As a Recruiter and CEO of my firm, Wall Street Personnel, and Blogger with Find a Job Like a Pro, where I share my insider tips on how to find a job, these 18 years of experience working with the toughest hiring managers and employers has given me an insider look as to what makes a firm hire person A and not hire person B.
And my goal is to make sure you are Person A!
If you are a college student, or if you are a parent who has kids in college right now, then this article is for you! Bottom line when you graduate from college, so will hundreds of thousands of other college students around the country!
So what do you think will set apart these fresh college grads when competing for the same jobs you or your kids are going after?
INTERNSHIPS! That’s right!
Bottom line if I have a resume of someone who has 3 Summer Internships in a row with a prestigious firms that relate to the job the college grad is applying to versus someone who has worked one Summer as a Waiter, another Summer as a Barista and then a last Summer before graduating as a Life Guard – well you right away can see who will get an Interview and who will not!
Here are 5 College Internships Tips that any parent of a college student should know as to why their kids (or you the college student) should do Summer Internships while in College.
RESUME
You will need a Resume to apply for those Internships! And many college students don’t have one. Although many decide to just “wing this” and go on you tube to learn how to write a Resume, I strongly advise AGAINST this career suicide move. Don’t do it.
Today’s market is so robust and competitive that your Resume should look like the Mona Lisa in the Louvre Museum in Paris!
I strongly recommend this incredible App called: Enhancv
They use Artificial Intelligence to help you write out your Resume and this App easily stores several versions all in one place so you can see which version of your Resume gets responses for an Interview and which doesn’t.
Believe it or not a Resume layout does matter, how it looks, how it’s written, how it’s presented. It’s the most important part of the job hunting process – because if your Resume does not stand out then you won’t get an Interview and then you won’t get the Internship (or the Job).
There is a small fee to get this Resume App, but if I am not mistaken you are paying around $ 50,000 a year for your son or daughter to be in college (or perhaps you as the student took college loans), so the reason you go to college is to get a Job – and the Resume is what creates the Bridge to do so.
Make your resume stand out with this incredible App from Enhancv.
FOCUS AND COMMITMENT
When you take time out of your Summer to work for a company that is focused on your line of interest (let’s say you want accounting, so you work with an accounting firm as a bookkeeper, financial analyst, account payable clerk, etc., or maybe you want to do social media marketing – so you work as an Intern for a media company doing their online campaigns, online media work, research, marketing reports, etc) – bottom line whatever you do over the Summer in an Internship capacity will right away tell a potential employer when you graduate from college that you want this job.
If you have Internships for accounting and then apply for an Accounting Job when you graduate, you bet the employer is going to say, wow – this kid has focus and commitment – I want to meet him/her!
If you have Internships in social media and marketing firms and when you graduate you are applying for a job within social media and management – you better believe the company is going to want to hire you!
YOU BEAT YOUR COMPETITION
If you have 2 or 3 Summer Internships (I strongly recommend at least 3 – Summer after Freshman year, Summer after Sophomore year and Summer after Junior year) then when you graduate you will completely blow away your competition. Now you have a total work related Internships and competitive edge over others who did not take the initiative to get those Internships. So always stay ahead of your competition (aka: other fellow college students) it’s the real life after all!
WHERE TO FIND INTERNSHIPS?
Job Boards
Just go to Indeed.com or to Ziprecruiter.com and type in: Internships and your industry (accounting/marketing/finance) and the city and there you have it – a bunch of listings for Internships will appear. And all you need to do is just apply.
Company Web Site Career Section
You can also do a search for companies in your niche space on google within the city you are in, and then go to each company web site and each and every single company has a CAREER section on their web site. Click on the career section and there you will see all their Internships listed!
WHEN TO APPLY FOR INTERNSHIPS?
The time to apply is usually between January to March of the preceding Summer. Sometimes you can even go as late as April or May but that is cutting it close. Be proactive and start looking for those Internships as of January – March of the same year as the Internship.
Focus on Internships and you’ll see what a difference it will make when you apply for Jobs when you graduate. It’s what will separate you from your colleagues and Employers LOVE to see initiative from young talent.
Good Luck!
Revi Goldwasser, Six Figure Recruiter, Entreprenuer and Blogger with Find a Job like a Pro
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