FIND YOUR NEXT INTERNSHIP ON WAYUP. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR FREE.

Internships provide invaluable professional experience and allow you to test the theories and concepts you’ve been introduced to throughout your college career — not to mention they increase your chances of being offered a full-time job later on.

No matter what your major or preferred industry, employers look for a core set of skills and traits when considering applicants for both internships and entry-level jobs. Your prospective supervisor is interested in more than just your GPA, so whether you’re hoping to be a summer intern, planning on honing your time-management skills as an intern during the academic year, or applying for your first job out of college, it’s worth your while to draw attention to the transferable skills you’ve picked up during your courses, community service and extracurricular activities.

Below are the top 10 skills employers want in an intern:

1. Communication

Communication occurs in a variety of ways, but future employers are primarily interested in your ability to write and speak professionally. You have the opportunity to demonstrate your written skills in your resume and cover letter, and your verbal skills as you supply thoughtful answers to the common interview questions you’ll likely be asked. During your interview, you might mention your experience giving oral presentations (which perhaps was required in some of your classes). The ability to communicate effectively — to translate ideas and convey information — is key in any field, whether it’s with your supervisor, coworkers, or clients, and employers are well aware that it is a valuable skill.

2. Interpersonal

The ability to communicate effectively is often related to one’s ability to relate well to others, or “people skills.” Depending on the industry, you may be interacting with clients and vendors as well as your co-workers and managers. It’s important to be able to build and maintain relationships and be the kind of person team members want in the office with them every day. Interpersonal skills are also important because employers seek individuals who can identify the wants and needs of others and who can recognize and acknowledge the value of differing perspectives.

3. Collaboration

As an intern, you’ll likely collaborate with other interns and company employees. Your ability to communicate and relate well to others is certainly important for collaboration, as is the capacity to work with others toward a common goal. As part of a team, you have to understand your own strengths and weaknesses so you know how you can best contribute, as well as be aware of how you can bring out the best in others.

4. Time Management

If you’ve managed to successfully take a full course load every semester and meet assignment deadlines, to some extent, you’ve already demonstrated time management skills. But as an intern, you’re not going to have a syllabus to tell you when your deadlines are. It’s up to you to organize your time and produce results. Employers want to know that you can prioritize responsibilities and recognize when it’s appropriate to multitask or focus on one particular project at a time.

5. Adaptability

Today’s work culture — whether you’re hoping to intern for a startup or well-established organization — often requires even the most senior level executives to wear multiple hats. As an intern, one day you might find yourself supporting the sales team and the next day performing customer service. While you may have an interest in a particular aspect of an industry, a willingness to become familiar with the different parts of an organization is definitely viewed as an asset (and also increases your exposure within the company).

6. Critical Thinking

Critical thinking refers to your ability to analyze and evaluate a situation or issue and form a judgment. The tendency to think critically can be demonstrated by a willingness to ask questions in order to understand an issue from all possible angles, and to pose creative solutions to challenges. It’s something many of your professors have likely emphasized and is highly valued by employers.

7. Research and Analysis

If you’ve completed any research papers or projects for your coursework (and you likely have), you already have experience with research and analysis. Don’t be shy during your interview for an internship; make it a point to bring up the empirical research you performed for your psychology class and the conclusions you came to about how your fellow students make purchasing decisions in the campus bookstore. As a new member of the organization, you’ll be hit with a lot of new information, and your ability to process that information is a testament to your ability to fulfill whatever role you’re assigned.

8. Initiative

You’ve applied for an internship to gain knowledge of an industry and professional experience, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have anything to offer. During your interview, highlight instances where you’ve taken it upon yourself to contribute or positively affect change. Your potential employer will appreciate the chance to bring someone on board who doesn’t have to wait to receive direction for every task, and who’s willing to assist others with their work.

9. Receptiveness

While taking initiative is important, so is the ability to receive feedback. For example, if you’re asked about a time you made a mistake, you can mention the feedback you received regarding the error and how you responded to it. Your interviewer will want to know that you’re willing and able to address any weaknesses.

10. Technical Proficiency

You certainly won’t be expected to be an expert in whatever platform the company you’re applying to uses, particularly if you’re hoping to intern for a company within a highly specialized industry. But you should know your way around a computer, and your ability to navigate basic productivity software will likely be presumed.

The above are commonly identified skills that employers seek in interns, as well as applicants for entry-level jobs. Be sure to research your particular industry and familiarize yourself with other skills or character traits that may be desirable in your field.

Next, get more career tips for internships and entry-level jobs such as Tips to Make Your Resume Stand Out and find answers to common interview questions such as How Do I Get an Internship?

FIND YOUR NEXT INTERNSHIP ON WAYUP. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR FREE.

The post Top 10 Skills Employers Want in an Intern appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guide.

One of the most important questions you’ll ever be asked in an interview is, ‘Who would win in a fight, Batman or Superman?’ Just kidding! (The answer is Batman BTW.)

The most important question actually is: Why do you want this job?

Deceptively simple, this question has the potential to make or break your chances of landing your dream job. But don’t fret, because we’re going to walk you through crafting the perfect response. Plus, we’ll go over a few common mistakes that people make, too, just for good measure.

Batman approves.

Answering The Most Important Question

There are two parts to a great answer for “Why do you want this job?”

The first part of your answer should focus on the position you’re applying to. You want to start by describing why you’re interested in that specific job.

Say, for example, you’re in an interview for the position of—oh I don’t know—Keeper of the Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Your answer should therefore highlight your passion for plants and animals. Think about specific things you’ve done that would show this. For instance, maybe you were president of Hufflepuff’s Herbology club or grew up on a Mandrake farm. The key is to take something from your past experiences that shows an interviewer you’ll work hard and care about succeeding if you’re hired.

What most people think after answering that question.

The second part of your answer should focus on why you want to work at THIS company.

The key here is research, research, and more research. You want to find something unique and interesting about the company that shows you didn’t just skim the “About Us” section on its website. Make sure you find something specific and relevant to the position you want. There are plenty of resources where you can easily access this kind of information, like WayUp company profiles, podcasts, company blogs, etc.

Read ALL the articles!

Some Common Interview Mistakes To Avoid

Even if you have the makings of a great answer, there are a couple common mistakes we’ve come across that will drive any interviewer insane.

The first is answering the phone with just a simple, “Hello.” or the painfully casual, “Hey.” This leaves interviewers responsible for following up with something like, “Is this Patrick?” and gives them unnecessary work.

A simple solution is to always answer the phone by saying, “Hello, this is Patrick.” If you’re answering a call for an interview, you want to sound as professional as possible. (Of course, don’t say “Patrick” unless that’s your name.)

The next problem is a bit harder to tackle: filler words. For those unfamiliar with filler words, I present exhibit A:

Don’t think Patrick gets too many second interviews.

We can promise that if you pepper your interview responses with “ummms,” “likes,” and “uhhhs,” then your chances of getting hired plummet. It makes you sound like you didn’t prepare ahead of time and don’t really care about the job.

The best way to avoid filler words is practice. Once you have your perfect response crafted, say it out loud over and over again until you’re reciting it in your sleep.

Do, however, leave some room for improvisation and try to sound natural. Some “likes” and “umms” are inevitable, but don’t make it seem like it’s a habit.

Think Before You Speak

If you’re applying for a job, make sure you know why you want it. Any interviewer worth her salt will want to know, so think about why the position and company are right for you. Answering this well will distinguish you as someone who’s not only qualified for a job but also ready to thrive and succeed in the long-run.

P.S. If you’re interested in seeing these techniques put into practice, check out my other article about how I landed a job by wearing mismatched socks!

The post How To Answer: Why Do You Want This Job? appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guide.

“Company culture” can seem like a pretty intangible thing, especially when you’re thinking about your first job. You might not have the experience to know what actually makes it more than just an HR slogan.

Company culture is made up of the tangible experiences you have working there—and it couldn’t be more important.

Using Dell—an industry leader in company culture—as an example, here are four signs that show a company is serious about its culture.

#1: A Meaningful Work/Life Balance

Maintaining the balance between your work and your personal life is extremely important for your health, job performance, and overall satisfaction. Plenty of companies understand that happy employees are good employees, and few things make people happier than being able to have a rich life in and outside of the office.

But it has to be more than just expressing a commitment.

At Dell, if you work at any of the tech giant’s offices around the world, there are a ton of options with regards to scheduling your work. Some employees work from home for all or part of the week to cut down on commuting and inefficiency. Other employees work the same amount of hours in four days each week (instead of five).

Dell aims to have 50 percent of their workforce on flexible schedules by 2020. That’s the kind of proof you should be looking for when it comes to understanding work/life balance at a company.

#2: Genuine Commitment To Diversity

A company or team without diversity not only deprives you of the personal growth that comes from understanding people unlike yourself, but also makes concretely worse decisions. Companies AND people succeed when there’s diversity—so, yes, it should be an important factor.

It can be hard to tell whether a company employs a diverse group of people, particularly because diversity can mean a lot more than what is visibly apparent. Beyond that, corporate websites and verbal commitments can often oversell certain aspects of the company culture. One way to cut through the noise is by looking at what objective third parties and former employees have said. Check out the company’s diversity and inclusion ratings and see how credible organizations have rated them.

Dell was placed on DiversityInc’s Top 50 and was recognized by The Economist for their excellence in diversity and inclusion. Dell also does more than just hire people—they support them. Whether that means advocacy groups, accommodations for holidays and disabilities, or flexible work hours to fit people’s myriad obligations, the company is constantly thinking about its employees’ happiness.

#3: Openness To Innovation

Most companies rely on innovation to drive their business forward. But some companies truly expect it from every corner of their team. How do you figure out which is which? Here are a couple ways you can find out more about what exactly innovation means at a certain company.

For starters, ask about “intrepreneurship.” How has a select group of major tech players managed to stay at the top of an industry that revolves around advances? Simple: They’ve encouraged all of their employees to use the company as a venue for innovation. (Dell has an annual “Game Changers” competition where employees from around the globe pitch to executives who can opt to fund their ideas.)

If an employer can’t provide you with specifics about new products or businesses started by employees, then that may be a sign that the “culture of innovation” is just a phrase.

#4: Ethics And Impact

It’s important to know what kind of company you work for. Do they take responsibility for their actions? Do they contribute to the communities they’re a part of? Essentially, you need to know whether a prospective company makes the world a better or worse place.

This is where hard facts matter the most. Awards and accolades given from third parties are usually for a reason. So, when Dell has taken home trophies for their efforts to cut down on their carbon footprint or for being the largest global recycler of electronics, you know that it’s because they did and they are.

There are things like community engagement, manufacturing practices, and much, much more that you should look out for. There are many ways to make an impact—positive or negative. Companies who take ethics seriously usually have employees who do, too, and it can be great to be around people who care.

And Beyond…

Little things like dress code, snacks, and social events can make a huge difference in helping you adjust to a new city or new stage of life. So, don’t forget about these aspects of company culture, either.

The post 4 Signs That Show An Employer Is Serious About Its Company Culture appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guide.

When we hear “innovation,” it’s hard not to think about the classic success stories and the images of people tinkering with old-timey motherboards in the pursuit of scientific progress. That’s where so many key tech companies like Dell started, after all. But it’s important to remember that it’s not the only way it happens.

There’s a reason major players in tech can manage to stay in the game for so long: Creative and technical geniuses innovate within the structure of their large corporations. The business world has taken to calling this practice “intrapreneurship,” and it could be the way that you manage to thrive as an innovator.

What is intrapreneurship?

Intrapreneurship—in contrast with entrepreneurship—is the practice of creating, pitching, and getting funding for your own business idea or product while working as an employee within a larger corporate structure.

“It’s a new kind of product or a new kind of business,” says veteran intrapreneur and Dell Product Manager Juan Vega. “It’s about identifying new opportunities and leading from the front.”

LEARN MORE ABOUT DELL AND APPLY FOR OPEN JOBS HERE

In the same way that you would start your business on the outside, you have to build a team, invest your own time, and aggressively seek sponsorship from execs in the right department. “You can’t lead from behind,” Juan stresses. “You have to take a risk and say, ‘I really think it’s worth doing something.’ And then you have to go and create the story and the arguments and the support and everything else you need, just as if you were out solo in the business world.”

How Juan tapped into a multi-billion-dollar business.

Juan knows a thing or two about intrapreneurship. Having spent more than 20 years at Dell, Juan has worked on (and started!) countless new businesses and products for the company.

For example, in 2008 he was running the successful Optiplex team, but he wasn’t feeling inspired by his role. “They figured out the formula and it was on track. It was doing great and winning everything. It wasn’t taking a lot to improve it; it just needed someone to keep it going,” he says.

As an innovator, Juan was ready for his next challenge. “I was bored, basically. I ended up looking at the market and thinking, ‘Where are we underserved?’ I started looking for that opportunity,” he says.

