Getting Your Foot in the Door— Tips and Opportunities for First and Second Year Students
Hello there,
If you happen to stumble on this article — welcome! I hope you will find this guide useful for navigating to find your first internship or how you can get your foot in the door.
As someone who has at least a year of experience of getting their resume roasted by HR, winging interviews, and being in this ever so process of being constantly ghosted from recruiters on Linkedin — I hope to shine some light to others to learn about the mistakes I did and how I have grown through this experience.
Without further ado, let’s begin!
Networking is key 🔑
The biggest part of landing an internship is undoubtedly through networking. According to PayScale, over 85% of positions are found through using their network and that around 70% current employers found their positions through networking or by referrals.
If you want to find more internship opportunities or to land your dream job, utilize your network to the fullest potential — this is something I fully regret not doing the first time around and only used a small part of my connections to help me with the recruiting process when I could’ve maximized my resources. I would recommend taking advantage of the Career Center resources that your university has to offer, attend recruiting events for prospective companies you’re interested in and actually network with recruiters and employers which can put your face in the application, and don’t be scared to cold call people on Linkedin that interned in a position you’re interested in. They can probably give you a referral too ;)
I would also recommend joining university recruiting groups on Linkedin and Intern.club to further expand your network.
Follow Job Postings and Attend Recruiting Events
As I mentioned earlier, networking is a vital component to the recruiting process but it’s also important to be in the loop for job postings and attend as many recruiting events as possible for companies that you’re interested in working with.
As for opportunities, I would recommend checking out job postings on Linkedin, Remote Students, and Angel.co so that you can keep track of and find opportunities that pique your interest and help expand your skillset!
Spice Up Your Profiles 🌶️
Back in February I had the opportunity to attend this recruiting event and I remember the recruiter telling my group to “spice up your profiles” which is something that strikes me to this day. And no — I am not talking about spicing up your Tinder profile (unless you get matched with a FAANG intern then that’s a win win) — but rather strengthen your Linkedin profile and resume to the best it can be.
Definitely try to tailor your resume a bit for each company or position you’re applying to. I would also recommend getting feedback on resume from your school’s Career Center, peers, and most importantly, recruiters or employers at a company you’re interested interning in. Make sure you optimize your resume to your potential, not just for ATS scanners
✨ Here is a resume template that you can use ✨
Expand your Skill Set
This may seem trivial but definitely find opportunities that can expand your skills whether it would be working on a project at Hackathon, public speaking, doing research, or anything.
Use the BEST Resources At Your Disposal
I will list a couple resources here that help you maximize your potential.
Technical Interview Prep:
Behavioral Interview Prep:
Check out Candor.co for professional branding and insider looks for internships [Site | Youtube]
CodePath Student Handbook (even if you’re not involved with the organization, they include a lot of handy guides that you can use)
And as always, take advantage of the resources your university career centers have, recruiters, and your network.
Make Yourself Memorable and Take Risks
Given that you are literally competing with other thousands of applicants for a position, there is one thing that you can do and that is to make yourself standout as an applicant.
I’m sure at this point you’re given the traditional advice of “tailoring your resume to a specific position”, “get referrals”, and do XYZ. By all means I do not mean to criticize traditional advice as this is all still very valid in today’s competitive job market but what really can set you apart is being different or your personal brand.
It’s ok to be different and to think outside of the box when you’re completing an application. I think the biggest thing I’ve failed and learned throughout this process is not being different and always “following the rules.” My resume, cover letter, and essay questions (for some internships, they require essays) were all direct and just ya know just very, very bland. It was not until midway through the recruiting season that I learned of creative ways that applicants are getting their foot in the door such as making a JSON Resume, an eye-catching resume, or made their website an interactive story map / resume that definitely drew the eyes of recruiters. I still remember that one dude from the engineering career fair who went all out in a purple suit and rainbow hair. He definitely caught the attention of recruiters and ended up with several offers afterwards.
If there is a passion, a skill, or unique interest you have, don’t be afraid to show it off. At the end of the day, that could be something that someone remembers you by.
I think the thing that puts my face on an application are the topics I choose to write about. Not saying this works all the time but the more I started to write “risky” and obscure topics, the more it makes my application compelling. For instance, I gave a narrative about how I followed a cart full of brownies to this TED Talk about entrepreneurship and reflected on my aspirations for consulting and startups from this talk for this application for a Deloitte event. I ended up getting accepted to the event and the Deloitte Recruiter (or whoever reviewed apps) reached out to me personally and said how she really liked how I “thought outside the box” and my brownie story for the prompt. Sadly I did not get the brownie at the end; but the point is this: do something that will make yourself stand out and don’t be scared to take risks.
Also, I would like to share below an essay prompt for this Google program I applied to last year and my response (and yes, I got in). If that is not a risk, I don’t know what is.
The Major 🔑 For Landing Internships
I will keep this short intentionally.
Keep on learning. Network. Get a Referral. Practice Interviewing. Rinse and Repeat.
Easier said than done.
List of opportunities for current college students
Below is a small list of opportunities for undergraduate students to explore. Most of the positions are organized in order from first year internships to the “highest” internship (ie. SWE) which can then translate to a full-time offer. There are even some programs on here that allow you get your head start on climbing through the corporate ladder during high school! Keep in mind that you do not necessarily need to do all of these internships at a specific company if you want to land a full-time offer at the end. It’s experience and skills are what will land your foot in the door.
For more internship opportunities, please check out job postings directly on company sites you’re interested in as well!
Technical Positions
- Google Computer Science Summer Institute (this is for rising college freshman which can help get their foot in the door at Google)
- CodeU (this is an invite-only program for applicants who weren’t offered a position for STEP)
- Google Summer of Code
- STEP Intern
- SWE & Programs Intern
- BONUS: Insider Guide to Google
Non-technical Positions
- BOLD Immersion Program (only for current college sophomores)
- BOLD Intern
✨Microsoft
- New Technologist Intern
- Microsoft Garage Intern
- Explore Intern
- SWE Intern
- BONUS: Here is an insider guide to Microsoft. Shout out to Courtney Thurston for sharing this!
✨Deloitte
- Pioneer Intern
- Discovery Intern
- Technology Consulting
- Risk and Financial Advisory Intern
- More opportunities
✨Amazon
- Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship (Current high school students apply for a $40,000 scholarship and are guaranteed an internship at Amazon)
- Future Engineer SDE Intern
- SDE Intern
- Pinterest Engage Scholars
✨Uber
- Uber STAR Intern
- SWE Intern
- Twitter Academy
- Check out this flyer
✨Goldman Sachs
- Engineering Essentials
✨Bank of America
- Technology Analyst Intern
✨Kleiner Perkins Fellows
Arguably speaking, the hardest internship to get is your first internship. Do anything and everything in your will power to secure the first internship and go from there. Don’t be discouraged if you’re unable to land an internship during your freshman and sophomore year! There’s plenty of people who don’t land their first internship until their junior year which most of the time converts to a full-time offer from there.
Focus on building your personal brand, skillset, and keep on networking. You got this!
