Advice for potential interns.
I’m going through about 80 applications right now for a summer internship at my firm. Here are some tips from someone who applied and interviewed for a lot of internships and who is now on the other side of the process:
- Put your cover letter in the body of the e-mail. I’m not going to click a .pdf or .doc cover letter.
- Use bullets. Lots of them. In your cover letter, keep paragraphs to one or two sentences and bullet important highlights from your resume that are relevant to the position you are applying for.
- If you are a college student and you don’t have much work experience, don’t include your waitressing jobs or sales associate positions at Forever 21 if you are applying for a PR internship. Instead, list classes you’ve taken that show you know something about PR, include writing samples in a separate .doc file (even if they aren’t requested) and only highlight experience that a PR firm, for example, would find pertinent. If you have to do volunteer work to get PR experience at your college, don’t hesitate! Do it!
- I look at an intern’s resume and in less than 20 seconds decide whether to delete it or keep it for further review. If I see a typo, it’s deleted. If I see bad formatting, I delete it. If you go on and on about your academic achievements, but you have a 2-point-something GPA, I delete it. Listen: I’ve done a lot of internship work. I’ve applied for a lot of them. Don’t play up what you don’t have. Don’t over-exaggerate. I know the tricks students try to use, so if I’m evaluating your resume, I’ll spot them.
- Format your resume nicely. Don’t use Times New Roman. Don’t use Comic Sans. Use Arial, Georgia, Helvetica. If you are going to include a .pdf of your resume, also include a .doc file. Don’t use crazy colors, but a tasteful design is nice.
- Get an e-mail address that is your first name and last name and that’s it. None of this “babiigurlll@yahoo.com” crap.
- If at all possible, mention that you either have a portfolio or make an online one. Back in the day, people used to create “leave behind” portfolios for potential intern employers. These days, no one wants to waste all that paper. Instead, create a business card or something similar with a URL on it leading to your online portfolio. That way, employers can look over your work after you leave an interview.
- If you are applying for an internship in a city/state in which you do not live, specify in your cover letter whether or not you have yet found housing. It’s easier for a place to interview local students in person, and not all firms (like mine) have time for phone interviews.
- Keep it third-person. Don’t write “I helped organize this and that.” Resume writing may be awkward to write, but the proper way to list experience is in choppy, stunted sentences. For example, “Helped organize large event for so-and-so” should be in a separate bullet.
- Unless you’re interning for the White House or Vogue, don’t settle for unpaid internships. You’ll be doing a lot of hard work, especially if it’s a small firm. If a place offers you an unpaid internship, express to them that you can’t take the position because you have been offered a paid internship elsewhere. This happened to me, and the unpaid place offered to match the stipend the other firm offered. I would have accepted it, had I not already taken the paid position.
If you have any other questions, e-mail me! I’m happy to help.
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