How to find the right PAID INTERNSHIPS that Get You REMOTE JOBS
Hello, my fellow freelancers.
Compliments of the season!
I am here again to give you amazing content. In the spirit of generosity this season, I will be sharing 3 new blogs this month, this one and 2 others.
It’s been an amazing year so far, and 2023 will even be better. The new year will kick off in a few weeks, so take the time to relax, rest and refresh for next year. Enjoy the holidays with your friends and families this season. You have worked hard this year, and you deserve a break.
I hope you enjoyed the last blog. If you are yet to read it, you will find it here on Building an Online Portfolio that Lands You More Clients.
If you need PAID INTERNSHIPS with international firms that allow you to work remotely, this blog is for you. Read on as I share in detail how you can find the right internships (especially paid ones) that you get remote jobs, regardless of your niche.
Let’s begin.
Introduction
Internships are so valuable.
Why? They give you inside-job knowledge, valuable, relevant experience, and networking worth its weight in gold. The good news is that it’s easy to find the right ones once you know the steps.
Before we begin, here’s an outline of what you will learn from this blog:
Outline:
🔸Getting Started: Internship Journey
🔹How to Ask for an Internship
🔸The Best Internship sites and Internship Finders to get you hired faster.
🔹How to Find an Internship Fast
🔸Tips and examples of how to Find Internships with Networking and job fairs
🔹How to Get an Internship (When It’s Unadvertised)
🔸How to Get an Internship without being pushy
Getting Started: The journey to finding Internships
Knowing how to get internships isn’t rocket science. You’ve got several weapons in your arsenal to help find an internship fast.
Here are some of them to start with:
1 — Use Internship Finders or internship search engines like Internships.com
One very good Internship Finder to use is Internships.com. Type in your keyword and location and click ‘Start Search’. This will take you to the available internships around you.
You can also Google internships for great results. Try adding your location to refine your search: internships near me or internships London will do the trick.
As with Google, you can filter for your dream internship location: San Francisco, New York City, Washington, DC. The sky is the limit!
2 — Take Advantage of Social Media.
Make sure you follow companies you’d love to work for. Most organizations nowadays post information about available internships on their social media profiles.
One effective way to do this is by hashtags. Using hashtags on social media platforms can help you quickly find available internships. Some examples of hashtags you can use are; #intern #internship #internships #paidinternship #internshipprogram #summerinternship #marketinginternship and so on.
Leverage social media for your internships.
3 — Browse Regular Job Boards like Indeed, Glassdoor, or Monster.
There are a couple of job boards that have postings for an internship. Most of the ones you’ll find here will be paid. Some of these platforms are Indeed, Monster or Glassdoor.
Just like Google, type “internships” into the search field. Or type your niche and internships (e.g., engineering internships, summer internships, marketing internships, and so on). It’s quite straightforward.
How to Ask for an Internship (and Get One)
Is there really a special way to ask for an internship? Well, yes. I’ll share 4.
1 — Know how to find an internship coordinator first.
Use LinkedIn’s advanced people search to nail it quickly. There are tons of videos on YouTube that can teach you how to navigate it. Learn and apply it in searching for hiring managers.
2 — Ask politely.
When you have gotten the contacts of potential hiring managers, ask politely. Hiring managers are busy. Respect their time by knowing how to email them. State exactly what you have to offer and how much value the internship will bring to your freelance career.
3 — Be brief, and don’t take no for an answer.
Make your request as simple, specific, and brief as possible. Be nice but persistent in your request. Don’t take no for an answer. If you get a decline, you can ask if they know anyone who is looking for an intern with your skills.
Most hiring managers will usually know at least 2 or 3 people needing interns in their companies. That could be your opportunity, so never be shy to ask.
4 — Show You Are the Perfect Person for the Internship
Customize your resume and your interview style. Make sure you stand out like a klieg light. Learn key facts about the enterprise and the internship on offer. Then tweak your resume to fit the job description.
