Right now I’m just seeing which companies have a 3.5 requirement in GPA(which I have barely). My school has over 70 companies listed and no doubt, more will be listed so reading all the descriptions seems like too burdensome and ineffective.
Without knowing the various ways you can slice and dice the list in your university’s database, it is impossible to advise you how to narrow down the list of which ones to read or not read. Can you search by location, and do you have a location preference? Can you search by skill they are looking for (like Java or SAS), and do you have particular skills already that can help you get selected that way?
What if you get 70 responses to your question here – will you bother to read all the answers, or will it be too burdensome? Have you read 70 text messages or emails lately, or pages in a book or website?
What you are willing to “settle for” this summer may be the slim pickings left after you apply to a bunch of places and get rejected by most of them. It’s a competitive world out there. From a strategic standpoint, select those that are seeking students like you, with your GPA and background and skill set. That will give you the best chances of being offered an internship. To find out which companies are looking for students like you, I think you will probably need to read the descriptions of the internship programs and companies.
Also, apply to LOTS of them. Landing one is sort of random. You have to cast a wide net. By that I mean it wouldn’t be unreasonable to apply to 40 and hear ANYTHING from only 4 or 5.
Yikes, what an unfortunate problem to have. end sarcasm Some small schools have 70 companies show up for the ENTIRE school!
But I agree with posters above, read all the descriptions and cast a wide net. My freshmen year in college I applied to internships for months before landing one… then moving forward internships were much easier to get. I think most people would consider it a success if you get responses back from 4-5 of them. You only need one internship at the end of the day.
Hopefully with 70 companies people will be more spread out allowing you to increase your odds. Try applying to some of the less “flashy ones” to increase your odds.