“How was your break?”
These four words are both exciting and depressing, inaugural and terminating. You’ve probably heard them dozens of times by now, mostly
because this question is a go-to icebreaker for anyone affiliated with a college campus. These words signify the end of the lazy days of winter break, and usher in a new semester, filled with new
classes, new challenges, new experiences, and new opportunities. As I like to
call it, the crazy is back. Before you celebrate the nascent term, I’ll
give you a few moments to silently shed a tear for the lost weeks that, if you’re
anything like me, you spent in a near-comatose state on your couch at home.
I know you needed that. I certainly did. But let's focus on the positive from now on.
Like many of you, I had a fairly non-productive winter break.
I know that this contradicts my previous post about capitalizing on the
newfound free time during the holiday season, but it wasn’t a total wash – I made
significant headway on my summer internship search, and I took important time
to relax and do things I really wanted to do (an equally important but frequently
overshadowed activity). Nevertheless, the transition
back to a cramped and rigid weekly schedule was – and continues to be – a rough
one. During these next few weeks, it’s important to stay organized and on-task,
because for underclassmen, the months of late winter/early spring mean one thing in terms of career development: INTERNSHIP APPLICATIONS!
If you’re a freshman, sophomore, or junior, now is the time to begin planning for your summer vacation. Many internship programs have deadlines
at the end of January or February, and you don’t want to miss out on some great
opportunities because you were too focused on getting through the crazy. In
order to keep your eyes on the prize, I’ve provided below a list of some tips,
ideas, and suggestions that I’ve found to be particularly helpful for the internship search, both in the
past and right now! (Remember, even though I’m the one writing the blog, I have
an internship search of my own to complete.)
Stay organized. I already mentioned this, but it cannot be
said enough. Organization is the key to almost anything, and internship
searches are no exception. With so many different applications, personal statements,
and deadlines, everything tends to get jumbled together. To avoid this
confusion, keep a spreadsheet of all the internships you’re applying for, with
important details easily visible for side-by-side comparison and prioritization. I’ve
already experienced the repercussions of failing to keep organized myself –
without realizing it, the application deadline for an amazing, paid, local internship
that I really wanted passed by without my realizing it until a week later.
Although I’m really disappointed, this is only more motivation for me to stay
on track over the next few weeks!
Ask for rec letters well in advance. Kelly already wrote a
great post about asking for letters of recommendation, so read up on the basics
if this is your first internship search. Most people will tell you to ask someone for a recommendation a month before you need it. I don’t know about you, but
to a professional procrastinator like myself, a month is enough time to write a
novel, start a small business, and do everything on the bucket list in the
movie “The Bucket List” (watched it over break… it’s a tearjerker). Still, you
do want to make sure that you ask well in advance for a recommendation, if not
for the writer’s sake, for your own; getting all the application materials together
well before the deadline and sending them in ASAP is important for your
peace of mind. When you're researching internships, be sure that you'll have at least a few weeks to gather your application materials so that you're not scrambling at the last minute.
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| What your internship application pile should not look like. |
Apply to as many programs as you can – within your limits.
Whereas most people agree on when to ask for rec letters, there is little consensus
on the number of internships a person should apply for. I’ve read
online forums that suggest applying to 50+ internships in your field of interest. In general, there is no hard and fast rule for how many programs
you should apply to; granted, the more you apply, the more likely
you’ll get at least one offer, if not a range of
offers to choose from. It's no secret that college students
are busy people. If you only have a few spare hours a week to devote to looking for an internship, just work as efficiently as you can and keep at it until you feel confident that you've done your personal best. Furthermore, it’s quality over quantity in applications -- the more time you
invest in each application, the better it will be.
Stay relaxed. I am rarely relaxed. In the high-speed, cerebral
environment of a college campus, few people are. It’s easy to get overwhelmed
and give up and end up watching TV or scrolling on your iPhone for hours to
avoid putting in the time and effort for something you think you'll fail at anyway (psychologically speaking,
this is known as self-handicapping, and is a surprisingly common phenomenon). But, speaking from experience, things have a tendency to fall into place. Last
year, my spring semester was pretty depressing. I applied to a lot of research
assistant positions and science internships, but the lack of experience that
comes with being a college freshman subjected me to email after email beginning
with the phrase “Thank you for applying to ____. Unfortunately…” But in the eleventh
hour, I sent a hail-Mary email in mid-March to a local animal hospital back
home, and I ended up getting an internship that was incredibly valuable for my
personal career development. Even if it seems like every plan is falling through, don't stress yourself into paralysis -- keep working until you get the result you want.
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| Because when you find a picture of President Obama throwing a hail-Mary pass, you're not gonna not put it in your blog post. |
Until next time,
Sean Boyden
Class of 2017
