How to Land a Startup Internship
Very recently, my friends and I have gotten to the age where it’s pretty normal to look for an internship during the summer or vacation months from school. And one of the great things many seek because big companies won’t recruit them at a younger age (freshman or sophomore) or they’re simply excited by the opportunity, is to go intern at a startup.
But what sort of company is really a startup? Some people still define companies like Uber and Airbnb as startups, or even Facebook and Google, but that’s really just going to work at a large tech company. Startups are companies that are breaking through, people have just heard about, or haven’t yet. They could have between 1 to 200 employees (roughly).
How do you circumvent traditional recruiting processes and land an internship at a startup?
Define your value add
What are the best ways you can make any organization succeed? Define your unique skill set given your interests and passions. This is a little easier to do if you’re an engineer or designer. And you’ll also probably have an easier time finding a gig because those positions are in such high demand with a supply shortage. Even within those disciplines, you can discern a place for yourself. Are you more of a back-end or front-end engineer? Would you be better as a UX researcher or as a visual designer? This is not only good for a future employer, but also for yourself.
If you don’t have concrete technical skills or don’t know what you would be best at, I still believe there are roles folks can pick up at a company without being technical. You can engage community and talk to users, write valuable content for product and marketing, and help sell and get customers on board. Bear in mind that a lot of what you’ll learn about a certain area will happen on the job, but it is crucial to know how you could be best suited to help a company.
The process should start long before the internship
It’s a little counterintuitive, but the process of finding your internship should theoretically begin long before you actually need to start looking for one. The moment you know you’re interested in startups down the road, start building relationships with people in the tech community. For example, I started finding emails of people who I thought were interesting on Twitter, my college’s alumni, and in the general news. One person to emulate here is Tiffany Zhong. Google her or take a look at her Twitter and see how she builds meaningful connections online. For me, I looked at products I liked and used and reached out to the people building them. In my experience, people in tech circles are generally warm and receptive and want to be helpful.
And don’t let your conversations end after the first chat. If you like someone, keep in touch with them. I’ll occasionally send emails to mentors just updating them on how things are going. This way, you can start building out a network of people who trust and know you.
Get to know VCs
This point has been one of the most helpful in my experience in getting startup internships. If there is any type of person who has his or her pulse on tons and tons of startups, it is a venture capitalist. They meet and interact with hundreds of companies every year. Also, you don’t have to want to go into VC to get to know some. The best investors out there are generally really nice people and looking to engage with young talent. VCs can direct you to their portfolio companies, which is what happened with my job this summer. Someone who helped me out tremendously was Blake Robbins, who has a pretty incredible story of his own, which you can read about here.
What type of company would you love to work at and invest in?
It’s great to have an idea of working at a startup in your head, but what does that really mean to you? Early-stage companies come in all different shapes and sizes, and I believe it’s best to narrow down to a list of around 10 companies you would love to work at. Ask yourself the following questions to get there.
What existing products and services do you love? What would you love to see in the world? If you could start a company, what would it be? If you could put money into companies, which ones would you choose?
If you don’t know about different startups, scour places like Twitter, Product Hunt, and even Medium to find what people are working on and building.
Demonstrate your value
This is really important, and something I’m continuing to work on myself. If you want an internship position, go out and get it before it comes to you. I really like investor William Peng’s take on this, which he outlines as rule #4 in this blog post.
For example, if you want to be a designer, do a thoughtful re-design or re-brand. Get users on board if you want to work in marketing or sales. You get the point. This will go a long way in demonstrating your value to a future employer. It’s also a cool part of the startup culture that you might not find elsewhere.
If you liked this post, don’t hesitate to reach out. You can find me on Twitter or aashaysanghvi[AT]gmail.com
