The main reason universities want you to get an internship is so they can have high placement statistics. Don’t get me wrong, they want to help you. But at the end of the day, they want you to get a job. I want to give you advice about how to be the right candidate, get your dream internship, and gain the experience and self-discovery that you need.
I spent so much time trying to make myself appealing to recruiters, sharpening my skills, and working on my resume. But at the end of the day, none of that really mattered or helped me get the job that I wanted. I realized there are a couple really important things that you need to think about when you are looking for a job. I hope these pieces of advice help others who are looking for their path right now.
Be a person, not a resume.
In the process of trying to look good for recruiters, I came to realize that I was not being a person. I was putting on a mask I thought they would like so that I could get them to take a gamble on me. Over time I realized something very important.
Companies are not shopping for resume’s, they are shopping for people.
Recruiters are looking for a person they can get along with. Recruiters want someone they can trust. Recruiters want someone who is pleasant, has good communication skills, and knows how to work on a team. I don’t want to discount my education, but I feel like it was only a way to get my foot in the door. If you were the owner of a company, what kind of people would you want to hire? Would you only go after the 4.0 students? I wouldn’t mind if they had a 4.0, but I would want to know how they would be as a teammate.
So don’t sell your self short; you are a human being with a lifetime of experience and different knowledge, skills, and abilities that you can give to every company. Don’t reduce yourself to that piece of paper that is sitting on the desk. Remember this search goes both ways. When your recruiter asks if you have any questions that is your time to find out if you want to work for them. Ask your recruiter good and hard questions that make them think about why they are there and that help you know if they are being truthful.
If you don’t get the internship, your friends can help you get the job.
Most people don’t know, but during my junior year of college I was not able to find an internship. I struggled to get interviews and when I did, I was so nervous and worried that I usually ended up doing a really poor job of representing who I was. I looked everywhere for interviews. I was at every recruiting fair, event, and website. I uploaded my resume all over the internet and at the end of the summer I had little to show for it. When all my friends came back from their internships I realized.
Your reputation with others is what gets you a job.
All of my friends came back from their internships looking for people to recommend to their companies. I was able to talk to quite a few friends who introduced me to their recruiters. I had so many more quality interviews the next year because I was personally introduced and recommended to the recruiter. I went from barely finding a part-time job, to getting an interviews with all of my top 3 companies (Apple, Pariveda Solutions, Adobe) because I had good friends who were willing to help me get and interview, and they knew they could recommend me. If you lose the interview you can still get the job. The only way you really lose is if you don’t have a good reputation and a friend at the companies you are interested in.
Look for skills and experience, not just an internship.
The summer after my failed internship hunt, I eventually found a summer job with a local company, named Gigg. I was supposed to be a junior web developer. Two weeks after I started the lead developer quit and I was stuck with 8,000 lines of code I didn’t know anything about, server administration on an operating system with no user interface (Linux), and no technical support for my company. I poured over books on MySQL, PHP, jQuery, and Linux books and I grew very quickly.
I gained more that summer than most of my peers because I learned what things I actually like in a job. I realized that I like web development, I love analytics, I dislike technical support, and I was interested in learning more about Linux. I also realized that development was something that I wanted to become very skilled at. I loved taking an idea and teaching a computer through logic how to fulfill the idea. I learned that discovering your interests while gaining experience is what an internship is all about.
Internships are about collecting experience and discovering your interests, their not about collecting big name brands.
When my friends came back from working at Pepsico, USAA, or “The Big 4” accounting firms, they still didn’t know what they wanted to do because the company didn’t give them a real project or a valuable experience. Many of my friends left more confused about their careers and interests when they returned from their internships.
Because I had discovered my interests, they led me through my next several jobs at different companies and private contract work. The next year when I decided to find an internship the main focus for me was not about what big name company I can get on my resume — it was about finding a place that would help me dive deeper into my interests. I was fortunate to intern with Pariveda Solutions which gave me a great look into the IT consulting industry. They also helped me learn more about what I wanted from a career and how to be a better software developer.
If there is something else you wish you would have known. Please post it in the comments below. Thanks for reading!
Jeff Potter's Blog 