He settled on the small business market. The business packages and hardware were just too expensive at that scale. However, it didn’t have to be this way, and Juan knew that. “We had a ton of pricing conflicts. We had a cost problem that wasn’t being resolved in that space,” he says. “So, I found a backfill and got out of the job I was in, once I had sponsorship to drive this new business space.”

The result? “We built a new desktop and notebook business that was specifically focused on driving down costs and meeting the needs of the small business owner. And that’s a billion-something dollar business today.”

How can you do it? It’s all about the company culture.

An intrapreneurial culture is not the only thing that makes a company successful—there are plenty of established businesses that got to where they are by moving methodically and sticking to their guns. There are also flagging industries in which companies will be much more risk-averse because they just aren’t thriving. And it’s those types of companies—whether they’re cautious or just plain old conservative—that you have to avoid if you’re trying to find a place that will let you innovate.

If you’re someone who likes the idea of contributing to a larger team, having steady pay and benefits, and getting exposure to the workings of a major corporation, but you still want to make something new, then you have to make sure you find a company with a culture of intrapreneurship.

LEARN MORE ABOUT DELL AND APPLY FOR OPEN JOBS HERE

“It’s never about asking permission,” Juan explains. “You get permission along the way. You get investment dollars. You get head count. You get project teams. [At Dell], you get whatever it is you need to create that new business.”

How does this happen at Dell? According to Juan, it’s the people. “It’s because of the kind of people who are happy at Dell. We’re a pretty type A company. It all started with Michael in his dorm room. It’s people who are in a lot of ways self-motivated—entrepreneurial-type people— who just happen to be working in a giant corporation,” he says.

“And when you mix the two together, what you get is people who tend to ask a little more forgiveness than permission, and tend to bring opportunities to light as a part of their normal roles and responsibilities.”

The post Here’s Everything You Need To Know About Being An ‘Intrapreneur’ appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guide.

“A black hole is a region of space-time from which it is impossible to escape.”
Stephen Hawkins

One of the biggest questions we hear from students is what happens to my application after I hit submit?  Does it ever reach a college recruiter’s desk, does it ever get read or is it simply launched out into space?  In the HR world this is referred to as the applicant black hole, because once you send an application online into it’s very easy for it to disappear into space.

This problem exists for a number of reasons but the fact is that fewer than 5% of employers follow-up with every applicant they receive and even fewer communicate the real reasons about why they made the choice they did.

While it might seem easy to blame companies for not doing a better job of responding, the reality is that most HR managers receive hundreds of applications every week and are over worked reviewing them — so it’s up to you to stand out. By understanding a bit more about how the online application process works, you can figure out how to navigate this abyss and make sure you emerge on the other side with your ideal internship.
Where do all the resumes go?

As you can probably guess, applications for internships rarely follow the same path. Some employers ask you to apply directly to their email inbox. Others ask for you to apply using a job website like Taleo or WayUp so that they can save the applications in a database online and share them with other employees in the office.

Depending on the size of the employer and how they are accepting applications you need to think up the best strategy to make sure you don’t get overlooked when it comes to decision time. For example, if you’re given a contact name or email address, do some research on the individual and customize your application materials to them personally.

Building a better rocket ship!

The other important skill to develop when applying for internships online is to learn how to make your application stand out among the competition.

Here are 5 tips to help:

1.) Follow-Up!

The biggest piece of advice we can recommend to avoid getting ignored is to follow-up consistently with an employer after you submit an application. This is an art not a science, but most students are way too hesitant to follow-up with employers even if just to ask what the time frame is on responding or to remind them that you have applied. For best practices see our guide on how to follow-up with employers.

2.) Remove all typos from your resume.

Another reason you may not hear back from employers is because they tossed out your resume at first sight. Even if you have one typo on your resume, it shows an employer a lack of professionalism and attention to detail. In fact almost 50% of employers stop reading a resume if they see just one typo! So double check your resume and check out our resume guide for extra help.

3.) Be unique.

As an employer who has hired many students I can safely say, my job is a lot easier when a particular student breaks the mold by standing out. Don’t just spam employers with a standard cover letter, take the extra hour to write something and make a unique cover letter. If the employer has a twitter account tweet at them about how excited you are. If they are coming to your school for a career fair, go and introduce yourself to the recruiting staff and start building a relationship. Your hard work will pay off when it comes to decision time.

4.) Don’t use scammy websites to apply for positions!

Top job boards like your Career Center website or WayUp work hard to make sure every position that is online is up to date and is a high quality position. If you are finding positions by doing a Google search or on Craigslist, you may find some great opportunities but as a rule of thumb the further you go from trusted sites the more likely you are to be applying to a position that has either already closed or doesn’t exist altogether.

5.) Don’t get discouraged.

Last but not least don’t get discouraged. A lot of employers are getting overwhelmed with applications in the current down economy, so even if you are over qualified for a position you simply might not hear back. If you keep at it and keep improving your application skills such as following-up, being unique, and using top job boards, you are going to start getting interviews and eventually find a position you’re excited about.

If you have any questions about the black hole or how to avoid it, feel free to comment or send us emails to support@wayup.com and we are happy to help.

Next, get more career tips for internships and entry-level jobs such as What is an Internship? and find answers to common interview questions such as What’s Your Dream Job?

The post How to Apply to Internships Online and Not Get Lost in The Black Hole appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guide.

Writing a blog post on why you would like to work at a company is a brilliant way to stand out. A blog post application serves two purposes:

1.) It demonstrates that you understand and know how to use important online marketing and communication tools.

2.) The medium itself allows you to express a voice and excitement for a company in a manner that is much stronger and more powerful than a traditional cover letter.

There are two easy to use services for writing a blog post on — Tumblr and WordPress!

Tumblr
takes only a few seconds to setup and is built to allow to get applying quickly.

WordPress
is more customizable, a little more complex to setup, but has a ton of additional tools and features to help you standout.  It is also more commonly used by companies so is more helpful in teaching you the right skills when applying for a marketing or communications role.

Inspiration:

This blog post by Lisa Petrilli explains 4 ways your blog can succeed in making you standout and offers additional insight on why this strategy can be effective.

Next, get more career tips for internships and entry-level jobs such as What is an Internship? and find answers to common interview questions such as What’s Your Dream Job?

The post How to Use a Blog to Apply for An Internship appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guide.

Getting multiple job offers is a good thing… a very good thing, given the current job market. You submit your resume a few times, you cross your fingers and you get an offer! But wait a minute, a few days later you get another offer and then another. Rather than panic or attend more interviews when you’ve already accepted somewhere else, it is best to respond to each offer in a timely and professional manner so that you don’t burn any bridges in an industry you are still new in.

A couple important points to consider:

1. Chances are if an employer liked you enough to give you an offer this time around, they will be open to interviewing you again. Following-up with a kind, professional email like one of the ones we have below (tailored, of course, to your specific situation) will reinforce the idea that you are a grade-A professional and someone they will want to work with down the road. A LinkedIn connection isn’t a bad idea either.
2. You are a hot commodity now. Some employers might be willing to give you a counter offer. If this is something you are interested in, then a follow-up is definitely worth writing.

Sample Email: To Turn Down an Offer

Dear (Name of Person Who Made the Offer)

Thank you for your time and offer — I really enjoyed the opportunity to
interview with you and the rest of the xyz team.

I wanted to let you know I recently accepted another position. While I
am extremely passionate about the work you are doing, the offer I
accepted was at another top choice of mine.  I wanted to tell you as
soon as possible so that this does not interfere with your candidate
search.

I hold your company in high regard, have connected with you on LinkedIn,
and hope we can stay in touch!  Thanks again for your time and for
considering me as a candidate.

Sincerely,

Name

Sample Email: Inquiring About a Counter Offer

Dear (Name of Person Who Made the Offer)

Thank you for your offer! I am thrilled to have been selected as a
potential employee. I wanted to let you know I recently received another
offer that I am also strongly considering. The positions are a bit
different and I wanted to see if you’d be available to speak briefly on
the phone with me today or tomorrow to discuss a few remaining questions
I have about this role?

Thanks again for your time and interest.

Sincerely,

Name

Sample Email: Turning Down an Offer Alternate

Dear (Name of Person Who Made the Offer)

Thank you for your offer! I appreciate you taking the time to teach me
more about the company. I am a strong believer in your mission to… and
hope to become directly involved with your work at some point.
Unfortunately at this time I have accepted another offer that I think is
a better fit for the specific interests I am looking to develop this
summer. I hope this doesn’t interfere with your candidate search.

If you are free at any point to get coffee or lunch I would love to
continue talking and hopefully explore the option of reapplying later
on. Thank you again for your time and interest.

Sincerely,

Name

The post Ultimate Guide to Dealing with Multiple Internship Offers appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guide.

Summer internships are special. While interning during the school year can offer a phenomenal experience, a summer internship is typically full-time, allowing you to put your full focus on developing professional skills and impressing your boss and peers. It can also help you line up a full-time job after you graduate. Many summer internships are also part of an internship program that can involve a number of other students as well as unique mentorship events like brown-bag lunches, and fun activities like company baseball games.

To make the most of your summer internship you should come into it with goals and have a strategy to make sure you succeed. Goals can be anything from getting way better at a certain professional skill like sales, or front-end engineering; or, a goal can be to network and meet as many other people as you can. To help you get the most out of your summer position, we talked to hundreds of students to learn more about what they wished they knew before their first internship and made a summer internship blog series covering key topics and activities you should study and complete. Our list is below:

Week by week advice to make the most of your summer internship: 

Pre-Internship:
Setting Summer Internship Goals

Week 1:
10 Tips on Setting Goals with Your Manager

Week 2:
How to Accelerate Your Learning Curve

Week 3:
Get Productive and Learn to Manage Your Workload

Week 4:
Learn to Network With Peers and Co-Workers Early

Remember the 10 Must Dos of Networking

Explore these 7 Online Resources Perfect for Networking

Learn to spark more thrilling conversations

Week 5:
Build Your Personal Project

Week 6:
Check Yourself and Reorganize Your Space

Week 7:
Look Ahead to Maximize Your Impact

Week 8:
Learn How to Land Your First Job

Week 9:
3 Steps for Asking for a Letter of Recommendation

Week 10:
5 Things You MUST Do Before Leaving Your Summer Internship

Advanced Tips for Writing Memorable Thank You Letters

What’s Next?

Once you’ve knocked your summer internship out of the park, you’ll be on the hunt for another internship or an entry-level job. If you’re moving on to entry-level jobs, here are a few suggestions for starting your search.
If you’re think you’ll be looking at jobs outside of your major focus, we’ve got a few tips for you here.

Next, get more career tips for internships and entry-level jobs such as What is an Internship? and find answers to common interview questions such as What’s Your Dream Job?

The post Mastering Your Summer Internship appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guide.

Got five minutes? Great! Here are the top five questions you should be prepared to answer before any internship interview. The art of interviewing well includes knowing how to respond to the most popular types of interview questions.

If you feel nervous about being interviewed, we encourage you to practice answering the following foundational questions. Remember, you initially took the time to prepare an outstanding application (which got you to this stage in the first place) so continue this trend and take the time to prepare for the interview.

Of course, please take more than five minutes to actually prepare for your interview.  Practice the answers to these questions—in fact, master them:

1. Tell me about yourself?

The interviewer’s intent of asking this question is to get to know you. Your goal, however, is for the interviewer to remember you. Be brief by keeping answers to 60 seconds or less. One way of doing this is to open up by introducing where you are from and by directly stating what you are currently doing (student or working professional). Proceed to discuss your academic of professional interests and list 1-3 past experiences supporting your interests. Conclude by stating the reason(s) for applying to the internship.

2.  What are your strengths and weaknesses?

The intent of this question is to learn more about your competencies and your motivation to improve your weak ones. Prepare to discuss at least 3 strengths and 3 weaknesses.

Most candidates get nervous at the thought of divulging weaknesses. After all, isn’t stating a weakness a bad thing?  It actually is not if you are choosing to do something about. Herein lies the strategy; first, stay away from cliché and ineffective answers such as “perfectionist” or “workaholic.” Second, always follow a statement about a weakness with a statement describing what you are doing to improve upon it.

For instance, if you have struggled in the past with public speaking, you could state, “However, by learning to collaborate within smaller teams and joining leadership positions on campus, I am learning to give speeches and short announcements to larger crowds…”

Also remember that the lack of experience in a given field can be a weakness but that transferable skills or experience may make up for it. For instance, “While I have never worked in a marketing position for a large nonprofit, I have taken classes in nonprofit management and I have volunteered for political campaigns where I learned to develop targeted messages.”

3.  Give me an example or a situation in which…

The intent of this question is to understand how you would respond to situational or work-place situations. By asking questions about your past, the interviewer may try to predict how you would handle and resolve future workplace situations, from deadlines to interacting with coworkers.

