Finding an internship that interests you and fits your studies can be hard. I will provide some tips, based on my own experiences, that can help you to find an internship that suits you best.

Doing an internship during your studies can provide a very valuable learning experience. Moreover, an internship can be an important part of your study program. It is the perfect moment to learn a lot and it could be the stepping stone to your dream career. It is also a good way to see what might be possible after you graduate which can help you make choices for your future career. Besides that, an internship is good for your resume. I hope that the tips in this post can help you to find an interesting internship.

Preparations to find an internship

Before you start contacting different companies, it is very important that you know all the criteria you need to meet. In most cases, the university is expecting something from you and this needs to be clear for you and for the company where you want to do an internship. This could be your thesis, a research report, or anything else. Besides that, there must be a start and end date. So, make sure there is no conflict with other courses that will take place. If you would like to do an internship during your gap year, then you are more flexible.

When you know all the criteria, you can start looking for a company that meets your interest. My first tip is to start searching as soon as you can! There are various ways to find your perfect internship. This is not limited to your own connections, study associations, events at the university, career page of the university, LinkedIn, Magnet.me, and other websites like Moongro, Qompas, Glassdoor, and Indeed. You are most likely to find an internship that will be most valuable to you by being very proactive.

First of all, talk to other students or people that could help you to find an internship or listen to their experiences. Having a conversation with other people will give you more insight that will help you to find the internship that you are looking for. Secondly, go to different events where companies will be present to give you more information about the opportunities they have. Third, open your laptop and start searching on different websites. When you find a company that interests you, try to have a chat with someone that works for the company on an event, on LinkedIn, or just ask for a ‘’cup of coffee conversation’’ as we have at Avanade. They will advise you and tell you what is expected from an intern.

During my studies, I did an internship abroad. This requires more preparation than doing an internship in your home country. The preparations will take more time and it takes more effort to arrange them. I did an internship in New York, USA. So, I had to arrange my VISA, housing, flight tickets, and insurance. Although it took more time, money, and patience, I feel that it was totally worth it!

Applying for the internship

When you found the perfect internship, you need to apply on the website of the company. This will probably include a motivation letter and a resume. Hopefully, during your search, you can contact someone who is working for the company you are applying for (check this on LinkedIn). This might be beneficial for your application since you are better able to explain and clarify your motivation for the role. When you are content with your motivation letter, let other people check it. They might have some tips for you to get that interview.

Interviews

After you applied for the internship and you are invited for an interview, you need to prepare for it. I will give you a list of tips that will help you to rock that interview.

• Read about the company (website of the company, news articles, LinkedIn or other relevant pages)
• Read the vacancy
• Know your interviewers, check their LinkedIn profile
• Prepare a short introduction of yourself, a short 1-minute pitch
• Try to find the skills you need to make this internship a success for you and the company
• Motivate that you have these skills, give examples. You can use the STAR method (situation, task, action, result)
• Read your motivation letter
• Prepare frequently asked questions such as; why are you a good candidate? (Google these questions)
• In case you need to write a thesis, prepare some questions about that
• Ask good questions. You can make a list of questions you want to ask during the interview.
  
  

During your internship

When you got the internship, you need to make the best out of it. It might help to set goals for yourself. You can write down what you want to learn and how you are going to achieve that. At Avanade, you will have someone that will guide you through this process. What I did to make my internship a success is to make sure that it met all the requirements of the university. I had to write a research report, so I did some interviews and I was able to work one day a week on my report. I discussed this during my interviews and for me, one day a week was enough to finish my report. On the other days, I worked at the office of the clients to gain some work experience.

Working abroad and with different cultures was one of the most important learnings for me. I also gained consulting skills that I still use today in my role as a CRM consultant at Avanade. If I need to name one thing that I would have done differently it is that I wanted to stay a bit longer. My internship was quite short, 3 months. I think that an internship of 3-6 months will help you to dive deeper into certain topics and learn more.

At Avanade, we have a lot of internship opportunities in different departments. If you are interested in working with Microsoft technology and implementing the newest technology for our clients then this might be a good fit. The internship opportunities we have at Avanade are quite broad. This includes customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, analytics, advisory, organizational change management, human resources, software engineering, and more. We would love to give you more information about our internship opportunities, but most of all I wish you the best of luck in your search.

Do you also want to follow an internship at Avanade? Find out more on our student career page.