I will share more on this as we go.
The Best Internship sites and Internship Finders that Get you Hired Faster
What’s the obvious answer for how to find an internship? Internship sites.
Internship finders are powerful online resources. They list thousands of intern positions around the country and the world. But they put you up against a horde of other applicants. Use them to find internships anyway. They’re quick, and they give real results.
Also, check regular job sites and even plain ol’ Google. Don’t skip job fairs, networking, and cold calling the company either. They’re the most powerful internship search methods when you know how.
Below are the best internship search engines I know:
- Internships.com (http://Internships.com) is a respected site listing over 6,000 high school and college internship listings. Is http://internships.com legit? The jobs are real. They’re searchable by date and career. You can find both full-time and part-time internships there.
- Internship Finder (http://InternshipFinder.com) shows 3,500+ positions in the US and UK. It’s a division of M&L Research, an industry-specific employment data firm.
- Idealist (http://Idealist.com) is different from other internship websites. It lists 800+ internships and 12,000+ unpaid internship programs and volunteer positions with firms that try to do good things in the world.
- Global Experiences (http://GlobalExperiences.com). This internship site hosts 4,000 employers in 11 cities worldwide for an international experience.
- Indeed Job Search(http://indeed.com). How to get an internship with Indeed? Type “internships” into the search field. (Or summer internships, engineering internships, marketing internships, etc.) Then specify a location. You’ll get hundreds of internship and job listings.
- Glassdoor Jobs (https://www.glassdoor.com/). Glassdoor can help you find job and internship positions. Use it like Indeed. As a bonus, it gives valuable information about companies from previous interns.
- LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/). LinkedIn is the world’s most popular networking site. It also packs in 76,000+ high school and college internships. Plus, it has a very clear and easy application process. I’ll show you how to ask for an internship on LinkedIn below.
- Google for Internships: Just Google internships, and you’ll get thousands of results. Adding your location to the search can also give it a hand. Refine your search by job type — for instance: public relations internship Boston — and set up saved searches and alerts.
- Monster (https://www.monstergulf.com/). Monster works just like Indeed or Glassdoor for internship searches. It’s a traditional job search site with powerful intern capabilities.
- Virtual Internships — www.virtualinternships.com
- GoAbroad — www.goabroad.com
- Forage — https://www.theforage.com/
- WayUp — https://www.wayup.com/s/internships/virtual/
- FindSpark — https://www.findspark.com/
- Internshala — https://internshala.com/internships/work-from-home-internships/
- AngelList data — https://angel.co/job-collections/startup-internships
- Dartmouth Internships — https://dickey.dartmouth.edu/programs/global-studies/international-internships/dickey-international-internships
- Data Science Institute (https://worlddatascience.tech/apply). World Data Science is a research institute offering companies data science education and services. You can also apply for their internships which are available in different time windows.
- International Rescue Committee (IRC) — (https://www.rescue.org/volunteer/remote-internship-opportunities). The International Rescue Committee is offering a volunteer online internship for recent and current graduates. It offers students an experience to apply their skills to the real word applications.
- Facebook University (www.metacareers.com) — Facebook University is another great internship forum for students. The platform allows underrepresented people to explore work at Facebook. It is an eight-week program that offers experience in engineering, analytics, product design, sales, and more.
- Intern Abroad HQ (www.internhq.com) — Industry Accounting, Advertising Animal Science, Architecture, Biology, Business Design, Ecology, Engineering, Environmental Studies, Finance, Healthcare, International Business, International Relations, Journalism, Law, Marine Biology, Marketing Media.
- Connect-123 (https://www.connect-123.com/). Connect-123 wants to help you kickstart your international career from your own home through one of their many remote internships. They’ve designed programs that allow interns to gain valuable professional skills while networking with global experts.