Individual questions vary, but typically, you should prepare at least 3 scenarios to cover any of these questions: (1) a situation in which you faced a conflict or difficulty at work or in school; (2) a situation in which you may have had difficulty with a supervisor, co-worker, or peer; and (3) a leadership opportunity or a project you were most proud of.

Where do you find examples?  Look at your resume. Remember, you can use also use experiences from school or from other prior internships or work.

To answer such questions, use a variation of the “STAR” technique: answer the question by retelling the situation
and stating the task at hand that was involved in the situation. Then describe how you acted (the action). End by revealing the results of your actions and how you resolved the situation. Using the STAR technique will keep your answers relevant and succinct.

4.  Let’s go over your resume (and what’s not on it).

The purpose of this question is to see how you discuss past educational and professional experiences. Seize this opportunity to successfully market yourself. An interviewer may start by going over your resume but end by asking you to provide more details on a variety of topics, whether it’s a project you’ve collaborated on, the time gaps in between jobs, and class subjects you enjoyed or least enjoyed.

This question is a big reason why you should know your resume inside and out. Aside from sounding confident and prepared, you will sound professional. So know your resume like the back of your hand. One strategy to help you highlight certain parts of your resume to the interviewer would be to prepare an “interview resume” to bring to the actual interview. This is a resume that has been slightly marked up with your notes. These notes could be extra information or qualities that are relevant to the internship description. If permitted, pull out the resume at the beginning of your interview so you can have your notes in front of you at all times.

5. What are your career goals (a.k.a. where do you see yourself in ___ years)?

Interviewers usually pose this question because they may be interested in knowing how serious you are in pursuing a given academic or professional field. In an internship context, this question should compel you to dig down and think about your career interests in the long term: Are you planning to go back to graduate school? Are you interested in gaining a few years of actual real-world experience? Would you like to work as a full-time staff member of an organization similar to the one you are applying for? There is no “right answer” but you do have to provide one that is insightful in that you have a plan to keep building your professional skills after your internship. Who knows, maybe your organization would like to know if you would be available for a permanent position after you complete your internship. And in that case, how you answer this becomes all the more important.

There you have it. To sum up, thoroughly prepare your answers on these 5 basic questions. In fact, have a friend drill you to help keep your answers brief and avoid rambling. Talk to a mirror. Repeat the answers in the shower.  Write your answers down and keep studying at it. The results: a successful interview and newfound confidence in your ability to interview well.

Next, get more career tips for internships and entry-level jobs such as 6 Ways to Impress Your Boss and find answers to common interview questions such as What Are Your Strengths?

The post Internship Interview: Questions and Answers appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guide.

As an underclassmen (first, second, or third year student) it’s important to get ahead of the competition when embarking on an internship search, and this video goes into great detail on how to do just that. Featuring College Recruiting Leaders from Google, Twitter, and Facebook, you will learn how to tell your story through your resume, the importance of networking, how to find an internship, and what you can do to develop professional skills as a student.

Underclassmen Video Transcription

You know, WayUp is a leading platform for college students and one of our main goals is to provide resources and unique events where you as students, can learn about different best practices for getting ahead and finding an internship and eventually a career after college that you’re passionate and excited about it and really love.

And so, you know, whether that’s working at a small start-up or a large corporation or anything in between, we want to help you navigate to that place. And one of the questions that we’ve been getting a lot recently have been from first and second year students. And underclassmen have started to become an increasing population on our platform, over 35% of our users are now 1st and 2nd year students and we’ve been getting thousands of questions about, is freshman year too early to start preparing for an internship?

How can I set myself apart if I have very minimal job experience? We thought these were fantastic questions, and we wanted to bring speakers to you who could best address those questions, and really help you figure out that process, and so I’m absolutely thrilled to have here with me, three panelists from, three of the leading technology companies in the world, and three companies that are, I know brands and places to go and work that are really at the top of students’ minds and very much coveted.

And beyond that, our speakers have really deep experience in helping students think about what’s the right career for them, and so are some of the best people to answer those questions, and really help you think more critically about what you should be doing internship and jobwise, as a freshman and as a sophomore. So, I don’t want to take up very much time, we only have an hour here so I really wanna send everything over to our panelists.

And you know, very quickly, we’ll be getting bigger introductions, but we have with us Adam Ward from Facebook who’s their head of college hiring, we have Ronnard Cook who is Twitter’s head of college hiring, and Carolyn Lee who is Google’s head of engineering hiring for first and second year students.

So, thanks for joining us in such a busy time.

Thank you to students for taking an interest and taking the initiative to think about your career as a first or second year student, and last but not least, for anyone who’s interested in asking questions, if we have time at the end of the event, we’ll address those. You can ask them on our Google+ stream or by asking them on our Facebook page.

So, now with all the fun logistical stuff taken care of, want to switch gears over and we’re going to run just quickly alphabetically through our different speakers. They’re going to share a bit about how they got started, an a bit about their company’s internship program so, Adam, thanks for joining us. Do you mind kicking us off here?

Sure, hey everyone thanks for joining us today. Facebook’s glad and excited to be here and work with WayUp on this. My name is Adam Ward and I manage our Global University Recruiting Program here at Facebook. And we hire hundreds of interns every year, across the year, year-round. And, we’re excited to answer your questions that you’ve about internships in general and internships at Facebook. Awesome and actually one just, quick additional piece I’m gonna ask each speaker in the into.

Do you hire both technical students and engineering students and do you hire international students because that’s questions that we got just multiple of, so we’d love to address that up front.

Yes, we’ll hire all of those engineering, non-engineering, and international students. Okay, fantastic . So, next up Caroline Lee thanks so much for joining us and thanks for sharing your insights with all the students listening in. Do you mind sharing briefly about Google’s internship program, and their first and second year programs specifically?

Definitely, so, I’m really happy to be here, and thank you students, for joining in. So, again my name is and Caroline. I manage one of our internship programs here at Google called the Engineering Practicum Internship Program. The Engineering Practicum Internship is targeted at current sophomores, especially those who come from traditionally under-represented backgrounds within computer science. And it’s 12-week internship as some of you might know, and it has a public component, interns work with other interns in pods, and they also take weekly CS courses.

Engineering practicum is just one of our few internship programs that we actually have at Google. We have, of course, our broader engineering intern program, where we hire international students. We also have, of course, an internship program for non-technical students as well. Fantastic, thank you so much, and last but certainly not least Ronner Cook who manages Twitter’s college recruiting program, and we’d love to learn a bit more.

Thanks for joining us Ronner. Hi everyone. Welcome, again my name is Ronner, and I’m really happy to partner with WayUp on this. This is actually our third season recruiting for interns, so we’re really excited to obviously have more of you here. To give you a little bit of a background, two years ago I started at Twitter.

And, I was brought in to basically start the university program’s team and starting to hire new grads and our first class of interns. So, since then we’ve had quite a bit of success, and we do also do year round internships. So, if you’re interested in doing Fall or Spring internships we’re very flexible on that as well.

Like, some of the programs for example, in Canada, Waterloo, Toronto, UPC, there’s quite a few co-op programs, and we’re also quite flexible with that. And we do hire international students as well. So, another thing that Nathan has asked me to address is whether or not we hire non-engineering students as well.

Our main focus right now is on computer science and engineering for our software engineering roles. We have a handful of non-engineering positions, but that’s not the bulk of our focus. We do have some one off positions, if you’re interested in that, I can definitely find out for you.

Fantastic. Thank you. So I think we’d like to start this panel just with a question that’s really is at the heart of the underclassman internship search, and is sort of basis for a lot this hangout but, do you think and do you speakers think that students who are freshmen and sophomores should even be looking for professional experience at this point in their career?

It’s, you know, very early on, they’re still getting into their academic studies and if so, what should they be expecting to get out of it, given that they probably won’t be graduating and really applying for jobs for another few years? And Carolyn, since you went second last time would you like to kick us off here?

Sure, definitely. So at Google we think that students should absolutely be looking for professional experience as a freshman or sophomore. It’s actually really helpful for students to get that type of internship experience, especially if they’re looking to get a job at one of the most, you know, competitive companies in the future. And, what students can expect to get out of it is, first of all, really learning what it’s like to code in an industry environment versus a school environment.

Also really learning the company as well as the engineering culture, and then also, of course, being part of a community of other young CS students.

We absolutely think that freshman and sophomore students should be involved. Fantastic Ronner, Adam, would you like to add to that or? Yeah, I mean, I think definitely in the same vein as what Caroline mentioned, we highly encourage freshman and sophomore students to get involved as early as possible. I think it’s, here, especially at Twitter, in our engineering teams, we definitely look for that practical experience, and especially if you’ve been coding for a while, and you know, way before you got to college.

And also, if you’ve contributed to any of the opensource projects or have played with Twitter API.

We definitely encourage you to let us know, whether it’s in your cover letter, whether it’s in your resume. We definitely look at that. So, you know, practical experience is great and we don’t have a degree requirement or an age requirement at all for our internships. Quite a few of our younger interns who interned with us just after freshman year or sophomore year, have actually come back with us multiple summers, so we highly encourage that.

Awesome. Fantastic. Actually, that’s a really interesting question. As part of, expecting to get out of it, what you first touched on was a fantastic professional understanding, which is valuable for any future internship, and then it sounds like beyond that, most of your companies offer the opportunity to either continue on maybe transition rolls into a slightly different but similar internship in the following year. Would you say that’s a fairly accurate sort of potential end goal for students coming through the program is to get that experience but also maybe to come and work again or to work somewhere else and kinda take that first learning experience with them to a new company?

Yeah, I’ll jump in. I think the advice I typically give interns who are thinking about returning back or doing a second internship the next term or semester is at the very least do something very different at that company. But, we’ll often give the advice to our interns to actually go and try another company, we’d love to have them back and we will give them offers to return. But we encourage them to try something different, and kind of vary their experience.

Internships are just an amazing opportunity in your life to try out something for three months, and there will be very few opportunities later in and your life to actually do that. So, it’s an amazing opportunity to take advantage of, to try something different, the following term and semester, if not another company, but then definitely a different type of team, or product, or technology or experience.

Perfect, okay well thanks so much and well, I think that segues really nicely into the next question that we see all the time, and maybe is the meat and potatoes of this conversation, but there’s often this Catch 22 that assumes experience and the fact that an internship is a tool to get experience, but first and second year students frequently do not have a ton of professional experience, and so can each of you just explain if you hire first and second years students, and why or why not, and what you typically look for in students who probably don’t have a ton of traditional, you know, on the job experience and, Ronner, if you would like to start us off that would be fantastic.

Sure, so yes, we do hire freshman and sophomore students for internships.

And what we look for, in lieu of some of the heavier industry experience, since these students tend not have as much of that, is extracurricular activities. We just really wanna see that outside of the class, outside of your academia responsibilities that you are really passionate about other things.

In technology, whether it’s starting you know, you’ve had some start up experiences, whether it’s an organization in schools, CS competitions, leadership roles. We definitely look for that. Those are really great things to really highlight on the resume, then what I touched on earlier was API’s, open source projects that you’ve done.

So, those are all really great and as always if you know someone at Twitter, or if you have a professor that’s been a visiting professor at Twitter or are working on a research project that’s some how related, we’d love to definitely see that too on your resume, and somehow let us know.

So, I think those are all really key things to highlight.

Yeah, that’s some fantastic feedback, the fact that side projects are fantastic, competitions are fantastic and then actually playing with your company’s API tends to be icing on the cake and shows that real high-level interest in Twitter. Adam, is that the same generally at Facebook or are there other things that you tend to look for in first and second year students?

Yeah, I think that’s generally about the same thing, I think there are a lot opportunities for students to do things outside of classroom work and projects. There’s a lot of student organizations. There’s a lot of opensource communities. There’s a lot of competitions. Generally we like to see students, regardless of year and degree, that have built stuff.

So, whether they’ve made commits to opensource communities or on Reddit or other things or portfolio of work. We like to see students who have built things, and some kind of demonstrated experience doing that. It doesn’t have to be classroom or project related.

Yeah, and I know everyone here is somewhat engineering focused to a degree, but how do you see that playing out, Adam for you mentioned also hiring marketing and business students. I mean, how does a marketing or business student generally show outside the classroom, or project experience?

Yeah, I mean they may do that a lot through student organizations or maybe a club or organization that they’ve started, or a really significant contribution that they’ve made.

Usually a question that I like to ask the students, what was your role? What did you do? And I think we all, as recruiters, often see students that are part of class projects. And it’s really hard to tease out what that particular student did, what their contribution impact was. I think the better that students are able to clearly and concisely identify what their role, and their impact was in that project, that organization, that idea, that grassroots club, helps set them apart and helps differentiate the great from the good.

So students who are listening in, obviously at top company’s what’s awesome to hear is that, one, all the work you do outside of your class is really meaningful. But two, just saying that you’re part of XYZ club is not going to get you across the line.

