Finding an internship can be a challenge. Here are some do’s and don’ts to help you in your search. Art by Joseph Sanker.
By Joseph Sanker Staff Reporter
Finding an internship doesn’t have to be stressful, cumbersome, or even particularly difficult. Here are some Do’s and Don’ts to help California State University Dominguez Hills students successfully land an internship.
1. Don’t – Start Panicking!
A number of studies have shown that when in an anxious, panicked state of mind, poor decisions are often made, leading to undesirable outcomes. Avoid making misjudgments or rushed decisions by taking small steps each day toward the search for an internship.
“One of the ways I deal with things I’m anxious about is I start to make a plan. Just making a plan of how you intend to go about your search is helpful and can be calming,” Lisa Mastramico, CSUDH internship coordinator and lecturer, said. “So what that might look like is starting to put together your documents…putting together [documents] that you know you’ll need to submit a strong application to the internships that you find… it might sound like a small detail but it’s actually really helpful and can be the start of your search and that can take the anxiety down.”
2. Do – Utilize The CSUDH Career Center!
The CSUDH career center is the ideal resource to take advantage of when searching for an internship.
“We always recommend students come to visit us,” Brenda Mendez, interim director and lead career coach at the CSUDH career center, said. “Through your MyCSUDH portal…you can make an appointment to meet with a career coach. And what you can expect in that 30-minute meeting is to answer a couple of questions…see what your career goals are because ideally, we want to try to help look for an internship that allows you to connect what you’re learning in the classrooms and the skill that you’re developing with your career goal. We wish we’d see more students because…oftentimes what ends up happening is students get to the end and…they’re like ‘I’m graduating, I have this degree and now I don’t know what to do.’”
3. Don’t – Procrastinate
Alyce Cornyn-Selby, author of “Procrastinator’s Success Kit” once said, “Procrastination is, hands down, our favorite form of self-sabotage.” With that being said, for procrastinating students hoping to land an internship in a timely manner, self-sabotage appears imminent unless action is taken right away.
“The worst thing to do is just wait,” Mastramico said. “Sometimes students will wait until fall [semester] starts, like September, and [students that] are trying to find a fall internship, that’s too late…one of the bigger mistakes is just waiting too long to start your search.”
4. Do – Reflect on what you want
Internships vary across the board, so deciding what you want before seeking one is very beneficial in the search process.
“You have to take a look inward. You have to see what your values are, what’s important to you, what you envision yourself doing,” Mendez said. “‘What is it that I want to do? Who do I want to work with? What are the things that I like? What are the things that I don’t like?’ [Do] a lot more reflection in those areas…take that look inward to help narrow down your search.”
5. Don’t – Be unprepared for the interview
Many factors come into play when it comes to interviewing for an internship. Being prepared is key. Unpreparedness in an interview will likely show such as when one is “not dressing professionally, like coming in jeans and a T-shirt. Not researching the organization that they’re going to interview with, so not knowing really anything about the company [which] is a bad thing to do,” Mastramico said. “Not having questions prepared [is bad] because, at the end of an interview, they’re always going to ask, ‘Do you have any questions for us?’…and you always should have a couple [of] questions for them.”
6. Do – Remember that this internship is for you!
An internship is meant to take what students have done in the classroom and apply it out into the world where they explore a preview of what’s to come in their chosen career field via internship.
“It’s a bridge from campus to career. There’s research that shows doing an internship before you graduate makes you more marketable when you’re searching for a job,” Mastramico said. “It’s helpful because otherwise, you’re just graduating out into the world without that help, without that little bit of direction as you graduate.”
