<p>Currently I am a senior in high school and live in Chicago. I will be attending college this fall (Fall 2009) at an out of state school and majoring in Accounting. I know in order to land an internship for next summer as a rising sophomore, I will need to keep my eyes open and start looking early. Im hoping to find an internship, preferably paid, the summer following my freshman year in downtown Chicago. Is it harder to find internships as a freshman or sophomore? Where are some places I can go to help or prepare me to be placed with an internship in the summer of 2010?</p>
<p>1- harder as a freshman because you’re the youngest (of college age students)
2- good luck finding a paid internships, most of the time your first year (especially as a freshman) will be unpaid, and if they like you, you get paid next time around (that’s how my internship at a gov’t agency is probably going to work).
3- career fairs are a good place to go, your school will have fall & spring ones, I suggest going with a resume (you might have to wait until spring (which will actually occur in like, February or so) to build up a college resume)
4- career services at your school! wait to get settled in though, most summer internship hunting wont start until the beginning of second semester at earliest.</p>
<p>Work hard in your classes the first semester to get your GPA up as internships often have cutoffs. A higher GPA should be a plus in beating out the competition. Previous work experience will be a plus, even outside your field/major. Getting a job this summer would make you look more attractive for an internship next summer.</p>
<p>Keep submitting resumes. I got a public defender’s office internship out of nowhere.</p>
<p>Do you just find places through searching the net? and email and submit resumes?</p>
<p>yes. Just search online in listings for your area. Most only require a few simple things (resume, cover letter, unofficial transcript). Some of the higher ones may require rec letters but those are more rare. </p>
<p>I personally prepared my resume using online tools, a friend who built a resume for a class, and a more general resume I made for my counselor in high school during college app times. Cover Letter is very generic and if you google them there are a few good sites that will explain the outline of how to write a nice cover letter (important rule is KISS (keep it simple stupid)).</p>
<p>Hope that helps, I wouldn’t really start looking into it until december or so at earliest, but a good prep might be to start thinking of what activites you’d put on your resume and in the fall when you meet professors who you might ask for rec letters.</p>
<p>Get a good GPA and if you want to intern in the Loop apply at Exelon…shouldn’t be a hard job to get and you can probably expect $16-18/hour there. Good deal because it is great location, decent pay, at a huge company.</p>