You actually have to really have done something that you engaged in at a high level and can speak to and share more in-depth detail on. So, that’s really exciting to hear that that kind of experience resonates and tends to turn over to the right kind of students that you want to work with at that your companies.

Caroline, as far as the Google practicum programs and your programs, what kind of experience do you tend to look for in interviews and on a resume for young students? Sure, so for young students, just like Ronner and Adam said, we really are looking for that extracurricular experience outside of their schoolwork.

In addition to the coding competitions and opensource and things like that, we’re also looking for personal projects. So, for example let’s say you’ve built, with a friend, an iPhone or Android app. That definitely counts as a lot. In terms of outside experience, we also look for, for example, T.A. or tutoring work.

We also look for if you’ve been a club master for example for one of your clubs. All of that outside extra curricular work really, really helps if you don’t have that internship experience. And also I believe that you asked about interviews as well? Sure, yeah, that would be great. So, for interviews for our freshman and sophomore programs, they give go through two forty-five minute technical phone interviews and for that, we do ask that students program in one of the object oriented programming languages so Java, C++ or Python.

And in order to prepare for that, students are always asked to review their CS basics, so crack open those textbooks and review those concepts and definitely practice coding with your friends. So practice over a Google Doc or a whiteboard. Perfect, yeah so, some live coding during the interview process, that helps kind of identify skill, even if it hasn’t been shown through prior job experience. That’s definitely helpful.

So we talked a lot about extracurriculars and it sounds like one of the huge takeaways I am getting is that those are extremely meaningful, you have to be doing work outside of class to really prove yourself, if you don’t have a lot of experience. And then, obviously that’s fodder for a resume that doesn’t include include lots of internship experience.

How about academically? Are there, you know, courses or, you know a lot of students who are listening in are thinking about ways to sync up what they do in the classroom with potentially finding a future internship or job. And so Adam, maybe kicking off with you here, are there specific courses that you recommend that, maybe fit with specific types of internships that you would love to see? Or do you really look for a broad swath of backgrounds, majors and it can be open to anything?

I think when you think about projects their extra-curriculars or classroom, I think what we like to see is a demonstrated passion for something. So, if you’re really passionate about academics, then we’d expect you to be really good at academics. If you’re really passionate about robotics, we’d expect you to be really involved with a robotic club, having built some, actually robotics in the past.

If you’re really passionate about the environment we want to see that you are really involved and passionate there, so, I think it’s unrealistic to think that they’re going to have this amazing portfolio of classroom, volunteer, and extracurricular activities. Something’s got to give there. We like to see more of a demonstrated passion. So, when we think about the degree classes, especially for freshmen and sophomores, we want to see that they got the fundamentals and did really well with the fundamentals.

Most programming languages, if we’re talking about engineering are built off really core fundamentals of data structures and algorithms and things like that, and we want to see that they’ve got a mastery of that, because that’s going to be real important for other things that they’ll learn throughout their college and professional career.

If we’re looking at non-technical positions we want to see that they took related classwork, but then when they often get the opportunity to choose a project, that they’re choosing a project and concept that’s really related to again, the thing that they’re most passionate about, because they often have a lot of free range on some of those projects that they choose.

I think I heard passion said numerous times in that response, so I think that’s awesome feedback for students, I mean, I think students sometimes fear that they have to make choices that employers are gonna be excited about and that they can’t always pursue what they’re passionate about because they need to get certain job skills, so it’s really cool to hear that that’s maybe not the case.

Would you say is there any one particular class or two classes that if you’re an engineer that’s really valuable to take in your first and second year?

I think, I mean, I think it is. It depends, every student is going to come in with a different amount of experience with computer science and programming, some high schools offer, have great programs, and students are going to be more advanced than others, so it’s hard to say, but I do think in the first year that they are taking as many of the prerequisite and entry level classes that they can. And if they are already taking those, having at least one or two CS classes in that first year of the next level, I think are important.

We, like Google and probably Twitter, we really prefer object oriented things, but other companies are going to want embedded C and more systems programming. So, I wouldn’t choose classes based on what you think the company wants, I would choose classes on what’s most exciting and interesting to you and stay on that path. And then you’ll find, eventually, the company and career that’s the right match for you.

If you’re always trying to please some set of companies, then you’re going to be kind of chasing that, fighting that battle for a long time, versus find out what you’re really excited and interested in, then takie those classes. And then that’ll eventually yield into internships and jobs.

Perfect, that’s great advice.

Caroline, I know that Google’s sort of renowned as being a very academically focused company and that I’ve heard, and maybe it’s totally not accurate, that GPA sometimes is viewed as very important or is well prized within the company. As far as academics that students might be interested in, as first and second years, are there any specific courses or specific recommendations you would have for students?

In terms of courses, I think Adam gave really good advice there, in terms of just taking the courses that you’re most passionate about. For Google internships specifically though, students who are interested in interning at Google should have a grasp of object oriented programming languages. So, I would highly recommend that they take courses like intro to Java or intro to Python pretty seriously because that is what we’re looking for here.

Fantastic, and so Ronner, do you have anything you’d like to add to that sort of academic conversation about what students should be thinking about and what they look for in classroom experience?

Yeah, sure, I think Adam and Caroline touched on the basics. Definitely having the fundamentals down, I would say in your first year, definitely make sure, especially if you haven’t been programming since you were fifteen or something, definitely make sure you’ve got data structures and the algorithms down.

Those are basic things that you need to expect that we’ll cover in our technical phone interviews, which constitute the first round of internship interviews. So those are all fair game questions. And then I would say that, you know, in terms of languages, pretty much the same thing as what they look for at Google, as well as Facebook.

For our back end we do a lot, we use a lot of Java, Scala, Ruby, NC++. I know a lot of students are pretty interested in back end work. So, what I usually do when I engage with a student is I talk to them about where their interests and their strength lays. And I know this is a little bit hard to gauge in terms of interest because at this juncture, you know, freshman or sophomore year you’re still testing it out.

You’re still not sure and that’s what the whole point of an internship, right, because you want to find out what you’re more interested in. But we do ask you that and we steer you towards a specific group based on your interest and your preference really early on, so that your internship experience is actually with a specific group that has that. If you’re interested in developing more on the mobile side, more working with say trends or social graphs, we’ll put you specifically with those teams.

So, I think that’s one of the good things about, in terms of doing an internship here and knowing exactly what team you’ll able to gain that experience in.

So, slightly just kind of a related question, I’m just hearing so much conversation about interests and passion and communicating what is exciting to you and so what comes to mind is that, while that is obviously something that is really a perfect application, what the application tends to often look like is, it’s applying through, a paper resume through either an online site or coming into a career fair and kind of meeting you or someone who works on your team and kind of expressing that. So, if someone’s applying online, how can they share that passion in a resume? Do you look for a traditional resume?

Could you, and maybe Caroline you could run us through this first, what would a good resume look like to you? Is there a typical format? Is there any sort of approach for first and second year students to be able to express that passion and interest, because obviously that’s not always an easy thing to do in a paper format.

Yeah, definitely, so within the resume, besides obviously listing your education and what relevant courses you’ve taken thus far, we’re also looking for relevant skills, so, for example, if you’re able to code in Java and Python or C++, if you have, you know, other experiences with operating systems for example, we do ask that you list that.

And then, I would also break it up into other sections, so besides the relevant coursework that you’ve taken, definitely list full projects that would be very helpful for us to know, and also your projects outside of your schoolwork. So again, those personal projects, whether that’s building an Android app or participating in opensource, or participating in coding competitions.

Fantastic, and just out of curiosity, a very specific question, does and should a resume from an underclassmen student, should it be one page, should it be multiple pages? Any thoughts on that? We definitely think it should be one page, just because again we don’t expect that younger students will have a whole lot of experience and so typically multi-page resumes are reserved for our PHD students where they have, for example, many publications to list.

Short and to the point. So Ronner, do you think there’s a way for students to express their interest and passion through a resume, and if so, what are some key things you like to see on a younger student’s resume? Sure, I think I’m seeing a lot of really, really high-caliber resumes and strong resumes that obviously have some students as young as sophomores, freshman might already have internship experiences.

So, I would love to see in addition to, listing out where you intern. I like to see, specifically, this goes back to Adam’s point about what your part, your role of the project was and what you specifically worked on and accomplished. I like to see that and then that gives me a really good sense for how that’s relevant to Twitter projects and Twitter engineering.

So, from that, I can kind extrapolate, oh well this person might be really good for this particular team and then I’ll reach out accordingly. So, I think that’s really important just to be as specific as you can. There are certain things that might not go well on the resume format. I’m definitely open to seeing that maybe a few bullets of it in a cover letter. I think sometimes that could be a really well, a really good tool to use as a supplement to your resume if there’s anything else that you want to highlight.

So, for younger students a cover letter can be a really critical piece to help expand upon their interest and what they’re doing, and I take it that, do you read a resume first or a cover letter first, and sort of, do cover letters, are they usually seen as something that’s an additional info about that student, or are they kind of on equal standing as a resume?

For me personally, I definitely put more weight in the resume. I think that, I mean I read the cover letter usually first and then, if the resume looks pretty interesting or if I’m sort of on the fence with it, I’ll read more into cover letter and see if there’s any strengths in there that, you know, that weren’t quite highlighted on the resume.

Fantastic. Adam I know that we’ve gotten a lot of great advise already on this topic, but anything that you’d like to add in terms of resumes and cover letters and how students should spend their time when applying? Generally, just one piece of advice I think, is the last step that you want to take is applying online. The steps that you want to take leading up to actually applying online is trying to meet that company on campus if they’re on your campus. Try to identify another student that has interned there, or a professor that’s partnered with. Try to make a more personal connection with someone at that company, and don’t rely on our company’s careers website to help you stand out.

Because, in fact, it will do the exact opposite. We, as recruiters, look at a lot of resumes and we aren’t often looking at that resume on paper we’re looking at it on our screen and we’re just scrolling through lots of resumes. So it’s-

Sort of a great segue so I can let you take a quick shot at this first, since you already touched on it, Adam, but, how can students engage you or someone on your team and you mentioned career fairs, can they reach out to you on Facebook, by email? What are the other ways that they can let you know that they’re the right fit for your team and they’re excited and passionate about what you’re working on. Yeah, I mean, I think what we really love to hear is we love to hear from our former interns when they go back to campus, like, who else do you know? Who else do you think would be a fit here?

Those people not only now understand your company’s culture and hiring bar, but they also understand the context of the University, of who’s doing well in some of the under graduate classes so they can help kind of be that conduit. So, seek out those students that just interned the previous summer at that company.

Most companies now are doing some kind of campus ambassador thing where they actually are asking certain former interns to go back and help identify that. It’s pretty easy to probably identify those people. Second worst to applying online, is standing in line at a career fair, so also, vary tough to differentiate yourself by standing in a line for fifteen minutes and then talking to someone at the head of the line for two or three minutes and they write a couple notes on the back of your resume, and then they fly home to California and look into those 300 resumes later, and trying and remember who you are.

That’s only slightly better to being one of the 500 applicants online. So, look for other ways to connect with the company on campus, whether it’s talking with them at a talk or going to some kind of hangout or if they come to a lab, look for a differentiated way to actually meet them in a more relaxed environment, then kind of the pressure cooker and crowded aspect of a career fair. And all of our recruiters, I’m sure have different Facebook groups and you can message them and connect with them on LinkedIn or other tools as well, that’s also a great way to reach out.

Adam I think you might be breaking some student’s heart who get really excited about dressing up in a suit and tie and going to career fairs and look forward to that day every year.

Nobody loves a career fair. The students don’t love it, the companies don’t love it, so, but it’s a necessary evil and it’s important, but it’s not as important as other ways that if you’re trying to differentiate yourself, there’s other, probably more effective ways to do that. So, I guess it sounds a lot like the importance of networking, so Caroline, would you mind sharing a tiny bit about how you, obviously Google’s a really massive team.

I know that there’s representatives who work with campuses across the country. How can students network with you, someone else on your team, former Google interns and sort of best position themselves to stand out in the pile of resumes? Sure so, besides, for example, attending our info sessions and talking to us afterwards, which really helps put a face to, for example, a resume, there are so many other ways for students to get involved and engage with us.

One example is many companies actually hold puzzle events or scavenger hunts or hack-a-thons. And that’s actually a really great way for students to get involved and really talk to the company representatives in a more intimate environment, but also also have some fun while doing that. So, for example by participating in a puzzle event or hack-a-thon, and then there are other ways to get engaged as well.

Many companies have a pretty large social presence online. So, for example, for Google, we have our Google students account where we often talk about opportunities or programs which students can get involved in, and I know other companies do that as well. So definitely look for their Google+ or Facebook or Twitter accounts and their blogs as well.

