3 Tips to Land That College Internship

While internships are abundant, landing one is another story. How can students with no prior working experience can successfully get hired as an intern? Today we share with you 3 effective, golden tips!

Start early for highly competitive college internships

This is given. If your goal is to intern with huge and established companies – e.g., Petronas, Gamuda, and Telekom– you need to prepare beforehand. Do extensive research on when their internship intake is open, your responsibilities as an intern with them, and their qualifications.

Internships with big companies are extremely competitive because of the exposure they can provide for wide-eyed candidates. If you really want to land that internship, we advise you to prepare well and prepare hard. Start by gaining any relevant experience prior to beginning your internship – maybe join some clubs and associations to sharpen your people and leadership skills or write that article you really want to publish.

Once applications are open, you can then submit your application with a thorough and impressive CV, and for interviews, practice what you need to share and how to present yourself confidently to the company.

Remember, no one wants to hire an unprepared candidate.

Then talk to university peers

You’d be surprise how you easy you can land an internship by reaching out to your university peers.

If you have a few senior friends, get their advice on where they got their internships and how they did it. This way, you can discover which websites you should check and which websites you shouldn’t. You can also learn from your peers on what to expect from the internship itself. Does an internship with this specific company will actually help you develop your career in that field or are the tasks completely out of your job scope?

Your seniors can even help drop a good word on your behalf to the company or submit your applications directly to HR for your sake. Connections like this can help you land that internship much faster and more effectively than just simply browsing online and hoping for the best.

So go ahead! Scroll through your contact list and get talking!

via GIPHY

And keep your CV relevant 

The most foolproof tip to get any internship (or a job!) is to make sure your CV is exactly what the company seeks. Instead of copy pasting the many resume templates online, it’s better if you customized your CV to carter to what the position is looking for.

For example, if you’re planning to intern under HR, list down all the relevant skills and experiences to showcase that you’re the perfect fit for the role. Have your organized events for your faculty before? Are you personable, able to deal with a variety of people comfortably and pleasantly? Do you have experience with strong customer service skills?

This goes to any internship role. Keep it straightforward and detailed, but do not stretch the truth if you don’t have the necessary skills or experience. In such situations where your practical job experience or participation in field-related clubs or organizations is lacking, you can also emphasize your other marketable skills, such as your writing ability.

Skills such as writing are popular in every single industry so if you have the time, try to improve on your writing skills to impress recruiters. Other skills to sharpen are multilingualism and negotiation. You can check our full list of practical skills that every employers want for extra reference. Here's also 14 tips to create a good CV. 

Are you currently looking for an internship? Check out our other articles below.

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List of Top Companies Offering Internship Programmes and Job Opportunities

You can also look for the perfect internship with Hungry Intern. Hungry Intern is a great internship website if you are looking to apply for an internship or traineeship programme! You can create your own profile and apply for an internship position and employers can contact you via Hungry Intern.