Thinking about an internship?
The UW Career & Internship Center provides excellent ideas for students in search of an internship. Here are my favorites:
~ Create (and update!) your Handshake and LinkedIn accounts. Accounts cannot be linked, but it’s important to have both. Employers will absolutely review your LinkedIn account, and Handshake is the best way for them to recruit college-level students and recent graduates.
~ Complete your profile and career interests! Include examples in Work & Volunteer Experience, Organizations, Courses, and Projects. Specify your intentions in Job Interests, Cities, Roles, and Industries. 80% of employers will contact students with these sections completed. Employers may use keyword searches, so be sure to include words in your profile that match those roles you’re interested in. Only 23% of employers screen applicants by GPA –> experience matters more!
~ Use filters when searching! You could scroll through the thousands of available positions, with 25 new postings each day on average, or add filters to find roles that fit your interests and your preferred work location (plus lots of remote opportunities).
~ Look beyond brand names. Google and Amazon are great, but consider that about 50% of all postings receive 3 or less applications from students! Your chances to get an amazing internship could be dramatically increased if you apply to employers you haven’t heard of before.
~ Complete courses via LinkedIn Learning, and showcase courses on your LinkedIn profile. This shows employers that you’ve actively tried to develop your skills and improve yourself.
~ Search for Autumn/Winter/Spring internships in September or search for Summer internships in January/February. Employers post the most in Sept, Jan, Feb! In the 2019-20 academic year, over 9,300 internships were posted on Handshake: 81% were paid; 67% were for Summer; they lasted an average of 1-2 quarters long.
- Fall quarter recruitment is primarily from employers in accounting, consulting, engineering, and finance. Employers recruit 6-8 weeks in advance for Autumn/Winter/Spring positions.
- Winter quarter recruitment is everyone else (for Summer internships). Employers recruit 3-6 months in advance for Summer positions.
~ Network on Handshake. Attend employer events and organized career fairs (many will continue to be virtual). Read student reviews of employers, and ask those students questions. Post reviews yourself, even if you just interviewed with the employer.
~ 1st and 2nd year students can make resumes more attractive through undergraduate research, service learning, participation in student organizations, and experience from on-campus or off-campus jobs.
- Community Engagement & Leadership Education Center (CELE) is a great place to find community volunteering and leadership opportunities.
- Undergraduate Research Program can help you find research projects.
- HuskyLink shows all the UW RSOs out there. Find your group!
– Internships integrate academic learning with hands-on experience, allow students to develop new skills, and to explore different careers/sectors/work environments.
– Internships focus on student learning and center around defined projects, with defined start and end dates.
UW AMath/CFRM Undergrad News and Opportunities 