Internships 101 — A guide to landing your next internship!

As students at UBC (or elsewhere), we’re quite familiar with the scramble to find real-world work experience, if only in search of an answer to the dreaded question, “So what’s your plan after you graduate?”

At nwPlus, we know that internships are a great place to start, especially as a way to gain valuable experience before heading into the workforce. Though nothing is ever truly predictable in the job search process, this guide walks you through how to land your next internship, from the preparation stage to the search itself! Although these tips are geared towards landing roles in tech, they work for non-technical roles in the industry as well!

Image from Unsplash

Preparing for the Job Search

The search for an internship doesn’t just start with the doom scrolling of job applications on your platform of choice. Depending on your personal experiences and goals, here are a number of ways you can prepare your application and yourself to attract potential employers!

Personal projects, portfolios, and hackathons

• These can be especially important if you are looking for creative roles related to development or design. Having a project that you’ve invested time and effort into can be a great way to show employers that you have tangible experience in relevant skills for the job.
• Projects are a great way to learn and develop skills — you might find that you learn more by learning how to develop new features, fixing problems, and debugging! Common beginner projects include making your own to-do list app, calculator app, or game!
• For more cool inspiration, check out what our past hackers have created on Devpost— here’s the link to one: https://cmd-f-2023.devpost.com/

Learn typical beginner languages: Python, Javascript, Java

• By self-learning foundational programming languages, you’ll be prepared with the basics needed in many entry-level tech industry jobs. You might even approach your courses at school with a deeper understanding and perspective.
• Another great resource is nwPlus’ very own Self-Learning Resources Wiki — this will be updated in the coming months but it’s a great place to start your development journey!

Attend hackathons!

• One of the most common myths about hackathons is that they’re only for intermediate/advanced software developers and designers! Hackathons are suitable for everyone — whether “Hello World!” is the only line of code you’ve ever written or you’re building your seventh AI chatbot. Be sure to experience workshops, mentors, and fun activities to connect with others interested in tech — and more!
• At nwPlus, we host three hackathons annually- HackCamp, nwHacks, and cmd-f! All three hackathons are a great place to start, but HackCamp especially is targeted towards a more beginner audience — with a Learn Day full of workshops and a Build Day full of hacking! Learn more at nwplus.io or on our social media platforms @nwplusubc !

Get involved in your community!

• Joining clubs at your school/university can provide you with valuable leadership, event planning, development, design, marketing, and sponsorship skills and experience that are applicable to nearly all real-world internships. P.S. nwPlus has two hiring periods — one in April and one in September!

Focus on your resume and cover letter

• Your resume is one of the most important things you have when you apply for jobs. Be sure to include Education, Work Experience, Club Experience, Projects, and Awards, and to link these items back to specific details in the job description.
• Guide on how to write an amazing resume: https://www.techinterviewhandbook.org/resume/
• Cover letters aren’t always necessary but could potentially give you a boost! We recommend writing a cover letter for small companies/startups as they are more likely to read it.

During the Job Search

Now that you’re fully prepared to show off your best self to your potential employers, which companies should you apply to? Here’s what to do during the job search.

To find companies to apply to, check out:

• LinkedIn: search “(role you’re interested in) intern”
• Simplify: https://simplify.jobs/jobs
• Levels.fyi: https://www.levels.fyi/internships/

Github resources:

• https://github.com/pittcsc/Summer2023-Internships
• https://github.com/jenndryden/Canadian-Tech-Internships-Summer-2023
• If you’re interested in a company, search them up!

For first and second years, keep an eye out for these internship programs that are exclusively for first and second years, just to name a few!

• Google STEP
• Microsoft Explore

Applying to jobs

• To stay organized, use a spreadsheet to keep track of job applications. The best time to apply to jobs is right when they open up — and the second best time is now! Apply to everything, even if you feel like you’re lacking experience.
• For most US internships, this means you start looking 1 year in advance. e.g. Summer 2024 internship search should begin in Summer 2023.
• For local Vancouver/Canadian internships, this means you start looking ~4–8 months in advance.

Interview prep (behavioural + technical)

Behavioural:

You can often prepare for these by finding a list of common interview questions online, and by keeping track of your responses (think of it as a Q&A bank).

• Break down any projects, prior work, or internship experience you’ve had. This will help you pick out the important details that interviewers want to hear about and answer a variety of questions with ease.
• Use the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) format to answer!
• Don’t forget to discuss features, technical challenges, and what you learned from the experiences you describe.

Technical prep:

Technical interviews can be intimidating, but it all comes down to practice and familiarity with what you know. Check out the following links for some of our favourite resources on how to crack the coding interview.

• https://leetcode.com/
• https://www.techinterviewhandbook.org/grind75
• https://seanprashad.com/leetcode-patterns/
• https://neetcode.io/practice

Final Tips!

• Use Linkedin for networking and referrals!
• Consider co-op at your educational institution! It’s not necessary but can be helpful as it provides: access to the co-op job board (some companies only hire co-op students), full-time student status (which might be especially helpful for international students & student loans), and support from career professionals through resume-building workshops and more!
• And most importantly — don’t get discouraged, stay positive, and do your best to surround yourself with a great support system of family, friends, or professors and mentors.

All in all, searching for an internship might be stressful, but it is also extremely rewarding. With surefire determination, a growth mindset, and these tips in hand, we have no doubt that you’ll be incredibly prepared to embark on this journey. Best of luck — we’ll be cheering you on!

Written by Jennifer Shui, Content Writer, edited by Victoria Lim, Marketing Director. Material based on Internships 101 Workshop by Isaac Chung, Sponsorship Director.