Didn’t land a summer internship? 13 strategies to still land a great job upon graduation.

One practical way a recent grad can use July is to build a small end-to-end project for a real niche audience and document it like a client case study. Employers often say they want 1 to 2 years of experience, but what they actually need is proof that you can take a problem, build a solution, and finish the work. A self-directed project can show that clearly.

A strong example is to pick one local business type or creator niche, then create a 2 to 3 week mini campaign around it. That could mean producing a set of short-form videos, building a simple content workflow, creating AI-assisted image and video assets, writing the copy, scheduling the posts, and tracking basic results. Even if nobody hired you, the project becomes tangible if you define the brief, show your process, and explain your decisions.

The mistake many grads make is building something too broad or too theoretical. “I made a marketing portfolio” is weak. “I built a 10-post short-form content system for a fitness studio, including concept development, asset production, captions, and a publishing calendar” is much stronger. It gives an employer something concrete to evaluate.

I would also recommend treating the portfolio piece like a product build, not just a gallery. Include the goal, your constraints, the tools you used, what you created, what changed after feedback, and what you would improve in version two. That shows judgment, iteration, and ownership, which matter more than polished visuals alone.

If possible, do this for one real person, local business, student group, or friend with a side hustle. Real deadlines and real feedback make the work sharper. By the end of July, you should be able to show one finished project, one short case study, and one concise explanation of the business problem you solved. That often does more than saying you are “entry level” ever will.

I tell grads to start a public intelligence project that tackles a real problem. Pick some geopolitical risk or corporate scandal that’s unfolding right now and write a weekly briefing on it, track how the media’s framing it, who’s saying what, what the strategic implications might be. Put it on Substack or LinkedIn. Six weeks of that shows you can research, synthesize complex information, and write clearly when there’s no template to follow.

Employers aren’t looking for people who can just execute tasks anymore. They want people who can think strategically and spot connections that aren’t obvious. A portfolio that shows you can do that beats a resume full of internship bullet points.

Make your work public, keep it consistent, and make sure it’s about something that actually matters. That’s the fastest way to close the experience gap when you’re starting out.

I’m Runbo Li, Co-founder & CEO at Magic Hour.

Stop trying to prove experience. Start proving output. July is the perfect month to do one thing: pick a real business, make something for them they didn’t ask for, and publish it publicly.

I call this the “uninvited portfolio.” Here’s why it works. When I was still at Meta, I started making AI-generated video content as a side project. Nobody asked me to. Nobody hired me. I just picked subjects I cared about, like NBA highlights, and produced one video a day using tools I was stitching together. Within weeks, I’d reached over 200 million people. Mark Cuban became a paying customer. The Dallas Mavericks reached out organically. All because I made something real and put it where people could see it.

A recent grad can do the same thing this month. Pick five local businesses or creators you admire. Spend one week per business making something tangible for them, a social media campaign, a landing page redesign, a short-form video series, a data analysis of their customer reviews with recommendations. Don’t ask permission. Just build it, publish it on your own site or social channels, and tag them. Even if they never respond, you now have five portfolio pieces that show exactly what you can do in context.

The reason employers ask for “1-2 years of experience” is because they’re trying to de-risk the hire. They want proof you can do the work in a real setting. An uninvited portfolio piece for a real business is more convincing than any internship bullet point because it shows initiative, taste, and execution all at once.

By August 1, you’ll have a body of work that speaks louder than any resume line. Employers don’t actually want years. They want evidence. Give them evidence they can’t ignore.

Here’s a solid way to show what you can do with numbers. Build a property analysis tool in Google Sheets, then record yourself walking through a few deals. This works. I’ve watched people get their first freelance clients and fintech interviews doing exactly that. It proves you can build something useful and explain it clearly, and that’s what gets you hired. Just pick three real listings, film your process, and put the sheet and the video online for people to see.

Most grads treat July like a planning month. I’d treat it like a content campaign with a deadline. Pick one skill you want to be hired for, whether that’s copywriting, data visualization, UX teardowns, or social strategy, and post one piece of work every day starting July 1st.

