The Key to Finding Your Dream Summer Internship, Beyond the Application
It’s the summer before my senior year, and as far as I know, I’ve been doing everything right. I’ve kept my resume up to date, I’ve had multiple jobs since high school, I’ve earned good grades in college, and now it’s time to start the search for a summer internship. I’m assuming everyone else is in the same position as me and has put in about the same amount of effort as far as building their professionalism, but I have the upper hand because I’ve actually done some cool projects outside of school, and one of my jobs wasn’t just life guarding or bussing tables. Yeah, I should have no trouble finding a great internship that pays well and paves the way for my career. Ten applications should be enough, right? Just to be safe? That way I can take my pick from whichever company I want to join.
Wrong.
It’s been six weeks and I’ve heard back from exactly zero companies, even ones that offer little to no pay. I’ve even called and emailed most of the companies multiple times to check in on the status of the applications, but I can’t seem to get any sort of answer back. I’m starting to panic. It’s beginning to look like another summer spending my nights in a restaurant bussing tables. I try one more follow up phone call. Jake Hurwitz of Eyesight Collective answers the phone. I say hello and he asks “who is this”, sounding a little confused and apprehensive. I explain that I applied to be an intern at his company and that I am just checking in on the status of the application. He immediately becomes more comfortable and invites me in for an interview. He tells me that I am the only one who has followed up with a phone call. I guess he appreciated that.
I walk into Spark Boulder, a co-working space for students and young companies trying to get off the ground. Jake’s desk is in the back corner.
“Are you Jake?” I ask.
He responds excitedly and introduces himself before leading me into a conference room to begin the interview. I brought with me a printed version of my resume (including a backup copy), and a flash drive with my portfolio of work on it. I’ve got this one in the bag.
Jake seems to like what he sees and invites me to join the team, but there is kind of a catch. He tells me that it’s not exactly like the advertised “part-time videographer, $15/hour” that I am expecting. Jake explains that, of the fifty applications he received, about 5 of them were good, none of them were great, and mine was not even considered. He admits that the only reason I got an interview was because I followed up with a phone call.
So, what am I about to get myself into? Jake explains that half of what I will be doing is still videography for local clients and I will be able to earn commission from my work, but the level of professionalism he saw in students who applied, including myself, forced him to change his model. He did not feel comfortable hiring kids to work closely with his clients when they couldn’t even send a well written email free of typos. There was too much risk of his business being hurt. He explained how thousands of employers all over the country were suffering from the same problem, and becoming increasingly hesitant to hire interns at all. That was likely the reason why none of them called me back.
He explained how the other half of the internship will be an accelerator program for our small team of four interns to learn the business professional skills necessary to succeed. We will have one or two speakers, a professional in whatever industry, come in and conduct a workshop with us every week. The topics we will cover include networking, email etiquette, resume building, personal branding, and many others. This would be how we spend half of our time here at Eyesight.
I must admit, I’m leaving feeling disappointed. I give my parents a call to tell them about the interview and they are also skeptical about one, the fact that I will be making almost no money, and two, whether this model is even proven to help. They say it sounds like a scam. Either way, it’s the only position I’ve been offered, so I accept.
Over the next 8 weeks, my life completely changes. Every week, I get the opportunity to talk one-on-one with two industry professionals who have donated their time simply to help students like me succeed. Mentorship was the key to my new found professionalism, and never before have I felt so confident in myself, not to mention, I now have an awesome portfolio to show off all of my new work.
This experience has made me discover a problem among students and young people, the same one Jake had found, which is that good grades and a resume polluted with summer jobs will not do anything to get you hired. Not even a great resume or portfolio will, even though they certainly help. What gets you hired is going out, building your craft and personal brand, and creating a strong network and community of friends and mentors that want to see you succeed.
I hope to not discourage anyone about entering into the work world, but instead inspire you to go out, do what you love, and make a massive effort to surround yourself with the people who are going to help you find success. Still, this is no small feat, so let’s start small.
Today, go out and find one person who you think could help you with whatever it is you want to do. Reach out, set up a meeting, and start building a network of friends and mentors alike. Maybe it is a professor…a friend’s parent…an older student…or even the CEO of that badass company downtown. Send them an e-mail. It won’t work out every time, but sometimes it will, and when it does, you’ll be well on your way to a strong supportive network.
