How do I find an unusual internship?

Many students wonder how to find a decent internship? It is far from a secret that internships are a direct source of the experience that employers require in the future from university graduates. Nowadays, when everyone wants to quickly find their place in life, getting a suitable internship is doubly difficult, especially considering the fact that many of them are not publicly advertised. For your information, as many as 60% of vacancies for both internships and permanent jobs cannot be found in the public domain. Some enterprises prefer word of mouth to the Internet, so they never engage in self-promotion, while others simply do not find the time to select candidates on their own.

So how can you get on these “hidden” internships in order to further set yourself up for success and use the knowledge gained in the market? To do this, further you are offered several options.

Communicate to find an internship

It seems unfair that many potential interns are deprived of the opportunity to prove themselves due to the “shade” of most vacancies,but, as in personal development, everything here depends only on yourself.

Start by asking the people around you: friends, family, university professors, former colleagues, and bosses. Tell them about your summer plans, share what you are looking for an internship. Be clear about what you can offer the potential employer and what type of work could satisfy your interests and provide you with the necessary skills. Do not be afraid to ask for help directly in organizing internships or just from strangers.

Send your resume

Sending your resume to different companies may seem like a useless exercise, but do not lose hope - there are still companies that can offerreally interesting internships, but prefer not to advertise this fact publicly.

First of all, you need to find specialized sites for posting resumes, such as LinkedIn, where you can findthe right company for you or potential employers interested in your candidacy. Typically, the search for candidates is carried out by ordinary managers, HR-leaders and project managers, who may also need additional personnel in your person on a short-term basis.In order to interest potential employers, your application should answer all possible questions in an accessible language, such as those in which field you are interested and what skills you have. Your second job in finding an internship is to attach a cover letter to your resume and try to make it as compelling as possible. For example, try sharing in your letter a story about how you could help the company during your internship.

Ask friends to recommend you

For a resume, it can be a huge plus that you already have a referral to this business from someone fromthe same sphere. In this case, provide a link to that person. If you are just starting to find such a “person”, start with your current contacts - maybe you already know someone who could provide you with worthy recommendations? If not, you can use LinkedIn to search for people to support your resume, call them and ask for this modest service.

Explain your interest and ask if this person permits you to mention your conversation in the attachment to your cover letter. And if you're also a daredevil, try calling the CEO of a similar company. Most likely, you will be denied a personal conversation with him, but you can still beautifully indicate in the application that, "advised me to contact you."

Find the problem - fix the problem

You can also increase your chances for the long-awaited internship in the following way: describe the problems that, in your opinion,exist in the activities of the company you are interested in (for example, the wrongly chosen target audience) and suggest a waytheir solutions. This is easier to do if you have already established yourself as an expert on a blog, where you can post your ideas and routes for their implementation. Either way, create an entire document explaining your thinking. Or at the end of the day, write a short statement of thought and then post it on social media. And if you are also a lucky owner of artistic abilities and a favorite of the public's attention, then you can record a five-minute video addressing the company and upload this video to YouTube.

In any way, contact business representatives and share your suggestions. Use all media resources to reach the right people. They can easily ignore your resume, but they will definitely be interested in the benefits for their company that cooperation with you can bring them.

Get creative

Still dreaming of getting an internship, but any attempts fail? There are several inspiring stories from the lives of people who were not afraid to take drastic steps in their search for the desired job. For example, rent a billboard and post an offer of your services on it. Draw posters, hand out your resume to passengers at metro stations as flyers, send a coffee mug to your chosen employer asking them to accept it in exchange for a meeting.Print your resume on a pizza box and deliver it to the office you aspire to become.

All these ideas seem to be very risky, but by taking them into service, you can not only get an internship, but also create something bright and recognizable. And even if not ... You will have another interesting story to tell your friends at lunch.

However, if all these outlandish methods do not appeal to you, then just make sure that you are doing everything possible to achieve your cherished dream. Do not be afraid of the reaction of society and do not set yourself unnecessary boundaries -you can even try volunteering or start your own business during the summer break. Get yourself any skill in any way you can. Do everything for your own development now, and, believe me, in the future you will not have to regret it.

Anastasia Gorovaya