Internship Hunt

Hi!

As most of you are about to get done with your fall semester and are worried about summer internships, I have decided to write this blog post, jotting down my experience which might help you as you continue to look for internship offers. Please note that this is solely based on my own experiences and I hope this helps you.

My Background

To give you a brief background about myself, I did my undergraduate degree from Manipal University Jaipur majoring in Computers and Communication Engineering. I graduated in 2021 and came to the US to pursue my masters in Information Systems from Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park.

As I decided to pursue my masters right after completing my undergraduate degree, I had only about 3 months of professional work experience and a couple of internships and part-time jobs.

I have outlined my background in the chart below -

Getting Started

When I came to the US, I was scared and intimidated as most of my batch mates had about 3-4 years of industry experience in the field of analytics. Whereas, I was just a fresher with almost no industry experience. All the things that were being taught were new to me. It was overwhelming at first, but eventually I got the hang of it.

My first semester was exhausting as I was not only taking 13 credits, but getting used to this new country, making friends, learning how to cook, taking care of myself, and what not. I knew I had to start looking for summer internships as soon as possible.

A lot of people even told me that you should start applying even before coming to the states but I beg to differ. I think people should just enjoy the time with their friends and family and worry about getting an internship once they come to the US.

For me, the first task was to think about the things that interest me the most other than analytics (duh).

In my case, it was music (which is pretty evident from the chart) -

This helped me determine my future path. I knew I wanted to go into the media & entertainment sector. Well, this doesn’t mean that I did not apply to any other sector. As a matter of fact, I applied to every industry possible, however, I paid extra attention to this particular one.

The second step was to figure out the profiles I want to target and also the profile that I really wish to pursue -

1. Data Analyst (Target)

2. Data Scientist (Dream)

3. Product Manager (Target)

   
   

Once I was clear in my head as to what I want to do, it was time to figure out how to get there.

Resume

I started off by making a master resume, which had all of my projects, internship experiences, leadership experiences, and literally everything I could think of. Once I had my master resume ready, I made four different resumes for three different profiles and one solely for my dream industry. Now, as I had my master resume with me, all that was left was to fit the puzzle pieces where they belong.

Once, the resumes were ready, I forwarded them to my seniors, friends, and family members to review. This allowed me to look at things from a different perspective. For example, my sister is in the field of marketing and has a very limited idea about technical things. She couldn’t understand most of my resume because of all the “tech-savvy” words I used in order to impress recruiters. She made me realise that it is not necessary that whoever goes through my resume is technically sound. It could be the HR, Hiring Manager, or maybe a computer software. However, there is one thing that every person on this planet understands - Numbers (Ah, MBAs are weird)

For my second iteration, I followed the SAR approach -

• Situation

• Action

• Result

  
  

I sent it back to my friends to review and kept on doing iterations to my resume almost every other week.

Networking & Applications

Finally, it was time for the world to know that I was “#opentowork”. My main resource for networking and looking for positions was LinkedIn. I believe that LinkedIn is genuinely the best tool out there.

I started off by adding connections -

1. Alumni

2. People working for companies I want to apply for

3. Any resourceful person

Once I had a good amount of connections, I used to message them explaining how I could be a good fit for the team. However, only a handful of people reverted back.

I used to be on LinkedIn almost every single hour of the day. I used to save positions throughout the day and sit at night for good 2-3 hours to apply for those positions. Honestly, when you are an international student on a clock, it’s really a game of numbers. The more you apply, the more chances you get.

As the end of spring semester was approaching, I was running out of time. I decided not to run after referrals and just kept on applying. Although, I kept on sending connection requests to alumni working for my dream companies in order to leverage those connections during job hunt.

Quick LinkedIn Tips

1. Keep your profile updated

2. Try to be active on LinkedIn - Show the world what you are working on

3. Don’t fall for scams

Challenges

1. Juggling between assignments, project work, courses, cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, and the list goes on and on

2. Making “the perfect” resume (Doesn’t Exist!)

3. Reaching out to people who might actually help

4. People constantly telling you that your profile is not good enough

Thoughts

I applied to almost 300 opportunities, got 10 interviews, and received 1 offer. You can do the math. But this is how the chart looks like now -

I believe that getting an interview is not just about knowing things or how your resume/profile looks. It is about applying for the right position at the right time. Believe it or not, there is a luck factor associated with it.

My advice would be to just keep on applying. If you get an offer, good. If not, it’s not the end of the world.

Spend time working on your profile, figure out what went wrong in the process, and reflect on it.

Don’t let this clock affect your mental health. Everything eventually falls into place.

Thank you for reading. Until next time. :)