Paul's Tip of the Week: Internship Advice

For a whole new semester, I am back to give you helpful tips to help you navigative through your time at UMass Amherst, the best place on Earth.  My good friend and co-writer Gabby is off studying abroad in London (another great place on Earth) so I'm writing these tips solo!

Now that everyone is finally settled into school, it is already time to start thinking about what you want to be doing for this summer. Maybe an internship? Well believe it or not, you should be applying to them now! I just applied to my first of many this past weekend.

Whether you are an English major or a Mechanical Engineering major, it is critical to get internship experience under your belt. It gives you hands on experience in a potential job field you may want to become a part of. I had an internship at a non-profit in Boston over Winter Break and even in a couple of weeks I learned so much. That experience really helped me visualize the kind of career that I would enjoy and excel at.

So now that you know how important it is to get an internship, you are probably wondering how to start applying? Start by checking out the Career Services website for more information:

http://www.umass.edu/careers/

Attend an internship information session offered every Monday at 12:30 pm and Wednesday at 4:00 pm in 508 Goodell.

Here are a couple more tips to help you to search for and attain the perfect internship:

1. Make sure someone (preferably a professional) looks over your resume for some critiques and expert advice. Once an employer sees a typo in that resume, you are surely out of the running.
2. Ask around. Whether it's your roommate, friend, classmate, relative, etc., everybody knows somebody. Start talking to people about your search for an internship. See if anyone has any ideas. A classmate of mine was telling me about an internship she did last summer that sounded amazing. Not only am I going to apply to that same internship this year but I now have her name as a reference.
3. Apply to MANY internships. While there isn't an exact formula to how many internships a student should apply to I would recommend applying to several. Internships are competitive and you never know who your competition is.
4. Do your research and cater your resume/cover letter to the particular company/organization you are applying to.
5. Go to the Career Blast Wednesday, February 20, 2013 10:00-3:00 pm in the Campus Center Auditorium for a chance to network with over 140 companies!

Good luck!