Question:

I have over six years of IT help desk and telephone support work experience, including being a Call Center Manager for almost 3 years. I have audited storage media and prepared the department to pass corporate audits of storage media. I am active with the Women in Cable and Telecommunications organization. I have a Bachelor in Computer Network Engineering and will obtain my Masters in Business Administration/Technology Management from the University of Phoenix Online in about six months. I would really like to do an internship with or without pay to get more experience on a higher level.

I have contacted over 30 companies with no response. I've sent to them customized cover letters and resumes and then follow-up with them by phone and email to make sure that they received my resume. When I call, I am not able to speak with a hiring manager. I tell the operators that I'm looking for an internship. They either take a message or kick me to voice mail, but I never receive a return call. Perhaps they think that I'm looking for employment, but all I want is a paid or unpaid internship. Why am I not getting any responses?

First Answer:

I think you probably need to do a little more "homework" and find out what companies hire interns or have regular, internship programs. If you just fire off resumes to human resources, or even to people whose names you get off web sites, you may be sending your resume to the wrong department or the wrong person in the wrong department.

Check your cover letter, too. The minute someone sees a resume they may immediately think "Oh, this person is soliciting me for a job" instead of carefully reading your request for an internship. Make sure that your request is clear and in the first sentence of your cover letter so that there is no mistake. You might also put a "goal" at the top in your resume which clearly states that your goal is to become an intern.

I also suggest that you check with your local college, and with college job sites such as CollegeRecruiter.com. Do a search for "intern" and many will come up.

-- Alison Blackman Dunham, life & career expert, columnist, personal public relations consultant, half of THE ADVICE SISTERS®, and the author of the ASK ALISON career advice column

Second Answer:

Welcome to the wonderful world of job searching! Funny how looking for an unpaid internship can be just as difficult as looking for a job.

There are three issues to address here - communication, follow-up, and productivity:

1. Communications: When contacting a company, ask to speak with the person who is charge of intership programs. If there is no such person or program, ask them if they have ever considered taking on recent graduate for a specified period, at no charge. Make sure that your cover letter indicates that you are willing to take a paid or unpaid internship position.
2. Follow Up: Once is great, more than most job seekers do. But never leave a message with the expectation that someone will return your call. Just call them again, and e-mail, and mail. It takes an average of eight, count 'em, eight contacts with a company to get an interview.
3. Productivity: So far, you've done about a week's worth of work. Expect to get about 99 no's for every yes...that means you need to contact lots of people. Try to contact 40 companies per week.

-- Tracy Laswell Williams, certified job and career transition coach, accredited resume writer and founder of CAREER-Magic.com

Third Answer:

I am not at all surprised by the lack of response although it sure sounds like a lack of courtesy given the efforts you have made to introduce yourself. I think that you will be more successful if you first identify a contact person and then send them your information. In this approach, you will have initiated your inquiry before even sending any credentials and will pre-qualify them as interested or not. In addition, by having a name on the envelope, you are personalizing this outreach. Thirdly, you will know the contact person's telephone data and can follow up with them directly thereby circumventing voice mail or a receptionist who can't tell you anything about internships.

Another way to increase the odds of an offer in your favor is to do your own due diligence to identify possible internship worthy projects and propose this yourself. This removes a large burden from the employer hosting your learning experience who is usually expected to develop an internship structure. Be sure to note that you are flexible on compensation in your correspondence and to tell them why you want to collaborate in particular with them. Flattery, demonstrating initiative by preparing the specifications guiding the internship and your not expecting to be paid should all add up to pushing things more in your favor.

-- Debra Feldman, founder of JobWhiz, creator of the JOBWHIZQUIZ, and specialist in cyber savvy strategic job search consultations

Fourth Answer:

Well, it certainly seems as though you are doing almost all the right things, and it's hard to know just why you aren't getting responses. It's a tough market, and employers have cut back on internship budgets. They may not be noticing your willingness to do the internship without pay. There may also be some concern that you are overqualified for an internship.

Whatever the reasons, your somewhat unusual situation may call for a a more personal approach than your current direct-mail campaign. Use your networking contacts in Women in Cable and Telecommunications and other professional organizations to spread the word about what you're looking for and gather advice about whom to approach for internships. Ask if the University of Phoenix has alumni in your field you could get in touch with.

Another strategy that can help you get your foot in the door and identify the people who might consider you for an internship is informational interviewing. A subset of networking, information interviewing will provide more exposure to your desired field and more contacts for your network. You may meet an employer while you're informationally interviewing who would be willing to let you do an internship. More likely, you'll gain information that will help you develop a strategy for breaking into the field. You'll find out exactly what you need to do to get someone to give you an internship. You don't necessarily have to informationally interview hiring managers; you can interview people who are in the type of job you'd like to be in. Those people, in turn, can tell you whom to approach about internships. Find out how to do informational interviews at: http://www.quintcareers.com/informational_interviewing.html.

-- Katharine Hansen, former speechwriter and college instructor who provides content for the Web site, Quintessential Careers, edits QuintZine, an electronic newsletter for jobseekers, and prepares job-search correspondence as chief writer for Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters

Fifth Answer:

It's difficult to say with any certainty why employers aren't responding to your letters or calls. I do have a guess or two, though ...

