Staying Organized During the Internship Search
This blog was written by Peer Career Ambassador, Catherine Ferri ’21.
Trying to balance school work with finding that perfect summer internship?
As Babson students, the internship search can sometimes seem overwhelming, especially when coupled with endless amounts of schoolwork. Students often find themselves sending in numerous applications to companies and losing track of their career interests. How can you avoid this? Here are some tips that can keep you organized and on track during your internship search.
- Make a list of the companies at which you are interested in interning. This is such a simple step, but it makes a huge difference in aligning your interests with your applications. This list can help to hold you accountable and make sure that you are constantly monitoring application release dates for these select companies. In addition, once you apply, you can record things like your application date, status, contacts, etc. Consider making an Excel sheet with columns for categories such as company name, position title, location, application date, application status, and company contacts.
- Finalize and save important documents. Whenever you apply somewhere, you will likely be asked to provide a resume, cover letter, and sometimes even a transcript. Having these documents reviewed, finalized, and saved to a common location can ease the application process, as they will be readily accessible for each application. With a strong resume and cover letter, you will only need to tweak certain aspects of each to tailor them toward a particular job application. Also, having finalized versions in one common folder, perhaps titled “Internship Search,” ensures these documents will be available whenever needed. If you want to make your resume and cover letter the best it can be, don’t forget to stop by CCD drop-in hours every weekday from 1:30-4:30 during which you can have these documents reviewed by a Peer Career Consultant.
- Set aside time for internship work. If you are currently searching for an internship, your email is likely constantly buzzing with internship application emails for each new position that opens up. When trying to complete schoolwork or other activities, these notifications can sometimes be distracting. To handle this effectively, consider creating a folder within your email to store all internship-related communications. Then, allocate time to review these emails. Using this method, you can ensure that during this allocated time, you can devote your full attention to internship searches and applications. You can create time for everything you want to get done! Setting aside a specific amount of time to spend on internship search each week allows you to approach the task with increased focus and efficiency, rather than seeing it as a constant distraction from your other tasks.
Using these tips can help alleviate some of the stress surrounding the internship process. As always, feel free to utilize the many resources CCD offers for help in this area!