The summer is almost here and while you can be looking forward to spending your time off hanging out with friends and going to rave concerts, there's a better alternative. A summer internship! An internship is the best way to feel that in the space of three months you did something productive other than helping your mom vacuum the carpet or take out the trash. Think about it this way, you will get a chance to get a head start on your career and be one step ahead of the other students who might be applying for the similar position when it comes to your graduation date. It's a chance to meet some professionals and see what they do on a daily basis and how much they "like their job" or "really like their job." Ok, but seriously let's leave the quotation marks behind and face the truth, and that is a lot of people graduate, and get hired doing something that they may not be very fond of after a few months have gone by. You wouldn't want to be that guy or girl, would you? So, if you're still not convinced about this, let me mention that you might also get some school credits or extra money!
All that good stuff aside, many of you might be saying ok, how do I get an internship? Well, lets go through some of the checkpoints:
1. Go to HireACane.com and create a profile (Personal and Academic)
2. See how to create a professional Resume
3. Upload your freshly created resume to your account under the Documents tab
4. Once accepted, you are free to start applying for internships (if not, go back to step 2)
5. Simply hover the mouse over the tab labeled "postings"and click on HireACane.com Jobs
6. Now, you can select the type of position that you are interested in or you can do an advanced search to further narrow down your options.
7. When you finally settle down on a few choices, click on the title and then click on the apply button. This will bring up a box that will ask you to upload a resume from your file (sometimes they might even ask for a cover letter or a writing sample, but don't freak out yet, you will have time to upload those to your account)
8. Once you have selected the documents you wanted to use, click on the apply button again and you are all set. Now all you have to do is apply to a few more positions just so you have some options.
9. You are officially set and now its time to sit back and wait for an email or a call from one of those employers or if you are super awesome you might hear back from two.
An alternative site to use is UCAN. It is a system that is solely based for internships and is available to only a number of universities with UM being one of them (don't you feel lucky for being here!). If you are interested and would like to find out more, you can go to this amazing blog post written by yours truly.
I should warn you to not get too comfortable. If you do not hear from these employers for two-three weeks, you might want to send them a friendly email asking if they have received your application and possibly if they could tell you when to expect a reply from them. Don't forget to thank them in the process for their time and coonsideration.
Don't forget, an internship could play a vital role in your decision of what you want to do in the future so don't wait until the final minute to try to get one because you will most likely be regretting your decision of not doing it early or not doing it at all.
If you happen to have any more questions, feel free to stop by Toppel Career Center during internship walk-in advising on Mondays from 2-4pm and Thursdays from 10am-12pm or email toppel-internships@miami.edu
Good Luck!
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