Internship Job Search Tips

       Its April...Do you know what your Summer plans are??

We have heard of a lot of students who already know what they are doing for the summer.... and that's great! This post isn't for you. But we also know that some students are just starting their summer job/internship search. Now this is the post for you.

We here at AASAS are here to provide you with some tips on creating a great resume to land an interview, interview tips, and more! Read on and happy job hunting!

Let's Start out with talking about the 4 main types of interviews.

photo courtesy of career.sunnysb.edu

It's important to be able to distinguish between the different types of internships when you are beginning your job search. More importantly, it is important to realize the type of internship YOU are looking for. Knowing this, can prevent you from having to turn down an internship later or having an internship turn you down. Some internships require that your University accepts their internship as college credit. If your University does not, you may be rejected for the internship. And it would really suck if you got an internship, but had to turn it down because you realize it's unpaid. KNOWING WHAT YOU WANT AND NEED IN AN INTERNSHIP IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!!!!

WHAT ABOUT YOUR RESUME/COVER LETTER??

THE CARTOON IS RIGHT! 

Well kind of... while obviously making very overly distracting creative choices on your resume can harm you, it's important to know what your job is looking for.

What I mean is, different fields require/look for different things on their resume. For example, in Entertainment/Media related-resumes, they would prefer your education section at the bottom! This is very different from internships/jobs in the engineering field, where they expect your education information to be one of the first things that they see. 

There is no right or wrong way...but depending on what your job is, it's important to know the particular format of and do's and don't's of your particular field's resume requirement. Some like Objective lines, some don't. Ignorance of this can harm you!

For example: Because employers in the media field get thousands of resumes for each job opening, it is important that they are able to shift through the resumes quickly. So, resumes that are too wordy or don't get to the point quick enough are thrown away without second glance! So, if someone has their education section at the top (because they didn't research the field), their resume will be thrown away, because it didn't get to the point fast enough!

MORAL OF THE STORY: RESEARCH THE REQUIREMENTS OF YOUR FIELD'S RESUME! IT WILL PUT YOU AHEAD OF THE CURVE!

YOU'VE GOT THE INTERVIEW! NOW ANSWER QUESTIONS LIKE A PRO! 

Yay! If you made it this far it means that the company you are trying to work for saw your resume and wanted to hear more from you in person! 

But here's the tricky thing. A lot of employers ask very vague and generic questions in order to see if you can creatively answer them in a way that separates you from the crowd. If you have had an interview before, you are probably familiar with these questions: "Why are you the best candidate for this position?" "Why do you think you would make a good fit for our company?" And so on.

So to give you some help on answering those pretty ambiguous questions effectively  we have posted a video which covers the generic questions and how to answer them effectively. 

FOLLOW UP AFTER THE INTERVIEW!!

Now that you've had the interview, everything is out of your hands right? NO!

One very important last step is to SEND A THANK YOU NOTE RIGHT AFTER YOUR INTERVIEW! This is something that has not caught up to many people, and it will make companies remember you afterwards. Even if you did not get the job it is important to show your appreciation.  Not only will it set you apart from other applicants, but it will help you form a relationship with the employer. That way, when/if you apply for another position with the same employer, they will remember your enthusiasm! 

The note can be either handwritten, typed, or emailed. All are very good, however, handwritten implies that you took more time and care in your thank-you. 

GOOD LUCK!!!!! 

AASAS