One possibility is that the phone operators are never directing you to the right person for you to be talking to. Instead, they're just guessing at who you should talk to ... not really caring too much whether they guess correctly. So off you then go to someone's voicemail box ... and that someone may simply be the wrong person.

It's also possible that, in some cases at least, you ARE getting directed to the right person -- and that person is skeptical about or perhaps even somewhat threatened by a person with an MBA and six years of experience who is looking for a paid or unpaid internship. Maybe these folks are having a sort of "it's too good to be true" or "what's wrong with this picture?" reaction to what you're proposing.

In any event, I think your real question is probably more along the lines of "What can I do differently to get the right person's attention and obtain the internship I want?" A few ideas:

• Take advantage of your University of Phoenix connection. U of P is one of the largest online/distance education providers in the country -- perhaps THE largest. As such, there are MANY alumni/ae of the U of P working in companies/organizations across the United States and around the world. Contact some of THEM -- noting that you, too, are a U of P alum. In particular, contact people who completed the exact same U of P MBA program as you did.
• If you haven't been doing so already, tap into your network of current friends and colleagues -- hard. For example, do your colleagues in the Women in Cable and Telecommunications group know you're looking for an internship? Can they refer you to specific friends/colleagues in specific companies/organizations who might be looking for someone with your background for an internship? And, as importantly, can they help you get the attention of those friends/colleagues?
• Start reading publications in industries that interest you, as well as local or regional business publications, and look for stories about companies/organizations that seem to be doing things that might be a good fit for your background. Contact the people who are interviewed for these articles, tell them you read about them in such-and-such publication (a little flattery never hurts!), and ask them about internship opportunities in their organizations. How might you contribute to the innovative corporate activities you've read about in the news? Let the people who were interviewed for the articles know!

You have much to offer. The trick, I think, is to use your current connections and look for or develop new ones so that you're not simply contacting people "cold," but rather contacting people who might have something in common with you -- and who thus might be more willing to consider you for an internship or a similar opportunity.

-- Peter Vogt, college career counselor, President of Career Planning Resources, and a Personal Career Coach with College to Career

Sixth Answer:

What concerns me is the lack of return on so much of your investment of search effort. What you have described makes me need to ask some questions before a definitive answer can be carved out for you:

1. What was the source of the 30 leads you used?
2. What methods are you using for researching these companies?

If these were the result of leads from a resume service, then at the same time that they are providing the lead, they should also provide some contact information. Your inquiries and follow-ups should be directed to those individuals and not to an unspecified contact.

Likewise, if your leads were through networking and an associate referred you, you should be doing some additional research as well as getting the contact information from your associate. Saying you were referred by someone usually pushes your consideration a little higher than when you walk through the door cold because you already have an endorsement. That referral information should be in the body of your cover letter. If your associate is an employee of the company, they may be entitled to a referral fee.

Similarly, when you find postings at your college career center, the contact information may be left blank and a coded address is provided. In that instance, I know of no easy nor effective way to find the contact and you will have to either settle for no response (if they were developed through classified ads) or else ask your career counselor which companies regularly post with them.

No matter how you developed these contacts, you need to revise your research strategies and increase your network of contacts.

You have not described how you research these companies in order to apply to them for an internship. If they are listed among the catalog of companies searchable at your college career center, then read more about them. Ask your counselor who the contact person is in HR or the department in which you are most interested in working. Do they hire only during certain seasons and are you applying to them out of season? Find out. Also find out what the company does and determine whether that fits your interests and goals.

Yet another aspect to researching is developing your interests and learning which companies and industries are involved in just those types of endeavors. You'll want to target them. Next, go to their websites and check their Careers links. Do they have an Interns link? If not, it may be that this company does not use interns. Save your efforts for a company that does.

Who is the contact person at the company and what is their phone number or email address? If it isn't on the website, call the operator and ask for the name of the person in charge of that function, the correct spelling of their name, and if possible, what their extension is.

Check niche job boards for internship listings. CollegeRecruiter.com is one site that specializes in internship postings. Use their site search engine to find out what is being advertised as available. Check other college student/graduate sites for additional internship opportunities.

Also check out your library's and/or career center's internships guidebook. The only companies listed in these types of guidebooks are the ones that do offer internship opportunities.

Get your hands on either the ebook or soft cover version of "The Last Job Search Guide You'll Ever Need. It has an entire 35-page section devoted to internship how-tos. A couple of the articles in that section directly address some of the issues you indicate may need to be addressed.

I've said it in the past and I'll say it again now. Networking is my mantra. Get out to industry and association functions and talk to people. Do informational interviewing. Talk about your goals and desire for an internship, i.e., developing hands-on knowledge of your training. Many of the people in your developing network will be willing to refer you to others who have additional information if you make the right type of personal, professional presentation.

There's lots more I could say and offer as advice. However, it's time for you to synthesize some of this information and scour the pages of several of the recommended books. Be certain to check out pages 338-41, 344, and 345-47. Or you can contact me for additional advice.

Best wishes. May all of your entrances be through the doors of success!

-- Yvonne LaRose, career and professional development coach, Career and Executive Recruiting Advice

Career Videos