If you are a high school junior and have not had an internship yet, you’re running short on time if you want an internship experience to be part of your college applications. Right now, you have between whatever date you are reading this and the fall of your senior year to identify, secure, and, at least, start a meaningful and relevant internship experience. In this post, we’ll map out how to make it happen. We can also help you make it happen. First, though, why should you get an internship?
The applications of top students can look nearly interchangeable when extracurriculars and electives are removed. Top performers all have exceptional grades in the hardest courses they have access to. They all have very strong standardized test scores. Even the clubs that students like you (because we’re guessing you are a top student) do are similar. If you’re really into the humanities, you may be an editor of the paper or lead a literature club. If you are an aspiring engineer, you do some STEM stuff. It all matters, and it all should be there on your application, but the truth is that it isn’t enough to really stand out — because everyone like you is doing nearly the exact same things.
One of the most impactful ways of being seen through the noise is an internship. Every year, we help our students find relevant and impactful internships that help their applications stand out. “Impactful” here doesn’t mean that you’re doing community service — although an internship may do that as well depending on your interests. Rather, we’re focused on internships that are more than a short mention in your activities section. The right internship can become the foundation for a long supplement, or even make its way into your main essay.
Read on to learn how to turn the idea of an internship into action.
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Getting an internship as a junior in high school can be broken down into four key steps that you can (and should) start today.
Step 1: Define Your Areas of Interest
You are a junior. You’ve finished two years of high school, can probably drive a car, and we really hope that you have some idea of what you are interested in (if not, call us). We aren’t saying that you should have charted your whole ‘perfect future’ in your mind. You don’t need to know what you want to be when you grow up down to your very job description, but you should have an idea of what types of industries you are drawn to, and what type of work environments you thrive in.
A good rule to remember is that you need to point yourself in a direction if you want to land there, even if ‘there’ is broadly defined. In Step 1, you are basically creating buckets that can sit next to each other, or even fit into each other, that will help you identify, find, and secure your ideal internship. For example, you could choose to define your areas of interest with the terms Engineering, Leadership, Teamwork, and Architecture. This could lead you to, say, looking for internships at large architecture firms that have in-house engineers.
Another example may be History, Research, Politics, and Activism, which could lead you to look for an internship with a professor, think tank, nonprofit, or campaign.
Wherever you want to look, and whatever interests you have defined, the next step is to put yourself on paper.
Step 2: Refine Your Resume
Ideally, you will have had a summer job before, volunteered for an extended period of time (like weekly for a semester) with a nonprofit, worked informally as a babysitting or mowing lawns, or even run your own small business. However, we also know it’s possible that you’ve never engaged in any form of work of long-term engagement at all. And, even if you have, you may not have a resume. But you need one to get a great internship.
Your resume should be tailored to those areas of interest you identified earlier, which means that you don’t need to include every sports award you’ve received. This filter will also help ensure that your resume is no more than one page. Seriously. And there is no excuse for bad formatting. There are many, many free resume templates on Google Docs and in Word, and basically any other word formatting software, so don’t try to make it up on your own. For resumes, templates work.
Continue on to steps 3 and 4, but before you actually submit a resume you need to write individualized cover letters for each company, presenting who you are, what you are looking for, and what you can offer. Start with the last, though. You always want to lead with how much you can bring to someone else, as opposed to leading with what you want from them.
Step 3: Look Around You
The best place to look for an internship, once you know what you want, is right around where you are. Sure, your dream internship may exist at a company in California, but if you live in Rhode Island that isn’t generally much help unless you have a parent who wants to move with you to San Diego for a summer. Instead of trying to make the case for a cross-country move in exchange for free labor, look close to home. What businesses or nonprofits are around you that appeal to the aspects you are looking for in an internship? Then, build connections. Maybe a parent, or parent of a friend, or relative works for one of them. Maybe your favorite teacher knows someone there. Using connections isn’t cheating, it’s networking — and networking is literally the secret to professional success.
Step four Small is Okay, But Find Room for Growth
You’re a junior; they aren’t going to name you CEO. Chances are that any internship you get will be small beans relative to the dreams you have for yourself. That isn’t just okay, it is to be expected. Starting small also sets you up for future opportunities. If you can make a good impression with a small internship, you may be offered a bigger opportunity during senior year. If so, take it — again, even if it isn’t your dream. This isn’t forever, but it is the kind of thing you need to be doing right now to differentiate your college applications from your classmates with the same grades, interests, and dream colleges, but without your internship experiences.
An internship isn’t as important as strong grades and test scores, but it can become a powerful storytelling tool in your applications that makes the difference with admissions officers when it comes time to submit.
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