Internship Resources Every Tufts Student Should Know About

Last week, the Career Center hosted an internship workshop, which I co-facilitated as a Career Fellow. Although these events are always popular, last week's workshop had over 130 students in attendance, which according to our staff shatters any past record. Because of the high interest level, I'm beginning to think that driven, motivated Tufts students really want to know about internships, and the internship resources available to them. So, I present here a few of the resources we walked through during the internship workshop (along with advice from a senior who's actually used most of them!):

April Ludgate: most relatable college intern ever.

JumboJobs: This should be the first stop for any Tufts student looking for an internship. JumboJobs is a database filled with job and internship listings from employers specifically looking to hire Tufts students. You can scan through listings using a variety of search criteria (location, field of interest, position type), upload a resume/cover letter, and even apply for interviews or on-campus recruiting events. Another great aspect of JumboJobs is access to recruiters' contact information, usually listed in the job description. Another Career Fellow, Shivani, told a story about how she emailed an employer after finding their email address on JumboJobs, and ended up getting an internship. There are so many ways to use this site - be sure to advantage of them all!

Tufts Internship Profiles (TIP): The TIP books are put together by the Career Center every year because we know that one of the best resources for Tufts students is other Tufts students. TIP books are databases of your fellow Jumbos' past summer internships: each listing includes the student's roles/responsibilities, how they found their internship, and (most importantly) - every student whose name is included in the TIP book has agreed to be contacted by any other student. So don't be afraid to reach out to someone who's had an internship you want.

Jumbos help each other out.

Liberal Arts Career Network (LACN): Jim, a Career Center Assistant Director and the facilitator of the internship workshop, described LACN as "JumboJobs on steroids". This database is a lot like JumboJobs, except that it's shared between Tufts and many other universities in the US. By pooling resources, liberal arts colleges are trying to provide their students with as many internship opportunities as possible in a wide variety of fields and geographical locations.

Networking: Arguably, networking is one of the most valuable resources in your internship search arsenal. While combing databases is a great way to find internships, a lot of postings never make their way to these databases. Shivani, Jim, and I all recounted anecdotes from our professional lives in which networking landed us a job/internship. If you're unsure about what networking means, be sure to check out our website, or attend some networking events on or off campus (I just attended one of these last week - read about my experience here).

You may be thinking that November is a little early to start looking for summer internships. Truthfully, it is early - but that's a good thing. The sooner you start thinking about it, the sooner you'll start searching, the sooner you'll apply, and the sooner you'll find a meaningful experience that will further your career journey.

Until next time,
Sean Boyden
Class of 2017