Perfect, and Ronner, would you express the same, or what are your thoughts on online applications versus other ways to apply to these positions at Twitter? And I mean obviously all of your reps are extremely busy and so how can the student engage in the right level without being too pushy or too aggressive?

Right, I mean I definitely echo the same thoughts that, you know Caroline and Adam shared. I would say that there are so many different ways and creative ways that you can get, you can network with us. In addition to some of the obvious ones, we have, for example, the @terns account is our intern blog account, so we basically have our interns take over a week or a day, tweeting, you know, the fun things, the interesting stories that they have, you know, while they’re interning here at Twitter.

So, those are great ways to just, you know, see and kind of follow who our interns are and maybe you’ll find some that are actually from your school and definitely hit them up because everyone loves to talk about their experience. And, you know, I would say there’s no stronger testimonial than getting, you know, first hand experience from your fellow students, right? Because they’re your peers, they are going through pretty much the same experience as you, but they can give you the reality of an insight to what it’s like to working at some of these companies. I would say those are all really good ways to do that.

You know, DM myself or any of the recruiters on Twitter and I would say we’ve also seen a lot of outreach from LinkedIn as well. But I would say definitely participating in the hack-a-thons that companies sponsor and coming up to talk to our engineers and to the recruiters while we’re on campus. If you’re from one of the schools where we, unfortunately, don’t have the bandwidth to go to right now don’t you don’t shy from that.

I would definitely reach out and introduce yourself and give us a few things, like an elevator pitch of why you think you want, why you want to work here and what you’re passionate about. I think those are maybe a few bullets to highlight why specifically Twitter or Google or Facebook that you’re passionate about. I think that would be very, very helpful to help you stand out from a recruiters perspective.

Fantastic, well I think this has been golden, on this question, has been golden advice in that speaking to students who you might have somewhere in your network who have previously worked at a company, regardless if it’s of one these three companies who are speaking now or anywhere else that you might envision yourself working, that’s an incredible person to get a vote of approval from. And those are usually someone on your campus in a club or someone who has similar passions to you probably, when you’re doing all those other fantastics or extracurriculars that we’ve already spoken about, are people that you can access and talk to in that normal, I don’t know, just in your day to day. So, it’s a really great opportunity I think, to kind of recognize as other peers as potential inroads to future careers.

So, kind of, I guess, a broader question here and I think that right now that technology’s becoming very pervasive and we’re seeing a more open education system and I think a lot of universities, MIT, Stanford, are all doing online classes now, and so I guess one question I wanted to have for you all is, as panelists who see a lot of this happening is, do you see this sort of opening up of education as a leading a charge towards you as companies being more open to younger students because there’s kind of a breaking down of traditional, you know, needing to go through four years of college before you’re ready to go to work at a company or do you not see that happening?

And, sort of what are your thoughts on how technology’s changing how you view age in the hiring process? And Ronner, do you mind taking a first crack at that?

Yeah, it’s a really good question that I’ve actually had really interesting conversations with my colleagues on the last few weeks especially. I think it definitely blurs the line.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be someone that went to that college and has that particular pedigree of the top twenty CS curriculum. In fact, I would love to get to know more smaller engineering programs out there too. So, there are a few instances here at Twitter where some of our interns have actually decided to stay here full-time after their internship rather than going back and continuing school, and this isn’t just PHD folks, but this is also undergrad students.

I think that speaks volumes to their experience here at Twitter. Obviously from my perspective it’s a very personal decision, right, that you have to make, the student would have to make on their own, and what’s right for them. But, I think that, you know, in terms of experience and just the amount of exposure that you get right now to technology at an early age, I think the doors are definitely open for you and there are so many different ways that we can help you through this, and whether it’s deferring a degree or doing a longer term internship, we’re very flexible in terms of kind of making the right balance for you.

So, I think it really goes back to what you’re passionate about and what you want to do and what you want to explore. But I would say one advice is that a lot of students coming out of college they think that oh, well this is a super, super important decision that I’m making and I don’t want to pigeonhole myself into a particular path. I would encourage you not to think that way because anywhere you land, obviously, being a super talented student you’re going to be doing a great, you’re going to definitely be adding strength to your resume and your background.

There’s always opportunities for you to switch later on. So, don’t worry too much about being pigeon-holed because doors are always open.

That’s great advice, I think, yeah, it’s hard to ever imagine where you might end up ten/fifteen years out of college and sort of how, the career path I always kind of see as more of a winding process than any direct line. So, that’s really fantastic advice to kind of engage positively and sort of the short term rather trying to manage too much where you’re gong to be in the long term.

Adam, do you see new online tools affecting how you hire candidates? Do you ever see a future where students will be getting badges online from places like the Khan Academy or other sources like that, that end up being more meaningful than sort of college courses or anything of that nature?

Yeah, I think in general the openness of education and the information dissemination is a good thing. And two of the industries that I think that are going to be slower to be impacted by the amount information and, you know, connectedness and the social graph are healthcare and education, for very different reasons. Healthcare is very obvious with patient privacy and medical records. Education, just from the traditional nature and the structure of it, but I think we are seeing some really interesting attacks I will which are good things, disruptive technologies that are really hopefully will move it forward faster than it’s currently moving. And, Kahn Academy is a great example, and there’s a bunch of other ones.

But, you know, if I think about computer science in general, it’s ripe for some modernization and I know all of these companies on this column and this meeting are really passionate about helping computer science get as modernized as quickly as possible.

But it is an upstream battle when it comes to very traditional academic brick and mortar institutions, and hundreds of years of legacy of that. It’s gonna take some time but I think in general we are at a crossroads, an opportunity for more students to get more access to top education, and it no longer being, an admissions process, being weeding people out and creating a has and has not with education, but opening up these top 20 and more computer science curriculums to students world-wide.

So, I think it’s an exciting time and I do think that will impact us over time. And we’ll probably never be as fast as we would like. But I’m hopeful that it will be as quick as possible.

And Caroline, is Google now hiring more underclassman? I think your underclassman program is probably the longest running of those that we have here speaking today, and so have those numbers grown more recently and how do you you see age changing in your mind in terms of a factor for hiring?

Sure, for Google we’ve definitely seen a large interest in underclassmen applying for internships and for us as a company too it’s actually really important for us to develop young computer scientists, so that’s why we have, for example, the freshman engineering practicum and engineering practicum programs that are specifically targeted at freshman and sophomores.

And then, in terms of your question about age, for us at Google, age has never realy been a huge factor. So, for example, if you’re a freshman and you’re qualified and you’d be a great intern we’d be really happy to hire you. We really do think it’s really important to grow young CS students, so that’s why, as long as you’re qualified, we’re happy to hire you, whether that’s the freshman engineering practicum, the engineering practicum or our regular traditional intern program.

Fantastic, well, so that was a lot of our regular scheduled questions. Those are all really informative and incredibly insightful answers so, thanks a ton for sharing everything that you have so far. We have about 14 minutes left. And we’ve gotten some really fantastic questions on our Google+, and Facebook, and Twitter accounts, and so these are all direct from students, and maybe whoever wants to jump in and anyone who wants to follow on, please be welcome to do so.

The first question is one that we get a lot of, and it’s from a student named Nick Benner from Boise State and just asked, is hiring locally a priority? I think there’s a concern among students that if they go to school somewhere that’s further away from major cities, that it’s harder to get an internship, and so he was wondering if hiring locally is a priority and do you offer relocation assistance for internships?

I guess I can go first. So, for Google we definitely hire students for from all over, it doesn’t matter whether they’re local or not. And we do provide relocation assistance, so for example if you’re attending school 15 miles away from where our office is, we provide either an intern relocation stipend, or a housing option that you can choose.

Yeah, that’s the same thing for Twitter. We offer relocation help in terms of your round trip airfare, and your housing stipend. And we do hire from all over the states and some international schools as well. So, definitely don’t be shy about applying and getting yourself out there.

Ditto.

Perfect, so another question I thought was really interesting, this is from Clayton Pritchard who’s a University of Central Florida student, and he was wondering what technical skills are you looking for from a marketing hire or marketing intern, if any?

I can go. First of all, so go Knights, Central Florida, nice.

For marketing, what skills are we looking for in a marketing student, I think that’s his question, is that right Nathan? Yes, that’s correct. Yeah, I mean, I think we’re going to want to see, demonstrated experience of him working on a marketing plan right? And so whether that would be, if he’s not getting that in his classroom project, him going out and volunteering with a non-profit in this community or volunteering your services to help apply that.

Probably being a member, and a leader within his marketing student association is probably good to see, and maybe having a portfolio that we could look at. So, whether it’s a link to his or her website, or a link to other work that they’ve done on another website or another organization, I think would be a great way for him to demonstrate some of the, kind of the skills they’ve had.

I think it’s, with marketing particularly, it’s got to be very hands-on through demonstrated work. It’s really hard to tease out like, oh took intro to marketing or took marketing, online marketing, things like that. I want to see what you actually did through those classes and those projects. Fantastic. Moving on then, another question we got from a student named Raymond Ayawa, and he asked on Facebook, and this is a fairly specific question, but I think of one that’s really of interest.

Do your companies have any specific internship opportunities for military veterans? And he’s someone who has eight years of experience and now is working towards a degree in computer science. But, do your companies work with military veterans at all? And if so how do those programs work?

I can go real quick. I think, yes I’m sure all of our companies. We are certainly really passionate as all of our companies are about looking for student veterans that are turning from service in our armed forces, into our companies. One thing that we’ve seen as a trend over the last two or three years is the new GI bill has been really quite amazing in helping some of these top veterans actually get access into some of the top universities as well. So, we’re really hopeful that over the next couple of years as these students kind of start to progress through these degree programs, especially underrepresented degree programs, like computer science, where we haven’t seen, historically, a lot of veterans going into that.

We’re really hopeful that we’ll see more students, cause all of our companies, I’m sure, would be excited and would love to be able to hire students from majors where we do the a majority of our hiring like computer science.

Fantastic, and maybe actually another way to broaden that question, but sort of, can you explain a little bit about how you value geographic diversity within your internship programs?

I think that there’s a lot of students who come from different parts of the country and it would be really interesting to hear your perspectives on how you value getting students from all over and sort of how that helps build a more meaningful internship program, or if it does in your minds.

I mean, I think it definitely does build a stronger intern class to have a really diverse class of students that can offer varying points of view. I think it just overall in general makes our product better, right? We have products all are stemming from a huge user base. So, the more diverse and the more folks that we get from varying viewpoints, I think makes everything that much stronger.

So, I think it’s always great to have, for example, our international and our growth engineering teams, we do hire quite a few students from Europe, from Australia, from Asia. So, it’s defiantly different, I mean obviously these teams, since they’re international, we do look for, you know, a specific language, skill sets and so forth, but I think in general, I think you’re question Nathan is just how much we value that and, we definitely do.

Smaller schools, like I mentioned earlier, there could be tons of awesome students that might not be going to some of the quote unquote top ranked schools, but we know that maybe it’s just a family thing, personal choice, or maybe they got a scholarship, you know, a full ride, to some of these smaller schools, so we definitely want the opportunity to get to know those smaller engineering programs and as well as I think those are schools where you can really set yourself apart because those aren’t the schools that, say like in a program like MIT, where tons of students have, you know great internships at top companies already, but I think you can also offer a lot from giving a differing perspective.

Fantastic. Thanks so much for sharing that. So, another question that we got from a student named Maggie Donovan. We have a number of recent grads who, despite this being our underclassman hangout still wanted to tune in and hear from you all, and so, she happens to be one of them, and she’s a new grad and was wondering, one if you still hire new grads grads into your internship programs?

And two, how much internship experience do you expect a new grad to have coming into your programs?

I think if a new grad is going, you know, say they graduated from a Bachelors Degree and they’re thinking about going back to get a Masters or a Masters and PhD program, we’re definitely open to doing an internship arrangement with them.

Like I mentioned, we’re fairly flexible on that, and if you’re graduating from a four year Bachelors program, we tend to look for a little bit more experience, whether it’s research, working in labs or internship, in one of the you know, a start up or one of the top companies, like, you know, some of the ones that we have here today.

So, yeah I think with experiencing and with age, you know, we definitely look for a little bit more, we put a little bit more emphasis on industry experience.

Fantastic. Looks like we have time for one last question and I think this is actually one that we hear from a number of students as well and I think underclassmen sometimes really get anxious about their GPA and so a student was wandering what skills, or in what ways on a resume can they best counter balance what might potentially be a low GPA?

I think it’s been addressed in some of your previous answers, but again there’s a lot of students who are nervous about their GPA not crossing the right threshold. So, is there anything specific for a student who has a low GPA that they should be doing or thinking about, in a, in their resume to kinda help counter-balance that.

