Internship Search Checklist: A Guide to Landing the Right Internship for You

An internship is a crucial step in your academic and professional journey. It offers you the unique opportunity to gain practical experience, build your network, and develop valuable skills that will benefit you long into your career. And to find the right internship for you and make the most of it, it’s essential to prepare.

Here, we’ve included the key steps to take to ensure that you’re prepared to find and land the internship you want.

Identify What’s Most Important to You in an Internship

The first step to landing the right internship is determining what’s most important to you in an internship. This could be as simple as the location of an internship or whether it offers a hybrid schedule. It might also be the quality of assignments, amount of responsibilities, or networking opportunities offered. Once you’ve got four or five aspects that you’re looking for, prioritize them in order from most important to least important.

Here are some aspects of an internship that are typically the most important to students:

• Compensation
• Networking Opportunities
• Training and Skill Development
• Mentoring Opportunities
• Quality of Experience and Responsibilities
• Schedule
• Location
• Culture
• DEI Practices

With your list of priorities, it’ll be easier to identify internship programs that work best for you. For example, if you have “training and skill development” at the top of your list, look for internships that provide structured training programs or the chance to develop specific skills. On the other hand, if you’re looking to gain some financial independence at school, then you might be more concerned with finding an internship that pays well.

To find top internships based on various priorities, you’ll want to start with taking a look at Vault’s ranking of the Best Internships by Employment Factor. These rankings include Best Internships for Overall Career Development, Compensation & Benefits, Networking Opportunities, Training & Mentoring, and more categories.

Research Internship Opportunities and Deadlines

If you’ve ever followed Vault’s advice on any number of job-related topics, you know that we often place an emphasis on research. In any situation, knowledge is power, and when you’re headed into unknown territory such as an internship, you’ll want to know as much as you can beforehand. So, start by seeking out companies that offer internships. Then, check out their websites and social media platforms to learn as much as you can about the company culture, values, and the type of work they do. You can also take a look at reviews from past interns to get an insider’s perspective.

A great place to begin this research is Vault’s 100 Best Internships Ranking. There, you’ll be able to read about the top programs that interest you. For each ranked program, Vault has written an in-depth profile that includes requirements, deadlines, type of work, interview questions, workplace culture, training and mentoring, diversity practices, career development opportunities, compensation, full-time employment prospects, and more.

Lastly, pay very close attention to each internship program description. It can be easy to gloss over important details, especially if you’re in a rush to apply, so do your best to slow down and take it all in. Be on the lookout for details about potential responsibilities, required skills, the types of learning opportunities an internship offers, and deadlines. As for deadlines, we’ve created a handy post (which we update regularly) about the typical deadlines for many internships.

Complete Your Applications

Resumes

If you haven’t written your resume yet, that will be the first thing you do when it comes to completing your applications. To help you get started, check out our tips for including your academic achievements on your resume (since you likely won’t have too much work experience). You might also want to take a look at our recommendations for including resume keywords, soft skills, extracurriculars, and hobbies and internships on your resume. And if you have completed an internship before, you can check out these tips for including internship experience on your resume.

The second thing you’ll want to do is tailor your resume to match the descriptions of the internship programs you’d like to apply for. Typically, internship descriptions include various industry terms, hard skills, and soft skills. It will be very beneficial to your candidacy if you can find ways to fit them into your resume. This means you’ll likely have several different versions of your resume in order to align with the job descriptions of multiple internship programs you’re applying to. Here is some of our advice on how to tailor your resume and make it stand out.

Cover letters

Your cover letters will work in very much the same way as your resume(s). Ensure that each cover letter is tailored specifically to the internship you’re applying for. In certain cases, potential employers will use specialized software to detect keywords in your cover letter, and internship programs are no different. So, be on the lookout for certain keywords and phrases included in internship descriptions that you can add to your cover letters. For more detailed information about creating an internship cover letter, check out our essential internship cover letter advice.

Digital portfolios

Depending on your chosen field of interest, you might also want (or be required) to put together a portfolio to send to potential employers. Most often, portfolios are used by people in creative fields, such as graphic designers, copywriters, or marketing associates. Your portfolio acts as a showcase of all your previous work, which may include projects you’ve worked on in school. Nowadays, most portfolios are digital, so you can often simply include a link to yours in your internship applications. You can read more about this in our advice on putting together a digital portfolio.

Prep for Interviews

For many students, their internship search will be their first brush with interviewing—so it pays to be prepared. Leading up to your interviews, set aside some time to research and practice common interview questions and answers. If possible, practice answering questions in front of a friend, or even record yourself answering aloud. To help you prepare for specific questions, here are some of our (video!) tips for answering common questions such as Tell me about yourself and What are your strengths and weaknesses? We also have advice for answering behavioral questions (those commonly asked questions that start with “Tell me about a time when …”) and for answering unusual questions.

Next, prepare some questions of your own. During any interview, the interviewer will leave some time for you to ask any questions you might have. This typically takes place towards the end of interviews, and if you haven’t prepared any questions, you might come off as uninterested or even lazy. Check out our advice for acing your internship interview for more information on great questions to ask at the end of your interviews.

Finally, you’ll want to logistically prepare for your interviews. If your first-round interview is virtual, there will be a host of specific issues you want to address. Thankfully, we have you covered; we have advice on brushing up on virtual body language best practices, using notes during your virtual interviews, and prepping your technology.

For in-person interviews, it’s essential to make sure you know how long it’ll take to get to where you need to go—so you’re not late. You’ll also need to understand the dress code (when in doubt, it’s certainly okay to ask the recruiter). And, no matter if you interview virtually or in person, you might experience some interview stress and anxiety. So, it can be helpful to read our advice on overcoming self-doubt before interviews, getting into the right interview mindset, and dealing with interview anxiety.

Of course, after your interviews, you’ll want to email thank-you notes. For the perfect template, check out our thank-you note advice.

Bookmark These Resources

In order to help with your internship search even further, here are some additional Vault resources that you can return to again and again:

Vault’s Intern Resource Center is the center of all things internship-related on our site. It has everything you need to ensure your success throughout the internship process. It is updated constantly (with new blogs, guides, internship programs, and rankings).

Vault’s Internship Rankings are the hub of our industry standard rankings of the top internship programs nationwide in a host of categories, including role, industry, key employment factor, DEI, and prestige.

Vault’s Internship Blogs will keep you up to date on any new trends and issues when it comes to searching for internships, related to resumes, cover letters, specific internship programs, networking tactics, and more.

Vault’s Sample Resumes and Sample Cover Letters will go a long way toward helping you craft these essential documents

Vault’s Interviewing Advice will help you prep for specific interview questions and issues, and help you dive further into industry-specific (such as banking and finance, consulting, and tech) and role-specific (engineering, cybersecurity, and accounting) questions.