Summer might seem like the perfect excuse to travel or to work on your tan, but it’s smarter to use your downtime pursuing an internship. A National Association of Colleges and Employers survey found that candidate experience plays a key role in hiring decisions for 95 percent of employers. Nearly half of employers want the experience of new graduates to come from internships or co-op programs. The Collegiate Employment Research Institute’s Philip D. Gardner said most employers won’t even view the resumes of candidates without internship experience. But where do you find an internship? These websites are the perfect places to start.
YouTern: Internship Site Powered By Interns
YouTern uses high-tech matching software to pair your skills and career goals with the needs of the companies in its database. Take a few minutes to create your free YouTern profile and let the site find the internships that will suit you best. Who really has time to trawl through irrelevant internship postings anyway? As new opportunities arise, YouTern will send them to your email or smartphone so you don’t need to feel chained to the site. The Savvy Intern blog, part of the YouTern website, also has some useful advice.
Looksharp: Innovative Website for Internships and Entry-Level Jobs
Looksharp says it’s the largest online internship and entry-level jobs market targeted at students and recent graduates. Like YouTern, Looksharp encourages you to create a free profile so the more than 30,000 companies in its database can find you. This is easy with tools that can pull information from your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. Facebook, Charles Schwab, and HP are among the organizations advertising internships through the site. Looksharp offers tools that help you refine your resume and cover letter and get advice about handling recruiters and interviews.
Internships.com: Top-Rated Internship Site
Internships.com’s user-friendly interface and large pool of internship positions that represent all 50 states helped the company to be named as one of Forbes’ top-10 career websites. Anyone can browse positions, but you’ll need to sign up for a free account to apply for an internship. The clever search function makes it easy to filter results according to their compensation, location, employer type, and more. If you’re not sure what you want to do, take the Internship Predictor quiz, which can help you decide on the best internship for your personality.
InternJobs: Internship Site Backed by Leading Jobs Network
Part of the AboutJobs.com network, InternJobs has helped students and recent graduates find their ideal internship positions for two decades. While it charges businesses to list their opportunities, it offers its services to internship seekers for free. InternJobs is a global site, so if you’re looking for adventure, you might browse internship opportunities in Australia or Qatar! Of course, there are also plenty of positions close to home with organizations like the Center for Biological Diversity, Food and Water Watch, and the U.S. Department of Labor.
Your next internship could be just a click away. Point your browser to these websites and start searching for your ideal opportunity.