👩‍🎓 Hunting an off-Campus Internship?

6 min readNov 4, 2016

Hello everyone, my name is Shivansh Singh. I’m an IIT Roorkee’17 graduate…

And this article will tell you about the learnings from the time when I was searching for a summer internship in 2016 and how I ended up getting 4 internship offers from companies like Razorpay, Niki.ai, Roposo, and Zimply in no time.

I hope it could be of some help to many of you out there looking for a company to give you that opportunity to show them what you are capable of.

Let’s Start?

Third year of college is the most crucial time of an engineer’s life.

As the 3rd year of college starts, one starts thinking about building a future, setting goals that he/she wants to achieve but some remain part of the herd with no such vision or goals. With grades given more importance, students like me having a CGPA <8 have less or no hope of even getting shortlisted for a company coming for an on-campus internship.

Our education system does not allow students to pursue things that interest them and the prime focus is to make them mug up things that they are studying in their stream or branch. Even if a student has no prior interest in anything particular, he/she is not even allowed to at least try that interest field, just because he/she has a low GPA.

The Average students. We are not average, everyone is good at something. It’s the society and our system that has made us look like an average.

For these students, off-campus placements/internships come to the rescue.
but the main problem that still persists is how to get a good off-campus internship.

But, where to start?

Getting an off-campus internship may take some time. One should not feel depressed and have patience while doing so. Just follow these steps.

1. Make up your mind, first.

First ask yourself, what do you want to do in your summers? either an intern in a company that supports your stream or at someplace where your interest is.
Being in Core branch, I had no such specific interest in it or going into core sector for that matter. Designing is one thing that interests me, so I had made up my mind beforehand that I will be doing an internship in the design field only.

Some remain in this dilemma as they have no such interest that they feel like taking up as a career. I too gave reliance’s test in March (parental pressure of getting a core job, being in a core branch, as they say, is “Being secured”) but that went in vain as my heart was into design and I had made up my mind to do what I love most of all. (though there’s other stuff too that I like).

2. Make a Resume that sells.

A resume is an advertisement designed to get you the interview at that particular company.

IIT Roorkee (Channel-i) provides us with a resume template but that is not a presentable resume that you apply for an off-campus internship with.

Scenario 1. You ARE sure about what you want to do
Make a presentable and to the point resume that looks readable. Don’t brag about anything and only put those things that either you have done or have ample knowledge about.
Student’s tend to put things in their resume that they haven’t done or experienced just to make it look fancy.
Never do it! In case of discrepancy, it might cause you problems.

Scenario 2. NOT sure about what you want to do
Pick any field that interests you or want to experience apart from the mainstream. Now make two different resumes for both fields stating things that relate to that particular field and shows something that you have done in that field.

3. Search your Dream Company.

Because of the booming Startup era, getting an internship is not a very tough task nowadays.
Also, the Make in India initiative is helping people to come up with startup ideas. But before shortlisting companies and startups, make sure what you want — Experience or Money. I wanted some of both.

A good team, working environment, revenue, funding(backers) and years of running are some major components that you must keep in mind while shortlisting companies.

— Make a list of companies distributing them as per the profile that you’re interested in.

Many online portals are available while helps you in finding the right internship for you. Linkedin, AngellistTalent, Internshala etc.

Some platforms for finding internships online.

Linkedin is the biggest platform where you can search for any kind of job or platform that interests you.

Steps to follow for Linkedin:

Make a detailed profile on LinkedIn — Show all your past internships, projects, achievements and other activities that you were indulged in. Keeping an all-star profile helps in attracting more HR firms or companies searching for interns. Stay updated.
Search for the companies that you’ve shortlisted — Start sending connection requests to people working in these companies and also your college alumni’s working there. Alumni’s working in these companies can be a plus point for you as they can connect you with the concerned person in the company very easily.
Send in-mail to the right people — Reach out to the HR’s, influential people, your friends, and alumni working at these companies. Keep checking your messages daily. If no reply comes, wait for a week or two and then revert back stating as to at least consider your application. Don’t lose hope if you don’t get a reply from a company you’re desperately waiting for a response.
I too managed to get a reply after 3–4 failed attempts at Razorpay and Niki.ai. Zimply even came to the campus, I went to the Delhi office to give an interview after so many emails. Hold your nerve and if you’re really willing to go to a particular company, don’t give up. It shows how eagerly you want to work with them.

Keep connecting with influential people and find people having a mutual connection. This helps in getting more connect requests once you have a presentable profile.

Lastly, if you get an offer letter from one company, don’t stop applying to other companies as well. That way you have multiple options to choose from and can do a comparative analysis to see what suits you best. Who knows, if you choose wisely, you might end up getting a PPO offer from one of them. 😉

I hope this helps a lot of confused minds out there feeling bad and desperately looking for internships.

Feel free to contact me for any sort of help regarding anything. Drop a mail at singh.shivansh8@gmail.com or call +91–9897644629. You can also ping me on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Happy Hunting! 😃