Finding internships is not difficult. Just follow the process!

And work hard!

If you ask a student whether it’s difficult to get selected for an internship, most students will tell you that it is. In our experience, it shouldn’t be. However, the problem is that most students apply a few times, get rejected, and then give up.

Let us introduce you to Evan, a student who got selected for 16 internships and jobs in 14 countries. His global professional journey started from an internship in China and then took him to internships and jobs in various organizations in Brazil, the US, Mauritius, Nepal, France, Georgia, India, Bahrain, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Netherlands. Here he shares his method to his success!

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Do not give up!

The reason we placed this at the top is because we noticed that it is the number one reason most of students struggle to get selected for an internship. They try once or even twice, receive rejections, and then just give up and start using various excuses like ‘’I will concentrate on my studies now and do internships later’’ or ‘’I am not good enough’’.

In fact, for each of those 16 internships or jobs Evan got selected for, he received far more rejections. He mentions an example of all of the rejections he received when he tried to find an internship for the summer of 2016. The summer was approaching and he was one of few students among his friends at the Yale University that did not have a summer internship secured. He tried to fight his disappointments and anxiety and kept trying. By the end of April, he had been accepted to a UN internship in Vienna, and, in May, he got selected to do an internship at the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil. Evan went from being one of those helpless students without any summer plans to having one of the best summers in his life (including experiencing the Olympics 2016 in Brazil).

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Alternative ways of finding an internship.

Besides regular applications, Evan talks a lot about alternative ways of finding an internship. For example, he had a friend who was a fellow college student from Nepal. Her mother worked at a government-affiliated development project in Nepal. Evan asked his friend if she could ask her mom to accept him to do an internship. She said yes, and that was a beginning of Evan’s wonderful internship experience in Nepal. Also, Evan shared few other examples of how he utilized his university’s alumni network in finding other internships.

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Work hard on the customization of your applications

You should customize your applications to regular advertised internship positions. As Evan explained, the key here was a customization of each application. You cannot simply keep sending the same resume and cover letter to each internship. The key is to find out what the requirements are for an ideal candidate and then answer why you are that ideal candidate in your cover letter and resume in terms of your previous experience, education and career plans and interests.

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Cold emailing works (if done properly).

Evan organized a significant number of all those 16 internships and jobs after he sent a cold email to a person within an organization in which he wanted to do an internship. Firstly, make it short and very clear. Secondly, explain briefly who you are and what you want. Thirdly, why you want to do an internship there? How will both you and they benefit? Again, it’s key to make it as short as possible and customize your cold email by explaining clearly who you are and why you want to do that internship.

This article is courtesy heysuccess.com