It’s Recruiting Season: Landing an Internship in Tech
The following advice is coming from my own experience. I do NOT guarantee that it will land you an internship. This serves as a guide.
It’s that season again, when you (college student in tech), contemplate if you have what it takes to impress the recruiters at the career fair. If you haven’t had an internship, this one is for you. If you have been in an internship, you might get something out of this. You might read on and decide that your friend might need this. Either way, I hope it will be helpful!
I have been on both sides of the table at career fairs. Being on the side of seeking an internship can be scary and intimidating. So here is some advice from the other side of the table.
No Projects? Go Anyway
At my school, many info sessions took place in which companies would come and speak to us and take resumes. I decided to attend one of them, so I printed out my resume. A resume that included a summer job at a bowling alley and some positions I held while in a co-ed fraternity. I was embarrassed, shy, and waited for every other person to leave before speaking to the recruiters. I handed my resume and said, “I have no experience, but I would like an internship.” Well, I did not get an internship for that company. But the recruiter was kind enough to help me make my resume presentable and guided me in what things I should do. What I know now that I did not know before is this: At that moment I started to do a little thing called networking. This my friends is your greatest weapon. Talking to people in the field that will help you along the way.
Don’t have projects in your portfolio? No problem. Talk about classes you have taken and will take the following semester. This may or may not be enough to get an interview but, it is enough to start a conversation of sorts. The more you attend recruitment events, the more progress you can show. Not to mention, the likelihood of recruiter remembering you (assuming the same recruiters attend) increases. Which leads me to my next point.
Another reason to go even without anything to show is to ask questions. You can ask about internship opportunities, company culture, and the technologies they are using. You can start figuring out what might be a good fit for you.
Here is an article with some project ideas to win over your next career fair.
Projects on Resumes
There are a lot of things going for you when your resume includes a project. If it is a team project, it says you can collaborate. You can talk about what you learned from someone, or what you taught someone else. If it was a project you did on your own, it says you take initiative. These are all very good things. Yet, when it comes to group projects, students usually have a hard time talking about what they contributed to the team. So, if you have a project on your resume, prepare to talk about what your role was on the team. did you implement a feature? Did you teach someone how to do something? Were you new to a particular technology or framework? Did you learn anything? Did you build everything on your own?
You should have a mixture of individual and team projects. Having just individual projects may seem like you don’t do well on teams. On the other hand, having only team projects might seem like you don’t do well individually. Essentially you want to have something on your resume that demonstrates you can work well in both situations.
The Career Fair
Tons of companies will attend, and it will be in your best interest to do your research. Make a list of your top choices. Also make a list of other companies that you want to get to, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world if you didn’t speak to them. Also, make sure you plan for when your top choice companies are busy with a long line of people.
Your Intro
Have some sort of intro, doesn’t have to be an elevator pitch. Mine was some version of the following “Hi, my name is Giselle most people call me Gigi, do you have internship positions open?” A lot of students like to throw in what programming languages they know. This is your intro. Be yourself within the bounds of professionalism.
Fun Questions
When I was in your shoes a few recruiters asked me about myself. They wanted to know about other interests outside of tech. I was able to talk about my marching band experience and (at the time) new interest in running. All this to say: recruiters want to get to know you. So expect to talk about yourself.
