4 tips for finding an internship during a pandemic

It can be very difficult for students of technical schools, vocational schools, community colleges, colleges, or universities to find unpaid or paid internships while they’re in school or after graduation. Since the spring, COVID-19 has made that even more difficult. Difficult, but not impossible.

Before getting into some ideas for how students can find internships during a pandemic, let’s just remind ourselves that it is very, very important for students to graduate having completed at least one, quality internship. Preferably, that internship led to the employer offering an entry-level job upon graduation and the student accepting that offer. Why? Because internships are essentially temp-to-perm relationships: they allow both the employer and the student to try each other out with little downside risk. If both are happy, they should both want to make that relationship permanent. Internships that do not lead to permanent employment are missed opportunities both for the employer and the student.

The best ways to find an internship during a pandemic are:

• Search for remote internships, not just locally but also nationally and even globally. Large employers (those with 1,000+ employees) hire most students and recent graduates and most of that hiring is through their internship programs. Until March 2020, most interns were required to work on-site, but COVID changed that. During the summer of 2020, most employers required their interns to work from home unless the work absolutely had to be done on-site. Based on what we’re hearing from employers, we expect to see the same for 2021 and that means that more employers are going to be more willing to hire more interns for remote internships than ever before. For the coming months and perhaps years, it won’t matter much for most internships where your school is located, where you currently live, or even where you want to live so broaden your horizons. You can search for remote internships or any other positions on College Recruiter by adding the word “remote” to your search keywords and leaving the location field blank. For example, a search for “remote internships” (without the quotation marks) brings up dozens of options as of the writing of this blog article and will likely be hundreds and maybe even thousands later this school year.
• Apply to seasonal jobs, preferably those which are career-related. Many employers hire students for several months and call the employment seasonal or temporary when they could almost as easily call it an internship. They sometimes don’t call it an internship as they believe that would require them to fill in a lot of paperwork with your school, but that’s only correct with some schools and only if the employer uses the career service office or other resources of the school in order to hire the intern. There’s no law that requires an employer to call a job an internship only if some school approves the internship. Your goal, and that of the employer, should be to convert the seasonal into an entry-level job upon graduation, which is no different than if the job was called an internship.
• Look for educational opportunities that include practical work experience, even if those aren’t called internships. Some schools offer work-study programs where you might be assigned to a faculty member and conduct research or otherwise support their efforts. These can occasionally lead to offers for permanent employment from the school, but always are impressive to other employers as professors know who their best students are and if their high regard for you will be evident from their willingness to employ you. Some of these jobs are paid, some count as credits toward degree requirements, and some both.
• Network, network, and network some more. Many students (and other candidates) think of networking as asking friends and family for job leads. Yes, that’s how many network but it isn’t the best way. Instead of asking them for help, ask them how you can help. If you have a family member who owns a small business and you’re working toward an accounting degree, ask them if you can volunteer five hours a week to help them keep their accounting records current. If you’re in a healthcare major, ask your local doctor’s office, hospital, or even veterinary clinic if you can volunteer 10 hours a week. You’ll get some takers, and those people will want to reciprocate by helping you. When they ask how they can help you, ask them to connect you with two people who might be of help to you as you look for a good job. Not necessarily people who will want to hire you, but two people who might be able to point you in the right direction. Keep repeating that process. Pretty soon, someone will tell you that they’re unwilling to refer you to two other people because they have a job that should be a good fit for your needs.