In short
Most organizations that take student interns want to see that you have done something before, and nobody hands you that first something. What helps is counting more of what you have already done than you think, asking people instead of only applying, and looking where fewer students look. It takes a while, and nothing here is a promise.
Why the first one is the hard one
Every posting seems to ask for experience you cannot yet have. That is true, and it is also less strict than it reads. A posting for a student internship is written for students. The person reading it knows you have not done this before. What they are looking for is a reason to think you will turn up, learn quickly and finish what you start.
That is why the first internship is often won by something small and concrete: a class project you can describe in two sentences, a campus role where people depended on you, a summer of work that had nothing to do with the field. The National Association of Colleges and Employers, which surveys employers who recruit students, reports that experience with the employer or in its field is a leading tiebreaker between candidates who look alike on paper. That is useful to know, and it says nothing against starting without it. Someone has to be first in every line, and you only need one yes.
What you already have
Make a list before you open a single application. Include all of it:
- Paid work of any kind: retail, food service, childcare, tutoring, warehouse work, a family business. It shows you are reliable and can deal with the public, a schedule and a boss.
- Caring for family, translating for relatives, running a household budget. These are real skills. Leave them off a résumé if you prefer, but do not leave them out of your own list, because you will draw on them when you answer "tell me about a time when."
- Class projects, a lab report you are proud of, a paper, a presentation.
- Clubs, teams, a campus job, an organization where you did something specific.
- Things you made on your own: a small app, a blog, a spreadsheet that solved a real problem, a community garden plan.
Next to each item, write what you did and one number if there is one: how many people, how many weeks, how many dollars, how many pages. The résumé guide shows how to turn the list into lines.
Where to look
Start close to home, because the places nearest you have the fewest applicants.
To see postings that are open now, with the day each was found and when it closes, use the Internships page. Each one links to the real posting, so check the details there.
- Your college's career office. They know which employers recruit on your campus and when. Many keep a list of alumni willing to talk to students, and some keep money for students whose summer work is unpaid. Go in the autumn, not the spring.
- A professor whose work you find interesting. Research assistants are often chosen by asking. See the note to a professor and the cold email guide.
- Public bodies and nonprofits. City and state offices, libraries, museums and charities often take students and read fewer applications than large companies do. Places to look lists some national ones.
- The federal government. Its student programs are posted on USAJOBS, usually starting in the autumn for the following summer. Federal hiring takes months and varies from year to year, so read the posting closely and expect the date to be earlier than seems reasonable.
- Smaller companies and startups. They hire when they know their budget, often between February and May. A short, specific message to a founder can work where a form would not.
When to start
Earlier than feels sensible. Large programs often open the autumn before the summer they fill, and some are full by winter. See when things open for the usual months in each field, and the deadline calendar for dated programs. If you have missed a window, smaller places and work you set up yourself stay open late in almost every year.
Applying
- Send a one-page résumé in a plain file.
- Write two or three sentences about why this organization and this work. Name something real: a project they ran, something they published, a question they work on. A cover letter that could go to any employer will be read like one.
- Apply to more places than feels polite. Many students apply to dozens and hear back from a few. That ratio is normal and says very little about you.
- Keep a list: the organization, the title, the date you applied, the date you heard back, who you wrote to. The tracker in the Workbench does this in your browser.
- Write to someone before or after you apply. A short note to a person who works there, saying you applied and why, is ordinary. See the recruiter follow-up.
Paid and unpaid
Ask before you commit a summer: "Is this role paid, and at what rate?" Nobody sensible thinks less of you for it. Many students cannot work for nothing, and a good organization knows that.
Some unpaid roles are worth it and some are free labor with a title. The U.S. Department of Labor publishes the test it applies to unpaid interns at for-profit companies in Fact Sheet 71. It weighs, among other things, whether the role is mainly for your benefit, whether you are learning something, whether it fits your studies and whether it ends when the learning does. We are summarizing; the fact sheet is the source, and the rules for charities and government bodies are different.
Worth a second look: nobody is named as your supervisor, the description is a list of tasks and says nothing about what you will learn, there is no end date, or you are asked to pay a fee. Questions to ask in writing: Is this role paid? Who will supervise me and how often will we meet? What are the start and end dates and the weekly hours? May I speak to someone who did this last year?
If this year does not work out
It happens to a great many students and it does not mean you did something wrong. The same months can be spent on things that make next year's application stronger: research with a professor, a project with other people, a campus job where you take on something new, service for an organization you respect. Put next year's opening month in your calendar now. The deadline calendar has a feed for that.
Then go back to your list of people. The students who get the second internship usually kept in touch with the people they met on the way to the first.