You can find tons of websites online dedicated to helping college students find internships. Once you have finished your education at Northeastern University, it’s time to gain some real world experience. There’s no better way to do this than with an internship. You’ll likely come across hundreds of opportunities across the nation, but not all of them will yield the same fruits. Some you will like better than others and some will offer better opportunities than the rest. It’s up to you to decipher the good internships from the not-so-great.
First, it’s important to note why you should consider going into an internship right after college. Some students look for paid work immediately upon graduation, but the odds of them finding work isn’t always optimal. Going for an internship allows you to gain valuable experience before entering into a full-time position in your field. You can learn a lot of important skills that can be used for your employment down the road. It will also give you a closer look at what it would be like working in your industry and give you an idea of what position you’d like to pursue a career in.
Before you begin searching for internships, you need to organize your goals. What is it that you aspire to be? You don’t want to just apply for internships just for the sake of applying. You need a sense of direction, so you know exactly the type of companies you want to intern at.
You need to research what type of internships will help you get into the correct career path. Maybe interning at a criminal law office would be ideal if you are looking to one day become a judge. Or maybe you should do an internship at a disease research facility to learn more about how viruses are studied.
The best place to start looking for internships is on the World Wide Web. All of your research won’t be conducted here, but it will begin here. Start looking for companies in your industry that are offering internships, then schedule a visit with managers there. Find out all you can about the company before you visit because you will likely be asked what you know about the organization. If you don’t know anything, then it will give a bad first impression. How interested can you be if you didn’t take the time to do a bit of due diligence? What’s impressive is someone knowing about the products, services, mission and key players in the company. You can even look at how its stocks are faring in the market.
This will give you a better chance of getting noticed by the companies you interview with.
Some websites and magazines you can browse for internship opportunities include summerinternships.com, internships.com, Idealist, experience.com, Barefoot Student and Media Bistro. You should also check out the School of Design and Human Environment at Oregon State if you’re going into an artsy field like graphic design, apparel design, interior design or merchandising management.
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