Internship Searching 101

Engaging in meaningful internships is a vital supplement to your liberal arts education.

Why Internships matter:

Clarify your career goals and direction by gaining experience as you apply and connect classroom knowledge to the world of work.
Strengthen and grow your professional network with contacts.
Provide real-world context, industry exposure, and strategic resume assets.
Employers sometimes prioritize internship experience over GPA.

Four Ways Strategies to Start your Internship Search

Pursue all of these four smart search strategies because you won’t know which method will be successful in helping you secure your internship.

Use Handshake, LinkenIn Jobs, sites like Indeed, Glassdoor, AngelList, Wellfound, and niche listings like SWEList or GitHub.
- Check out your career communities specific page for more listings and potential sites.
- Use other general online internship databases to find organizations that are offering internships. Typically, you will apply for internships directly through the online database (e.g., Handshake), via organization websites, or by submitting your résumé and cover letter by email.
Don’t overlook smaller employers, such as Grinnell Credit Union, area nonprofits, or local startups, which may offer great opportunities.

Tap into faculty, alumni, family, and nearby graduates. Word of mouth referrals can often land you a internship faster than applications.
Take advantage of all events, virtual events listed in Handshake, alumni panels, on-campus employer events, and reach out for informational interviews.

Proactively email or call organizations, especially small to medium ones, asking if they have ever welcomed interns or would consider hosting one (it never hurts to ask.)
Look at your peers’ profiles in Handshake to find names of organizations where current Grinnellians completed internships.

Design your own internship by proposing a project with an organization aligned to your goals, espescially if formal listings are limited.
Contact an organization where you previously worked or volunteered to ask about transitioning your past experience into an internship by adding additional responsibilities to use your newly gained academic knowledge.
Additionally, when you reach out to alumni for informational interviews, they may offer you an internship even though their organization doesn’t currently have a formal internship program.
If you need to earn money over the summer, another option is to approach a non-profit organization and offer to work on a specific project to grow your professional skills on a part-time basis while also having time for a paying job.
If you have more financial flexibility, offer to intern full-time and apply for funding through the CLS to offset the costs of food, transportation, and housing expenses.

The most competitive internships, especially in business, tech, and consulting, may open applications in fall or early winter. Starting early is a key predictor of success.
Check out our resource that offers an example of when certain internships/jobs might be posted.

We recommend that you customize each resume and cover letter. Research the organization, study the job description and match your resume to the skills they are looking for.
Prepare answers to behavior-based interview questions and practice mock interviews with a CLS advisers.

REUs: Conducting research is another great way to gain career-related experience if you might be interested in pursuing research professionally, or if it is needed as a preparatory experience for pre-professional programs or graduate school. The Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program supports active research participation by undergraduate students in any of the research areas funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). REU projects involve students in meaningful ways in ongoing research programs or in projects specifically designed for the REU program. You can access these opportunities at www.nsf.gov.
MAPs/MIPs: At Grinnell, students can pursue a Mentored Advance Project (MAP) or a Mentored Introductory Project (MIP) with a faculty member. Speak with faculty in the academic department you are interested in conducting research in to inquire about MAP/MIP options.
Off-Campus Study: There are many off-campus study programs that now offer internship components. Contact OCS for more information on how to identify opportunities: ocs@grinnell.edu.

Start Early: Searching for an internship takes time and effort. Begin the process a few months in advance of deadlines.
Prepare: Create a strategic plan with your CLS adviser for securing an internship based on your interests, experience, financial considerations, and geographic interests and parameters. Have your application materials (typically résumé and cover letter) reviewed by a CLS adviser, and practice interviewing at the CLS or by using Big Interview.
Pay Attention: Deadlines, application requirements, and program criteria need to be followed. Check all materials for typos and ensure the use of formal, professional language, as well as tone, before sending anything (including inquiry or follow-up email messages) to potential internship sites.
Stay Organized: Use a spreadsheet to manage applications and communications with potential organizations and networking contacts to stay on top of your search process. Follow up when appropriate, and remember to send thank-you notes or emails after an interview.
Diversify: Apply for multiple internship opportunities with varying levels of competitiveness and name brand recognition. Having multiple internship offers is a good problem to navigate. You can always turn down an internship offer if you have accepted another. Never accept an internship and then change your mind if another one that you deem as “better” comes along. You want to develop and maintain professional integrity during your search process.