July is perfect because hiring managers are planning their fall teams right now. A grad who starts posting daily on July 1st has a visible 30-day track record by early August, right when recruiters are filling Q4 roles. That timing puts datable proof in front of the right people at the right moment. When a recruiter can scroll through a month of your output, the years-of-experience line on the job posting carries less weight than the work itself.

Probably one of the biggest underutilized opportunities for a new graduate in July is conducting an actual market research project, including an online survey of a targeted group of individuals, and preparing a case study based on the results. Based on my experience with creating survey software such as LevelSurveys.com and FocusGroupPlacement.com, I know that the ability to show the results of collecting data and then analyzing and presenting them is highly valued by both employers and clients compared to a list of courses that were taken.

July is the perfect time since it’s easier to contact people and get decent participation rates during summer while completing a documented project in a matter of weeks. You avoid the vicious circle of having no experience problem completely.

Developing an extensive collection of standard operating procedures for a hypothetical organization in a very realistic format will help provide evidence of your ability to succeed in business. Take July to create simple, well-organized and documented SOPs for common office functions like tracking digital assets, communications related to onboarding vendors, and routine archiving of data.

The process of developing these SOPs requires having a high level of writing clarity, as well as being able to clearly outline organizational structure. Developing a portfolio of professional documents to present to potential employers provides direct evidence to hiring managers that you have a working knowledge of the underlying processes that make up the day-to-day operations of a successful organization. As leaders continually look for ways to improve their organizations’ performance and efficiency, they are consistently impressed with candidates who can identify areas where order and clarity can be added to chaotic work environments.

Your prospective employer will also see the future value in presenting a detailed collection of SOPs as part of your job application; it is an example of how far ahead of the curve you think operationally, and it is an example of your ability to communicate complex ideas through the use of the written word.

Here’s an idea for July. Design a few visualisations for a fictional house or product, then put it into a simple presentation. At 3D Lines, we have new designers do this, from sketches all the way to final renders. It becomes a great part of their portfolio because it shows not just their technical skills, but how they think and their eye for detail. My advice is to pick a small, well-defined concept and document every step. That shows your creativity and the way you work.

Identify and target a local small business or non-profit in July and then design and present a two week (or similar) completely free audit or digital optimization. Documenting the method you used to execute your audit and what actual results were achieved will make this opportunity turn into an active, real-world case study for your portfolio. The fact that this is a “real world” example of how you can apply the skills you’ve learned makes it possible to demonstrate immediate and successful implementation of your new knowledge as opposed to being limited by generic, entry level, experience limitations when applying for future positions.

I’d say the portfolio that gets our attention is DEMONSTRATING SPECIFIC TOOLS EXPERTISE through actual implementation. One candidate built portfolio showing Google Analytics expertise by creating detailed analysis of website traffic patterns, identifying insights, and recommending optimizations. The specific technical demonstration proved competency far more convincingly than resume claiming “Google Analytics experience.” We value candidates who’ve actually implemented tools and can demonstrate specific technical capabilities.

Grads should select 2-3 tools central to their field, become demonstrably proficient through real use, and document that expertise through portfolio pieces showing actual implementation.

I’ve seen a lot of new marketers struggle to get noticed. Here’s what actually works. Pick something like an ‘AI Ad Rewriter’ project and use real campaigns. People in my community did this, taking classic ads and reimagining them for different industries, and the client feedback was night and day. Document everything with screenshots. Those results matter more than official experience when you’re starting out.

I recommend using July to build a single, visible proof-of-work project that demonstrates core skills like SEO, analytics, and content strategy. Pick a narrow topic—such as a short series of product reviews or how-to posts—publish them, and optimize each piece for search. Track basic analytics and save screenshots or short reports to show impact. Share the links and results with your network to create conversation and referrals employers can review.

Just write a product spec for a safe DeFi savings app, like a real startup would. When I mentored junior people at CoinList, the ones who spent July building a user story or compliance checklist always stood out. They could point to actual work in interviews. The problem is that knowing things isn’t enough. But a sample project or analytics dashboard proves you can do the job. It’s not a magic fix, but having something real to show is a huge leg up for newcomers.