Yeah, I mean, I think we see that sometimes a lot and we’ll often ask the awkward question when GPA’s not on their resume, we’ll ask, so I think it’s better if the student puts it on there. But, I think there are different ways that they could talk about it that companies may value. So one thing they may talk about is, they may talk about their, they may show their over all GPA but also say GPA in major.

So, if they have done really well at computer science but, you know, no one likes philosophy. We can all resonate with a D in Philosophy. Like, okay, or if they say my upper divisional classes have been this GPA, if they can show that on things that they really are passionate about or excited about or looking for careers in, that they did really well in those subjects, maybe from other subjects they were less interested in. Or they had a bad first semester or a bad first year. They seem to be able to talk about it and visualize it on a resume in a certain way that highlights those things. And they’ll be able to talk about you know, why it might be lower than they would have hoped.

And then, different companies are gonna value that different ways. Some companies you know, outside of high tech, they’re gonna look at GPA and maybe have cut offs. Other companies are not. But, if they can really highlight the reasons that they, it may be lower in areas where it is, where they are doing very well. I think it can help offset some of those.

Well fantastic, we’re just about out of time, so unless anyone has any last words that they would like to add in, I’d just like to thank you so, so, much for all of your time today. This has been some of the most amazing advice that I wish I had heard, you know, when I was first getting into college and thinking about careers and it’s been really incredible to have all these insights shared.

And just a note to all the students who might be watching. We’ll be following up this with a blog post that will contain the video for the event in case you have any friends you want to share it on to. The companies involved have some internship content up on WayUp that you can go and check out and view and kind of learn more about some of their programs, just if you are interested in learning more about their offices and cultures.

There’s content like that on our site.

And we’ll also be responding to any questions that we didn’t get to also on the blog post, so we’ll have all that extra information. And so, this has been an incredible hour, I think everyone who tuned in is extremely thankful and so are we for all your time.

So, thanks so much and we’re really happy to have had all of you participate.

Thanks David.

Thanks for having us.

Yeah, thank you all. Cheers take care.Yeah, thank you all. Cheers take care.

Next, get more career tips for internships and entry-level jobs such as What is an Internship? and find answers to common interview questions such as What’s Your Dream Job?

The post How to Find an Internship as an Underclassmen (Video Resource) appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guide.

Looking for ways to stand out as you search for an internship or entry level job? The slideshow below will teach you how to market yourself to employers (a not-so-easy skill to learn) and to dramatically improve your ability to land the internship that is right for you!

The Importance of Internship Fit – A Quick Road Map

Section 1:

Broad ideas on how to think about the internship search process.

Section 2:

How to standout in a competitive market — from business cards to a better cover letter.

Section 3:

Unique hints on networking to begin building connections in the professional world.

View the Presentation

Next, get more career tips for internships and entry-level jobs such as the Top 10 Things You Should Look For In An Internship and find answers to common interview questions such as What’s Your Dream Job?

The post 40+ Ways to Find the Right Internship appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guide.

Finding a great internship is going to be HARD. You need a great resume, but even more so you need a great STRATEGY! In the end you need to get professional to be taken serious by an employer, so below are seven steps on how to succeed:

1. Think about your general motivation for finding an internship.

Is it to explore a new field, gain contacts in a given industry, learn on the job skills, or to simply pad your resume?  Understanding your motivations will help you focus on where to apply and will also open new doors in case your ideal position does not come through.

2. Search and Save.

Certainly a good first step on any job or internship search is getting in touch with personal, academic, and professional contacts and networking with them about potential opportunities. Looking online is great because all of a sudden your swimming in a much bigger pool.

• Search for POSITIONS, not for a company.
  Searching all marketing positions in a given location will open new options at organizations that need marketing help and offer marketing experience but which are not a traditional marketing firm. These include non-profits or start-up companies which may be less competitive overall but still offer ideal industry experience.
• Find 10-20 positions.
  One of the biggest benefits of an online search is that once your basic application materials are created, applying to additional positions online is EASY. To improve your odds find 10-20 positions which are all good options. In fact, you may want to apply to a bunch more than this — there is no harm in opening more doors, doing more interviews, and testing the waters at more places.
• Save all these positions along with your application status on WayUp.
  Keeping your search organized is absolutely key. You are going to want to remember where you are in the application process, little reminders about the person you spoke to (we both grew up in MI… awesome) and what your next deadline is.

3. Get your resume and cover letter materials ready.

When you apply online these documents are the only means an employer will have to evaluate you. It is important to see these documents as your personal brand, marketing your experience to the organization you are applying to and eliminating any error or typos that will appear novice. A lot of work goes into making these documents strong but if you put in the time you will stand out from the pack. We recommend you visit our resources section to see sample internship resumes and cover letters, and that you read our advice on how to take these documents to the next level.

4. Apply and Follow-Up:

With positions saved and materials ready it is time to start applying.  Ideally you should customize your resume and cover letter for every organization you apply to.  It is important to remember that after you submit materials the process is still not over. While not always necessary you may want to follow-up a week after you submit your application with a phone call or email to the intern hiring director and make sure the materials arrived in their hands. This is an opportunity to show your ability to be confident and professional while speaking on the phone or emailing.

5. Get ready to interview:

Just like improving your application flow and your resume documents, getting ready for an internship interview takes a lot of practice. We recommend getting in front of a mirror and rehearsing common answers and/or convincing a friend to be your practice interviewer. Practicing answers out loud and hearing how they sound makes a big difference.

6. Reflect, Improve and Repeat:

If you landed a position after steps 1 through 5, congratulations. If not, do not get discouraged. As stated in the introduction, this is a challenging process, with the final reward of becoming much better at the entire search and application process. You should reflect upon what worked and what did not, ask the people you have interviewed with what you can do better next time, and incorporate feedback to improve your future prospects. Internships on Wayup.com are constantly being updated so frequently check what is new and incorporate feedback as you apply to the latest positions.

7. There is no guarantee (especially in the current competitive job market) that there is an internship waiting for you – you need to go out there and get it.

Following these steps will guarantee that you are approaching this process in a systematic way that gives you the best possible shot. There will always be new opportunities so don’t get discouraged, focus on improving this process, and learning as much as you can. Finally, remember to always be courteous to employers even if things do not work out with them. Through this process you will become a stronger applicant and develop your professional network!

Next, get more career tips for internships and entry-level jobs such as 6 Ways to Impress Your Boss and find answers to common interview questions such as What Are Your Strengths?

The post Crib Notes: How to Find an Internship appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guide.

Internships have slowly graduated from an optional over-the-top resume addition to an essential part of finding a job when you graduate. More and more businesses are looking for internship experience on the resumes of their entry-level job candidates.

But how do you find an internship?

Step 1: Know what you want

The first step in answering the question “How do I find an internship?” is asking “What do I want to do?” Start looking at industries that you’re interested in and get a feel for what they’re looking for. Make a list of the industries you might want to work in, and then start listing potential internships in each one.

Internships should be tailored to your interests, and your skills. If you’re majoring in accounting, you probably won’t be qualified for an engineering internship (I mean, I’ve been wrong before, but stay with me). The company should also offer the kinds of things you’re looking for in an internship. If working remotely or being able to access your personal social media at work are important factors, keep them in mind when making your list.

You should also look at which cities you might want to try out or that you’ve always wanted to visit.

Step 2: Prepare for the search

Once you have a list of places to go and companies to work for, you’re going to need to gussy up that resume. “How do I get an internship?” “You make a great resume.” Take a look at an online resume guide or check out Pinterest to get some solid and creative ideas for how you want your resume to look. You’ve only got about fifteen seconds to grab a recruiter’s attention on paper, so do it right. Don’t have typos in your resume, and try not to let it get longer than a page. I know, you want to expound on all the things that make you a great person, but keep it short and sweet.

Cover letters are also a very important piece of applying for an internship. Each application should be accompanied by a completely customized cover letter. Do not generalize and then send it out to a dozen different companies.

Do some serious research on each company that you are going to contact (because you will be contacting them) and apply to. The best thing you can do to recommend yourself to a company is to be well-versed on what they do and how they do it. The more you know, the better you fit into the already established order of the company and the less they have to think about training you.

Step 3: Make contact (Network. You have to network.)

The best way for you to get an internship is to network, and to network intelligently and efficiently.

Start with your school’s career center. Honestly, that is the best resource you have at your disposal. They might not have contacts at a particular company, but you might be able to break into an industry from there. Career centers often host mock interviews for practice, have resume and cover letter help, and networks and contacts of their own that you can tap into.

If they can’t help you (or even if they can), your next step should be finding alumni from your school on LinkedIn who work at your preferred companies. Connect with them and explain briefly what you’re up to, ask if they have any tips, advice, etc.

Also consider shooting out a Tweet or a Facebook status. “I want to get an internship at X company. Does anyone know somebody I can talk to?”

Depending on a company’s internship program, you may be applying online. If this is the case, you need to identify the recruiter or internship coordinator, if at all possible. In the age of information, “To Whom it May Concern” is a thing of the past, and there are few excuses for not being able to directly address the person reading your application. Find them on LinkedIn or a company directory, or you can try calling the company.

If the company you want to work for does not have an internship program, things get a little interesting. Find the contact information for the head of Human Resources (this can sometimes be accomplished with a simple phone call to the company). If you can provide value to a company and prove the merits of having an internship program, you can get an internship simply by creating your own. But this needs to be a well-thought-out presentation, with persistence and confidence.

Step 4: Be Prompt

Whenever you make contact with someone at a company, assuming they’re interested in you, they’ll ask for your materials. This could be as simple as a resume and a cover letter, or it could extend to an entire portfolio of your creative works. Send in this information as soon as possible. Recruiters are busy people, and they appreciate someone who is on top of their game and who responds quickly and efficiently.

Apply to open positions early so that you can follow up early and can demonstrate an eagerness to fill the role.

Step 5: Follow Up

So you’ve applied, you’ve made contact. You need to follow up or all of that work will have been for nothing and you might end up not getting an internship. Send a succinct email reminding the recruiter who you are and mentioning your application. This should be sent about two weeks after you’ve sent in your application. Thank them for their time and consideration, and say that you really appreciated having the opportunity to land an internship with their company. Don’t ask when/if you’ll find out about the internship. They’ll contact you or they won’t, and bugging the recruiter for those details might make you sound like you’ve got multiple applications in the works (which, however true, is something you want to keep to yourself).

Attending your college’s career fair can also be a form of follow-up, as you should have your application completed and sent in before you set foot on a job fair floor. If a company you applied to is attending the fair, definitely pay their booth a visit. Follow some career fair guidelines to make a (favorable) lasting impression and increase your chances of getting an internship.

Step 6: Interviews

If you’ve managed to land an interview, you’re halfway there. Yes, only halfway, maybe even only one-third, depending on how many rounds of interviews the company has.

Phone Interviews:

While this arms-length interview puts less pressure on your physical appearance, it is still a very important step in the process of landing that internship. The most important thing you should remember with a phone interview is to not interrupt. I mean it: be respectful and do not interrupt. Wait for an opening. Listen and respond to the questions. Keep your answers brief, and address the interviewer’s questions without launching an in-depth tale of your life story.

In-Person Interviews:

Obviously, you’ll need to dress the part, so know what kind of dress code is common for the industry you’re interviewing for is crucial (this goes back to all that research you did). Make sure your hand isn’t clammy when you shake the interviewer’s hand (wipe it on your pants first if you have to) and do NOT be the limp fish handshake. While many people recognize the folly of basing an interview on the initial handshake, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a good firm handshake.

Similar rules apply in-person as over the phone. Do not interrupt, answer questions as completely but as briefly as possible, and don’t talk yourself silly. But now there’s a physical element. Keep eye contact when listening to your interviewer. Do not fidget, it makes you look restless and impatient. Be friendly but not informal, even when interviewing in an informal workplace.

And no matter what, always have questions for the interviewer, whether you’re talking on the phone or in person. Have at least two good questions to ask when the interviewer says “Do you have any questions?” If, at the end of the interview, the interviewer hasn’t asked you if you have any questions, ask them anyway.

Step 7: Repeat.

Don’t give up. Every rejection is a new opportunity to look for a new opportunity. And believe me, you’re not going to get every internship you apply for. You’re going to receive a lot of “Sorry, we’ve chosen someone else”s and even more opportunities will pass without a response at all. Don’t be discouraged. To get an internship, you have to be a special breed of persistent. You can do it.

Next, get more career tips for internships and entry-level jobs such as What is an Internship? and find answers to common interview questions such as What’s Your Dream Job?

The post How Do I Get an Internship? appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guide.

In the past few years, it’s become increasingly common for college students to have a paid or unpaid internship under their belt by the time they graduate. To be competitive in the workforce and give yourself a leg up in the job search after graduation, it’s more necessary than ever to apply for meaningful internships.

In order to figure out that type of internship would be right for you, here are some answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about internships.

What exactly is an internship?

