7 Places to Look for an Internship ...

One of the first places to look for an internship is your school. Most schools have a career services center that specifically focuses on placing students into internships within their field of interest. You can also check your school’s website to see if you can get any helpful links online.

If you can’t get an internship through your school, one of the next best places to go is internships.com. It’s free, and it matches you up with internships based on the demographic survey you take when you sign up.

If you are careful, craigslist can actually be a useful tool when looking for an internship. When looking, just make sure that you research the company that is looking for interns. If you can’t find any long-term internships, you can always look at freelance gigs to gain more experience. Who knows, maybe those gigs will land you an internship!

I have a friend that couldn't get an internship because she had a low GPA, but she was an extremely hard worker. She noticed that there was a new business in her area that needed some help getting customers and gaining a following. She talked to the owner and said that she would be the store's social media intern for free, in exchange for college credit. The owner worked out all of the credit details with her school and she interned there until she finished school. After graduation she was offered a full time position as the store's marketing executive.

There are job fairs in many places for people of all ages. A lot of job fairs are held within schools, but they are also held in churches and recreation centers. Job fairs are useful because you can make a first impression with your potential employer face to face. Make sure that you look professional, even if the job is something casual, like a retail manager.

In this day and age, it’s all about who you know. If you’re like me, you probably don’t know anyone. That being said, talk to everyone you can, wherever you go. You never know, the person behind you in the line at Starbucks may be the CEO of your favorite record company. Email everyone you can. Chances are, you probably know someone that knows someone, who knows someone important.

A lot of people have absolutely no idea what an externship is. The difference between an internship and an externship is that an internship lasts a longer amount of time, usually around eight weeks. If you don’t have that kind of time, an externship is when you shadow someone in the industry of your interest for a day, or a week, or a month, etc. The point of them is to gain experience. If you do well when you shadow, the person who is mentoring you may offer you a future opportunity.

Finding an internship can be hard and even scary. I know when I first started college the only way that I knew how to get an internship was through my university. However, if you start to think outside of the box, the opportunities are endless when it comes to your future. Where are some places that you look for internships?