How to Find an Internship FAST? Tailor Your Resume Accordingly
Now you know where to find internships. But here’s the problem: You can have the best resume on the planet, apply to 200 summer internships, and not get one response.
It happens all the time. Why?
Pretend you’re the one who’s hiring. Let’s say you need an assistant for your life. You put ads in internship finders. You interview ten candidates. Nine give generic answers; the last one names four achievements that match your needs. Which one do you hire?
Of course, the last one.
To find an internship fast, tailor your resume to the position. The example below shows how to find an internship using the customized approach:
Here’s an example to explain this. Let’s say the internship values web app design, debugging, and Java skills. Here’s how your education section might look:
🔹Excelled in Java classes.
🔸Designed a web app to sell t-shirts for a senior project.
🔹Personal website shortlisted for an IEEE Student Website Design Award.
🔸Assisted with debugging lessons as student TA, senior year.
Just make sure to read the offer carefully and highlight the required skills. Then, scour your past for achievements that show you are the one-and-only. Do that, and you’ll stand out like Superman in a sea of Kents and get any internship you want.
The above tip for how to find internships magnifies your odds of getting hired through job fairs, internship websites, networking, and cold-calling. Use the same personalization tip for interviews.
Learn what the internship is looking for. Then drill with practice situational questions and real achievements from your past. Plus, a great cover letter that matches your resume will give you an advantage over other candidates.
Google recently launched Interview Warmup, a tool that lets you practice answering questions to get more confident and comfortable with the interview process and gain insights. Essentially, it is an AI-based platform that asks individuals questions that are asked in an interview, lets you review the answers, and offers insights about how you did.
How to Get an Internship (when It’s unadvertised)
1 — Identify your Top 10–20 Companies
You won’t find an internship at the first company you ask for. So remember, there’s safety in numbers. Target 15–20 different companies you’d like to intern at and call them all.
2 — Find the Right Hiring Managers with LinkedIn
Use LinkedIn’s advanced people search to locate the right hiring manager. Enter the company name and try several job titles. You can also check the company’s About Us page.
3 — Go With Smaller Companies
At a big company, you might be sharpening pencils. You’ll get more responsibility at a small one, and it’s often easier to get your foot in the door.
4— Ask for an Internship
LinkedIn’s InMail costs money. But a connection request with an included note is free. You may find the manager’s email address or phone number on the company website.
In your query, spend two sentences introducing yourself. Use one of them to share your biggest achievement that fits the company’s needs. If they say “No,” ask again. The experts say to “be persistent,” but that doesn’t mean just bullying the manager.
Here’s How to Get an Internship (without being pushy)
If employers tell you, “We don’t hire interns,” offer to be their first.
When I was looking to intern at a company years ago, they gave the same response. I called the company and said, “How would you like a free employee for a year?” They acted like they’d won the lottery, and they accepted me. Yet it was still a paid internship.
Ask for an Informational Interview. Even “no” doesn’t mean you won’t find an internship with a company. When you get turned down, ask for an informational interview.
That’s where you ask about the job and what it’s like. Be as interested as possible. Talk almost none about yourself.
Why does this help with how to get internships? Being interested makes the hiring manager more likely to become your advocate.
Finally…
Now that you have this arsenal of information on paid internships, it’s time to use them. Apply all you’ve learned, and don’t give up because of the rejections. Some rejections are learning curves to help you adjust to past mistakes and improve on when applying for future internships.
Keep your head high. And when you do, you’ll be amazed at the quality of internships you can pick from.
Cheers.
In our next blog, I’ll be sharing more helpful tips on freelancing, digital skills, and remote work.
If you loved this blog, give it a clap and comment if you found it helpful.
Do you have any questions about freelancing? Send that in the comments too.
Follow me on:
- Twitter: @Olamidetowobola
- LinkedIn: @Olamide Towobola
- Instagram: @Olamide_Towobola
- Email: Olamidetowobola.gigsnet@gmail.com
- Youtube: Olamide Towobola