Simply put, an internship is on-the-job work experience that is either related to your career interests or current field of study. Internships can be paid or unpaid, and can take place during the academic year or during the summer. All internships are short-term but can last anywhere from a single week to a full year. Most internships function as training opportunities and some, especially ones that take place during the school year, can be research projects where a professor or a company wants a student to study a new topic of interest.

What type of experience can you get out of an internship?

Regardless of when the internship takes place or how much it pays, the experience can provide you with a number of invaluable opportunities. For example, you can:

• Learn about different work environments and get a taste of the “real world.”
• Build new skills and tweak ones you already have.
• Broaden your professional network, gaining contacts and future recommenders along the way.
• Benefit from one-on-one mentorships.
• Get a sense of what happens in multiple departments at a company.
• Try out a career without having to make a full commitment.
• Possibly get college credit (if it’s an unpaid internship).
• Turn an internship into a full-time job opportunity after college.

Not every internship is the same, and what you do day to day can vary widely depending on the company. What’s most important is to understand what you’re going to get out of an internship and to check if that aligns with your career goals.

Some may give you more hands-on experience and others may provide a chance to shadow key executives or take part in weekly meetings. One company may offer you the chance to dive deeply into a single project and present your findings to company leadership; another may give you the chance to work across departments, giving you broad exposure to many parts of a company at once. Asking yourself what you want to get out of an internship is critical to knowing what’s going to be the best fit for you.

Now that you have the basics under your belt, check out the internships available on WayUp and get ready to find the perfect one for you!

Next, get more career tips for internships and entry-level jobs such as How to Follow Up and find answers to common interview questions such as What’s Your Dream Job?

The post What is an Internship? appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guide.

If you’re just starting to look for an internship, you may be wondering about the best things to focus on. Whether it’s a paid or unpaid internship, the true value comes from what you put into it. And that starts with finding an internship that’s worth your while in more ways than one.

Here are the 10 things you should look for in an internship.

1. A chance to separate yourself from the pack

Look at your next internship as an opportunity to distance yourself from your peers. Imagine the next career fair you attend and imagine what you would like to share with the recruiter in front of you about how you spent your summer (or fall or spring) semester. Think about the experience and the skill set you will gain that will build your professional brand.

2. An opportunity to figure out what kind of career you want

One of the key parts of an internship is getting to experience a specific role or industry so that you can decide whether it’s something you want to pursue after graduation. When picking an internship, look for one that offers you a truly hands-on experience. This will allow you to make well-informed decisions down the line and find the career path that works best for you.

3. A chance to work with smart and motivated people

If you can thrive off the energy of others around you, you’ll naturally work harder and enjoy what you’re doing. By finding an internship at a company where employees are excited to come to work every day, you’ll naturally have a more enjoyable experience and will be more likely to choose a similarly positive work culture in the next phase of your career.

4. Access to mentors you can learn from

As you navigate what you’re looking to do professionally, it’s important to have mentors that you can rely on who will help you navigate the work environment you choose. Look for opportunities that have a built-in support system for interns to access higher level executives. Not only will this increase the exposure you get within the organization, but you will learn from people who have been working in the business or the industry with an expert-level understanding.

5. The chance to experience a new city

If you have the option, leverage your internship experience as a chance to explore a new city! This will help pull you out of your comfort zone of being on campus or at home for the summer.

6. The opportunity to add new tools to your toolbox

Sharpening what you’re learning in your classes and actually applying it is key. However, try to pick up other skills that your professors aren’t necessarily teaching you. Identify programs or tools that are relevant in your industry and become an expert at them. Not only will you make yourself more marketable after the internship, you’ll set yourself apart as the “fast-learner” who is looking to add value fast!

7. A way to test what you’ve learned

Validate your interest in the industry you’ve chosen by test driving what you’ve learned. Ask yourself if this is something you could see yourself doing for the long-haul and take the opportunity to explore different paths within your chosen profession. Internships are a great opportunity to get exposure to a potential career path without having to choose it for the long-run. Take this time to get a better understanding of what you like most.

8. A chance to identify with a culture that reflects your values

Find an internship that offers an environment that aligns with what matters most to you in a workplace. If you’re looking for summer Fridays (i.e. leaving the office on Friday at 2 p.m.), or you’re looking to work 100 hours per week, understand what the company values and what’s expected for the business.

9. An opportunity to work on projects that matter

One key goal coming out of your internship should be the ability to say how you were able to make an impact. Having the opportunity to work on real-world projects is key, and a killer thing to tout in your next interview. Understand the types of projects that interns have worked on in the past and what you might expect to work on during your time in the program. You can also gauge what kind of opportunity you’ll have to work on other side projects. Go into the internship with the goal of making the greatest impact you can make. This will help you walk away as the superstar for the summer and leave will you with a potential job offer after the internship is over.

10. A way to earn an income

Although money shouldn’t be the only deciding factor when it comes to picking an internship, it’s definitely something to keep in mind, particularly if you need an income to support yourself during the school year or the summer.

Getting work experience before graduation is certainly important, but you want to make sure that the internship you choose will benefit you in more ways than one. By following these tips, you’ll find an internship that’s right for you.

The post Top 10 Things You Should Look For In An Internship appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guide.

When it comes to starting your career, few things are as important as getting internship experience under your belt. This is because internships help you develop your skill set while also showing you the ins and outs of what it’s like to work in particular field.

Here are five things to keep in mind when applying for an internship.

1. Update your resume

One of the keys to landing a great internship is having a great resume, so before you start applying for roles, it’s important to make sure that your resume is up to date and includes your relevant skills and experience. Having a strong resume is not only likely to get your noticed by employers, it will also help you realize what you can bring to the internship and what you still need to learn.

Pro Tip: Filling out your WayUp profile is another great way to get employers to notice you and to make the job search a lot easier. Best of all, unlike a regular resume, you can include extracurriculars, hobbies and fun facts, which will show employers that you’re a well-rounded candidate with a lot to offer.

2. Identify the type of internship you want

Once you have your resume and WayUp profile filled out, it’s time to decide what type of internship you want. The key to doing this is to have a good idea of what field you want to explore while staying flexible when it comes to the actual position. For example, if you know that you’re interested in marketing, you can consider internships in digital marketing, event marketing or social media. These will all give you great exposure to the field of marketing while helping you develop transferrable skills that you can use in almost any industry.

Pro Tip: In addition to figuring out what type of internship you want, you should also try to identify what type of company you want to work for. This will help to ensure that you’re happy with your decision and working in an environment that’s right for you.

3. Know the application deadlines

When it comes to landing an internship, timing can be just as important as having a great resume and knowing what to look for. If you’re applying for an internship in a structured field like finance or consulting, this means knowing the relevant timelines and following them. In most of these fields, summer internship opportunities are open for applications during the fall semester and candidates are usually offered places before winter break.

Pro Tip: If you’re applying for internships in a less structured field (like marketing, engineering or business operations) you’re likely to have more flexibility with applications since these internships tend to come up on a rolling basis. However, it’s important to still apply as early as possible to give yourself the best chance of success.

4. Apply for several internships

The best way to ensure that you find an internship that’s right for you is by keeping your options open and applying to a broad range of internships. Although this may seem somewhat overwhelming at first, it’s actually quite easy to do once you have your resume ready and know what types of roles to look for.

Pro Tip: The best way to keep track of your applications is by creating a spreadsheet with a list of the positions you’re applying for and including details such as the job title, company name, job post URL and the date you applied. This will make it easy to follow up with hiring managers and will keep you organized as you move forward with your job search.

5. Prepare for the interview

Once you’ve sent out your applications, it’s time to prepare for the interview. The best way to do this is by researching commonly asked interview questions like “Tell me about yourself” and “What are you passionate about?” and coming up with an answer that gives the interviewer a clear insight into who you are and what you can bring to the table.

Pro Tip: Practicing your answers out loud (either in front of a mirror or with a friend) is a great way to ensure that you’re coming across as confident and professional. Aim to practice each answer at least a few times, though more is often better.

By following these steps, you’ll be sure to set yourself up for success and get one step closer to landing an awesome internship.

Next, get more career tips for internships and entry-level jobs such as How Much Should I be Paid at an Entry-Level Job? and find answers to common interview questions such as What Are You Passionate About?

The post Top 5 Things to Do When Applying for an Internship appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guide.

From learning new skills to getting a hands-on feel for a particular job, internships have a lot to offer college students. If you’re considering an internship, you might be wondering what you can do to set yourself up for success. And, more importantly, is there anything you should avoid doing during your internship? The answer is yes, especially when it making common mistakes.

Here are the top three internship mistakes and what you can do to avoid them.

1. Not managing time well

One of the most common mistakes interns make is managing their time badly. Just as it’s sometimes difficult to juggle assignments for multiple classes, it can also be challenging to juggle the tasks associated with your internship, particularly if it’s a cross-functional role where you’re reporting to several different people.

How to avoid it: The best way to prevent this mistake and manage your time effectively is by getting a handle on your tasks right from the start. Talk to your manager about what will be expected of you in the role and create a list of goals and priorities that everyone can agree on. Once you’ve created that list, focus on your most important tasks first and try to take care of your easier, less important tasks at the end of the day. Project management tools like Asana or Trello can also come in quite handy, letting you track your tasks and progress throughout the week.

2. Complaining about trivial tasks

Another common mistakes many interns make is to underestimate the importance of trivial tasks. These can include research, data entry or filing and although they might not seem that important, they are actually a crucial part of running a business.

How to avoid it:  The first step in avoiding this mistake is realizing that everyone at the company (including your manager) has to do their fair share of grunt work. Once you have that understanding, it’s important to demonstrate your commitment to the job by showing that you’re a professional and a team player. Take pride in the tasks you perform — whether they involve filing or drafting emails — and be confident about the fact that you’re adding value to company.

3. Not asking for feedback

One of the keys to being successful in any role is asking for feedback on your performance and identifying ways that you can improve. Unfortunately, a lot of interns overlook this step, expecting managers to deliver feedback only if something critical comes up.

How to avoid it: Instead of waiting for your manager to bring up the subject of feedback, take the first step and ask them to weigh in some of the tasks you’re working on. For example, if you’re a marketing intern and you’ve been tasked with doing market research, you can show them the results of your initial research and say something like, “Am I taking the right approach with this?” This is a great way to show your manager that you value their feedback and that you’re committed to doing a great job.

Although on-the-job mistakes are often hard to avoid, you can definitely spare yourself from some of the most common ones by knowing what to expect and coming prepared.

Next, get more career tips for internships and entry-level jobs such as How to Become a Software Developer and find answers to common interview questions such as What Motivates You?

The post 3 Common Internship Mistakes and How to Avoid Them appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guide.

Choosing between a paid and unpaid internship may seem like a no-brainer, but there are several factors you should consider when making the decision. From your financial circumstances to the type of experience you’re looking to gain, finding the right internship should take into account both your current situation and your future goals.

Before we dive into the full list of things that may affect your decision, let’s cover the basics. What’s the difference between a paid internship and an unpaid one? The answer seems pretty simple: money. But it’s actually a bit more complicated than that. Unpaid internships need to meet stricter standards than paid ones and are more likely to be eligible for college credit. They are a great way to gain valuable hands-on experience that can be hard to come by in school. Unpaid internships can also help you land a job and grow your professional network. To find out more about credit requirements for your school and see how an internship meets your financial and professional goals, set up a meeting with your advisor.

And if you’re ready to take a more in-depth look at other factors, we’ve come up with a list of questions to help you narrow down your options.

1. What do you need to get out of the internship?

If you really need a summer job that pays, your focus should be on either a paid internship or a non-internship opportunity. But if you have the resources to support yourself (or are able to get another job in addition to your internship) an unpaid internship may offer some perks that a paid one doesn’t. For example, many small companies don’t have the budgets to pay interns, but sometimes they can offer a lot more hands-on experience than larger companies.

The key is to find out what opportunities the company is able to provide and to make the most of them. Maybe you can set up weekly meetings with the leadership team or one-on-one mentoring with a senior manager. Companies want interns who are motivated and enthusiastic, and they’re usually excited to work with you to provide the kind of experience you want.

2. Which type of internship will be most helpful to your career path?

If you’re nearing the end of your time in college, chances are you’ve already had an internship (or two) and you’re probably ready to take the next step towards your post-college career. In a recent survey, the National Association of Colleges and Employers noted that 65.4% of seniors who have paid internships on their resumes are more likely to get a job offer prior to graduation. If you want a paid internship but haven’t found any options, we’ve got several paid internships that might be right for you.

On the other hand, if you’re a freshman or sophomore and are looking to gain experience in a specific field, you may consider unpaid internships that give you the chance to develop certain skills and build your resume. The good news: You’re more likely to land a paid internship with an unpaid internship under your belt.

