<p>I'm currently a freshman undergrad and just finished my first semester and am currently working with a professor helping him with his research but it is unpaid. I was wondering when I should start looking into paid internships. I would like to get started this summer and save up some money.
Also, what is the best way to go about with the search? I go to Rutgers University so I'd appreciate if someone can give me a few tips. I want to get started as soon as possible.
Thanks guys</p>
<p>The time to start is shortly after you start school. The best resources is your school’s Career Office/Center and Career Fairs. Most schools have their major career fair about a month after the school term starts in the Fall. If you miss that, be sure to sign up and attend the one that is coming up early next year. The other place to look is the job postings managed by your school’s Career Office. You shall be very proactive. Sign up and apply to as many opportunities that you think you qualify. Cast the net wide which means not be restricted by industry or geographical location. Also talk to career coaches at your school, get help to write a good resume. Talk to your professors about potential leads. It is not easy to get a paid internship as a freshman, but not impossible. Try your best and your effort will be rewarded at the end.</p>
<p>Thanks Christian. Yes I missed the fall career fair but I signed up for the one in spring. I’ll also check out the career service department in my school.
Do you have any idea about the acceptance percentage of the career fairs? I attend Rutgers University so it is pretty big and I want to know how the competition is.</p>
<p>The competition is usually pretty high. All you can do is to try your best. Your school’s Career Office is one of the best resources. Try to get some help to write your resume, to work on your interview technique, and how to present yourself the best way. My advice is to try as many companies as possible. Make sure to bring enough copies of your resume to the Career Fair. Also do not be discouraged with any rejection and keep moving forward. Sometimes offers might come as late as April or May so do not loose hope in any event. Good luck to your job search. If you cannot find a paid internship, a regular summer job or an unpaid internship might work as well.</p>
<p>Christian has some good advice, but here’s some more to consider.</p>
<p>First, spend a few hours and really get to know your school’s career services website. The CareerKnight system is going to give you leads for jobs all around New Jersey, and so the earlier you get to know it, the better. </p>
<p>Second, figure out what you might want to do for an internship. After your freshman year is a great time to look for something completely RANDOM that may not have anything to do with anything. You haven’t had enough college experience to develop specialized skills in your major, and so you have the freedom to look into a field you never considered or into one that has always made you interested but never seemed realistic. </p>
<p>Third, you need to think about your financial situation. Recognize that it is relatively rare for companies to offer rising sophomores highly paid internships except in certain fields (my best friend, for example, worked for Range Resources in Ohio, making $1,000 per week after his freshman year, but that was because he is a Petroleum and Natural Gas engineer), and so if you get paid at all, it will likely be a small stipend designed to pay for your summer expenses but NOT designed to allow you to save for later on. One option that you have for the summer is to look for an internship that doesn’t pay but only requires you to work 15-25 hours per week. Assuming the hours are reasonable, you will have time to get another job, not necessarily an internship, but which pays. Plenty of my friends took internships for 15 hours a week and then waited tables three or four nights a week, giving them ample spending money and a lot of free time on the side! It is also possible for you to earn academic credits for internships you do without pay.</p>
<p>Fourth, be realistic. You are going to get a LOT of rejections, not because of who you are or what grades you’ve gotten, but because companies aren’t interested in freshmen. Many companies will tell you that they only want to hire rising seniors, and it makes sense since they are looking for interns that will become full-time employees. Don’t be discouraged by this. Further, don’t feel that you absolutely NEED an internship over the summer. I would argue that 90% of rising sophomores DON’T have summer internships in any kind of field related to what they want to do with the rest of their lives. You have the freedom to take a random job that just pays you money (waiting tables, bartending, teaching surfing lessons… whatever!), and it’s OKAY if you do that! Recognize that when it comes time to apply for full-time jobs, companies don’t really care what kind of experience you have in the working world, but they do care that you have some experience. In other words, if you cannot find an internship, which is entirely possible given your situation, find a random summer job, but don’t just do nothing. </p>
<p>Finally, be careful. It is tempting to use CareerBuilder or Craig’s List to find internships when you’re a freshman, since the school system is often reserved for older students. Just recognize what kind of job you are looking at before you accept any offers. A company may call a position an internship when it really means that it is looking for people to do random clerical work or to do terrible jobs. As a rising sophomore, your pay ceiling is probably going to be $1,000-$1,500 per month in an internship, $12.00 per hour in a wage job or $200 per night in a fine dining restaurant as a server or bartender. If you find something that promises a thousand bucks a week, be VERY weary, since $1,000 a week is something that a full-time employee would kill for, that a rising senior would dream of and that a company would be very careful giving out. Consequently, phenomenal jobs like that are usually not placed on Craig’s list or Career Builder.</p>
<p>Congrats on getting a position with a prof, even if unpaid. </p>
<p>DS got an unpaid position with a prof who later became his undergrad advisor.
Did this for 3 years and had a summer of paid work completing a phd project paying slightly above survival wage, and one summer at a private firm. (no freshman summer internship) and he declined an Apple internship on graduation in preference of a 3 month trip. He then went on to get a MS eng. and 3 internships with big software. After which he came on the job market with no prospects, 2008-09. He asks undergrad prof for a LOR. Prof offers a job as an engineering staff member at University. {The year DS was doing MS, undergrad prof gets awarded MacArthur Fellowship. }</p>
<p>You never know where ‘unpaid’ can take you,</p>