Posts: 170
Threads: 0
Joined: Apr 2015
Reputation:
6
Internships, interviews and getting the job you truly want
02-08-2019, 05:13 PM
As I started internship hunting, I´ve come to the realization that getting a call back or being noticed in the current labor market is hard as shit.
For the more experienced fellas, how did you get the internship you wanted? and how long did you take finding it.
I´ve been stuck to my laptop for the past 2 weeks with just a couple of leads but not a single solid offer.
Any tips or tricks during interviews? Situational interviews are really hard and require all your witt.
Also, getting an internship abroad is basically imposible for me since my passport is not the most useful to travel.
Posts: 9
Threads: 0
Joined: Jan 2019
Reputation:
0
Internships, interviews and getting the job you truly want
02-08-2019, 10:53 PM
@joecolumbia - In addition to the questions above about what do you do . . . but without adding too much personal info: (1) what sort of degree do you have, (2) are you looking for a position related to your degree, (3) what is your preferred geographic area (generally), (4) do you have any relevant experience, (5) do you, your family, your friends, or people in your extended network know anyone in your chosen field, (6) does your current or prior school have any sort of placement program.
A personal or professional connection is often the best -- and sometimes the only -- method to get an interview and internship at many organizations.
In response to your question on personal experience, it took me 6 weeks to get my first internship. The interview was arranged by a schoolmate who was a year ahead of me and already working there. My second internship took 12 weeks to find; the initial interview was arranged through an on campus program.
If you are able to provide a bit more basic background information, I suspect the forum members will be able to give you some additional useful tips.
Posts: 2,003
Threads: 0
Joined: Aug 2012
Reputation:
35
Internships, interviews and getting the job you truly want
02-09-2019, 11:51 AM
Companies have a dedicated budget for going out with coffee with prospective employees. The thing is to network by having a coffee sit down.
Posts: 628
Threads: 0
Joined: Jul 2018
Internships, interviews and getting the job you truly want
02-09-2019, 09:33 PM
I have not done an internship, but here's what I learned from internship providers and friends.
a) treat like cold calls, rinse and repeat. Follow up with them. A lot of times it's just persistence. Keep emailing or calling them until you're given a hard no. If given hard no get put on a waiting list for later period of time
b) google. seriously, open yourself up to other cities as well.
c) professor/ professional connection- lot of times professors especially maybe your advisor is eager to help you with your goals especially if you have a good relationship for them--usually they have deep knowledge of different options and people at different places. Oftentimes they're write you a recommendation letter.
d) tailor your resume to what the place wants-- read their website and make sure your resume covers how you meet their goals/ mission in every way. Surely you did things in school or in past internships relevant to them. Or maybe you even did relevant research.
e) be flexible with time or duration-- a lot of people do them during summer, offer to do longer or shorter, or at non-peak times of the year.
best of luck.
Posts: 71
Threads: 0
Joined: Jul 2015
Reputation:
1
Internships, interviews and getting the job you truly want
02-09-2019, 11:27 PM
Some more random pointers:
Figuring out what you truly want/don't want:
- Own experience doing them
- Talking to other people who've done them (off the record verbally, company reps are less honest at career fairs, etc. when they're officially representing the company)
- Online forums
Getting internships/interviews:
- Hustle and talk to people as much as possible.
- Pile on as many relevant things to the job on your resume as possible. Here you can embellish your responsibilities/experiences a bit, PROVIDED YOU CAN TALK COMPETENTLY ABOUT THEM IF CHALLENGED. You can always teach yourself new things and tack them onto old experiences if there's a reasonable element of truth in case of verification. And of course execute/learn commensurately if you get a job doing something similar.
- I will admit every single professional job I've had (internship, full time, contract) was through either a formal school internship portal or knowing somebody at the company.
Before the interview:
- Contact anyone you know who currently is or has worked at the company and pick their brain about the details of the company/position, what they ask on the interview, and what kind of people they look for
- Read up online/books on the job/company/business/products to know what you're getting into and get ideas for questions
- For software competency, getting ahold of books and cracked versions and teaching yourself clears the hurdle for internship level fairly well
For interviews specifically:
- Prepare a sales pitch for yourself that tells them your story in terms of all job relevant things you've done. Tailor the level of detail of each item to how relevant it is to the particular position/company. For things not directly related, try to extract transferable things to say about them. Rehearse this a few times (I've found 3-4 times to be the sweet spot for sounding way the hell smoother than winging it without spending excessive time doing this).
- After the initial few pleasantries at the interview, deliver your sales pitch at the first reasonable chance. This is often easier for the interviewers than the semi-awkward stepping through your resume and asking you odd questions that often follows otherwise, tends to answer a lot of questions they'd have anyways, and shows that you're keen and motivated.
- Answer questions well that you are confident about, if you sincerely don't know or knowledge is vague/rusty, mention what you do know and how you'd go about solving that problem. Often times admitting you don't know something on the spot but giving the feeling that you'd know what resources to seek out to get something done is good enough.
- Have questions prepared that show off you've done a bit of research/know a few things about the company. Don't hesitate to mention the name of others at the company you've spoken to about this (just make sure you don't say anything sensitive or that the person isn't a pariah there), often people are more comfortable hiring people that already know and are on good terms with people there.
- Ask for on the spot honest feedback and recommendations at the end of the interview; if you flub one you might be able to get some pointers on how to pass it the next time.
Posts: 3,751
Threads: 0
Joined: Oct 2014
Reputation:
27
Internships, interviews and getting the job you truly want
02-10-2019, 10:00 AM
Same.
You're getting generally good advice on here.
I've gotten a grand total of zero job offers where I didn't know someone there.