3. Is there a possible future with the company?

One of the best things about internships (both paid and unpaid) is that they can lead to a full-time job with a company. In fact, the promise of landing a full-time job is one of the main reasons why students consider unpaid internships in the first place. The best way to find out if the company you’re considering interning with has a history of hiring interns is to ask directly. And if a company does frequently hire interns, they’ll usually tell you that during your interview.

Choosing an internship is one of the most important decisions you can make during your time in college, and having as much information as possible will help you pick the right one. The key is to know what you want and work with potential employers to find the best fit. And if you want more advice, don’t be afraid to reach out to former interns or employees who are alums of your school. They’ll have the inside scoop on the companies you’re considering and be able to tell you what they got out of the experience.

Next, get more career tips for internships and entry-level jobs such as How to Dress for a Job Interview at a Bank and find answers to common interview questions such as What Gets You Up in the Morning?

The post Paid vs. Unpaid Internships: How to Decide appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guide.

One of the most important ways to explore your career options and get hands-on job training while still in school is to engage in a summer internship. The key to landing the right internship is not only knowing what you’re interested in doing but also when you should apply. Since different industries have different timelines with structured career paths like finance, consulting and technology requiring internship applications to be submitted almost a year in advance, it’s important to know the timelines for different fields and what you should be doing each semester to ensure that you land the summer internship of your dreams.

Here is when you should begin applying for a summer internship.

What to do during the fall semester

As a general rule, if you’re looking for a summer internship you should start thinking about the process first semester of that year. It’s never too early to start the process, and the more time you give yourself, the less stressful the process will be. To begin, it’s important to reflect on the types of jobs you’re interested in. A great place to start this is to meet with people who are in the fields you’re interested in and ask them questions about what it’s really like to work in those fields.

Once you have a general sense of what jobs you’d like to focus on, research interesting companies online (via WayUp, social media, and the company’s own website) and attend networking events (i.e. corporate presentations, career fairs, networking nights) these companies are hosting. You should check-in with your career center for a calendar of all upcoming employer events. Many of these happen starting in September and October, so be sure to go to campus ready to start networking. You should also reach out to alumni or interesting employees at these companies – most are more than happy to answer any questions you have, and even set up informal coffee chats or informational interviews to help you prepare for the working world.

Most applications (ie when you actually submit your resume online) open anywhere from November-January. The company’s website and/or your career center portal will likely have those dates published months in advance, so you can schedule reminders and plan your time accordingly. This varies according to industry and company size. Large, well-established companies (Goldman Sachs, Google, PwC) will have very structured recruitment processes that will likely move very quickly (networking, applications and interviews will be wrapped up by January).

For less structured programs, or for small companies and startups, internship opportunities are likely to come up throughout the spring semester and even during the first few weeks of summer break.

What to do during the spring semester

Smaller, newer companies (startups, family-owned businesses) will likely have more lenient timelines and move a bit slower. Many of these companies do not have the resources to come to campuses for fairs or advertise their openings on the university portal, so you’ll need to do some extra legwork (research the company and their openings, reach out to a current employee to introduce yourself, etc) before applying. We recommend starting this during the first part of spring semester and planning for interviews running from March-May.

If you haven’t found anything by the middle of the spring semester, don’t worry. Instead, head to WayUp to look for internship opportunities in your chosen field. You can also book an appointment with your faculty advisor and/or campus career advisor to ask about existing college and university partnerships. There may be a small, local internship nobody has applied for yet.
To avoid stressing too much about early internship deadlines, think ahead. The most competitive internship programs may require you to prep a year in advance to give you ample time to comfortably complete your application. But even if spring semester is coming to a close, chances are that you’ll be able to find an internship that will meet your needs. And when you’re ready to apply, we’ve got lots of paid and unpaid internship opportunities that are just right for you.

Next, get more career tips for internships and entry-level jobs such as Should I Intern As a College Freshman? and find answers to common interview questions such as Where Do You See Yourself in 5 Years?

The post When to Start Applying for a Summer Internship appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guide.

If you’re interested in interning as a college freshman, it’s important to consider how this will affect the rest of your schedule. Whether you’re looking to give your resume a boost, or you’re hoping to make some money, there are lots of good reasons to take on an internship.

Your first year in college, particularly the first semester, is a period of discovery and a time for new experiences. From taking classes, making friends, participating in extracurricular activities, and adjusting to dorm life, there is already a lot on your plate. For some, interning makes more sense during the second semester, or the summer before sophomore year. For others, internships are altogether put off until the following year. There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to a freshman year internship, it really comes down to your course load and personal preference.

Here are the pros and cons you should consider when deciding whether to intern as a freshman.

Pros of interning as a college freshman

• Interning gives you a chance to experience a work environment without having to fully commit to it just yet.
• An internship can lead to college credit, which means you may be able to graduate early and complete your requirements ahead of schedule.
• The work experience can help you zero in on your preferences and give you a clearer picture of what you are looking for out of a career.
• Interning and networking go hand in hand. You will meet a lot of people during your internship who can mentor you and help you land your dream job down the road.
• An internship will introduce you to an office culture and gives you a glimpse into the dos and don’ts of that world.
• Last but not least, an internship gives you a chance to potentially make money.

Cons of interning as a college freshman

• An unpaid internship won’t be beneficial to students who are looking interested in interning for financial reasons.
• If you are interning during the fall or spring semester, you will have to manage your course load at the same time. This can prove too stressful at times and your grades may suffer.
• An attempt to get ahead of the game can actually backfire if your internship causes you to drop out of extracurricular activities and have less time to study.

If you are considering a paid or unpaid internship but you aren’t sure if it’s the right fit for you, you should reach out to your academic advisor and career counselor. Together, you two can walk through the advantages and disadvantages of a freshman year internship and determine if it’s a good fit for you.

If it does seem too overwhelming, it’s okay to put it off until you’re ready to do it, like during your sophomore or junior year. No matter when you choose to intern, there is so much to learn throughout your experience. By weighing the pros and cons, you’ll be able to make a decision that’s best for you.

Next, get more career tips for internships and entry-level jobs such as How to Get the Job You Really Want and find answers to common interview questions such as What Are Your Salary Expectations?.

The post Should I Intern as a College Freshman? appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guide.

Internships are one of the most valuable ways for college students to gain professional experience and exposure to new industries. In fact, an internship can give you a significant leg up in a number of ways, including building your professional network and helping you develop new skills. If you’re entering your sophomore year, you may be wondering about the pros and cons of doing an internship while still an underclassman. For example, will you have time to balance a packed class schedule with a part-time job?

Here are some things to consider when deciding whether to intern as a college sophomore.

Identify what you want to learn.

Getting an internship solely as a resume booster isn’t bad, but it isn’t ideal. Internships are a fantastic way to get career clarity and exposure to industry networks, so having a goal in mind will help guide your search to a meaningful internship.

Maybe you have a burgeoning interest in PR, but you’re not sure if that’s what you want to do after college. Or perhaps you’re trying to decide if an office job is for you or if you want to dive into other creative pursuits. When you’re clear on what it is that you want to learn — about a company, industry, or about yourself — then it’s time to dive into the internship search.

Be honest about your other commitments.

In order to decide if interning as a sophomore is right for you, it’s essential to think about your time commitments and to be realistic about how much time you can devote to an internship. When doing this, be sure to take into account your coursework and extracurriculars as well as the additional time needed to study, exercise or hang out with friends. Once you have an idea of your availability, you’ll be able to make an informed decision without running the risk of overextending yourself.

Assess your financial situation.

One of the most important factors when determining whether to take on an internship is to assess your financial situation. For example, if you currently need extra income to support yourself during the semester (or the summer) then you should be focusing only on paid internships or part-time jobs. On the other hand, if you have financial support from other sources, then you might consider taking an unpaid internship if it will offer you great exposure or invaluable work experience.

Regardless of whether you decide to do an internship during your sophomore year, it’s important to remember that internships are meant to be opportunities for learning. Think about your circumstances, how you want to grow and what skills you want to build, and make a decision that seems right for you.

Next, get more career tips for internships and entry-level jobs such as How Do I Get a Job in Another City or State? and find answers to common interview questions such as Tell Me About an Accomplishment That You’re Most Proud Of.

The post Should I Intern as a College Sophomore? appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guide.

Considering an internship during your senior year can seem overwhelming, particularly when graduation and the post-college job hunt lie ahead. Still, interning during your senior year can give you the chance to add some new skills to your resume and build up your professional network. When deciding whether or not to take on an internship during your final year, it’s important to weigh out factors like your class schedule, your previous internship experience and the field you’re hoping to enter.

Once you’ve done that, here are a few other factors to consider when deciding whether to intern as a senior.

Internships help build your professional network.

Internships are a great way to expand your professional network by introducing you to key players in the industry you’re hoping to enter. This is especially helpful if you’re getting close to graduation and would like to have more contacts in your field.

Employers want to know that you’re spending your time wisely.

By the time they graduate, each senior should have something solid on their resume. While several college students will opt to do summer internships, an internship during your senior year will show employers that you take initiative and have a desire for continuous learning.

You continue to hone time management and professional skills.

Senior year goes by fast, but when you’re balancing an internship on top of your classes and extracurriculars, you quickly learn time management skills. These skills will come in handy after graduation regardless of what field you got into because they’ll help you prioritize tasks and make the most of all the hours in the day.

You’ll be top of mind for the employer.

Employers love to hire people they know and trust. If you’ve performed well at an internship and maintain strong relationships, it’s likely your employer will be willing to vouch for you. Even if they can’t hire you at their company, they can share your resume with people in their own network.

You’ll be able to earn extra money.

If you land a paid internship, you’ll be able to not only purchase things for yourself, but also save extra money for your first apartment or an emergency fund. And best of all, paid internships are much more likely to get you hired when you graduate.  

Balance is a tricky thing in college, especially during senior year. However, if you find you have the time to take on an internship, doing so might be one of the most useful things you can do to help you land a job after graduation. In addition to providing you with much-needed experience, taking on an internship as a senior will help build your professional network and set you on the path to success.

Next, get more career tips for internships and entry-level jobs such as What is a Chronological Resume? and find answers to common interview questions such as Tell Me About an Accomplishment That You’re Most Proud Of.

The post Should I Intern as a College Senior? appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guide.

If you’re on your way to earning your associate’s degree, you may be wondering whether you should be pursuing internships that will help you land an entry-level job upon graduation. Generally speaking, paid and unpaid internships are a great way to bolster your resume and coupled with an associate’s degree, internships can show employers that you’re a hard worker and someone who they would potentially want on their team. However, there are other things to take into account when deciding whether to intern while in an associate’s program such as your other time commitments and financial circumstances.

Here are some things to keep in mind as you make your decision.

Do you have time to take on additional commitments?

The main thing to consider when you’re thinking about seeking internships while earning your associate’s degree is whether you’ll be able to balance your current academic workload and other obligations with the time requirements of an internship. To get a sense of whether an internship will fit into your schedule, it’s important to understand the time commitments a typical internship requires. Most spring and fall internships last the length of an average semester and expect interns to work 10-20 hours per week. Summer internships may last longer and/or require more hours — typically, summer internships ask applicants for a 20-40-hour commitment each week. In order to decide whether this is something you’d be able to to do, make a list of all of your time commitments during the semester, including classes, study time, extracurriculars and other jobs. Once you have a clear picture of how much time is taken up by your academic and day-to-day commitments, you’ll be able to make an informed decision about taking on additional work.

Do you need an income to sustain yourself while getting your degree?

Paid and unpaid internships may factor into your decision to pursue an internship while working toward your associate’s degree. For example, while you may not be able to take an internship without compensation, perhaps you can find one that will offset your financial needs and allow you to focus on gaining professional experience rather than just earning money as you work toward graduation with your degree.

Can you earn college credit through your internship?

As in many four-year programs, plenty of colleges and universities offering associate’s degrees allow students to earn credits toward graduation by doing an internship. And since you can often replace classwork with internship hours, your internship doesn’t have to distract from your schoolwork. If your associate’s degree program allows you to substitute an internship for regular coursework, you can take advantage of the opportunity to double down on earning credits while exploring all the benefits internships can offer.

Since job candidates with associate’s degrees are often competing for entry-level jobs with graduates of four-year programs — many of whom will have also done internships — it’s a hugely useful step up to have completed an internship along with your program. These internships will bolster your studies with experience and a widened skill set, and will help you exercise the professional abilities you’ll need for entry-level jobs. In addition, internships will also increase your professional network, meaning that you’ll come into contact with people in your field who may be able to recommend, or even hire, you for entry-level jobs after you graduate with an associate’s degree.

By weighing out the different factors involved and getting a clear sense of your own situation, you’ll be able to decide whether interning while in associate’s program is right for you.

Next, get more career tips for internships and entry-level jobs such as What to Do After You Get a Job Offer and find answers to common interview questions such as What Motivates You?

The post Should I Intern if I’m in an Associate’s Program? appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guide.