How to Find an Internship in the Summer of Covid-19
To My Faithful Readers:
This is such a heartbreaking and difficult time we are living through and my heart goes out to all of you, whether you’ve been affected directly or indirectly by current events. I’m here to help you in any way I can, so please reach out to me with your questions and I’ll do my best to provide advice.
So many college students have worked hard to score an internship this summer to be told recently that the gig is off. Many organizations don’t have the bandwidth or the will to move to virtual internships and while some are compensating their cancelled interns with a stipend, others are not. This is even worse news than during normal times since it seems so difficult to find anything substantive to warrant spending a summer on.
I’m here to tell you not to despair. There are still internships out there, maybe in a different sphere and maybe without significant pay. And while unpaid internships favor the privileged, there are still opportunities to get paid. So read on for advice on what to do when your internship has been cancelled, or for those of you just beginning the process of planning your summer in the most confused and difficult job climate we’ve ever known.
Many organizations have extended their deadlines and internships/summer jobs are starting later.
This comment applies across the board and you can find internships published on LinkedIn Jobs, and on various websites that have a specific career focus. Here is a small sample:
Mediabistro
Creative Mornings
Internships.com
Look for recently posted listings.
First search for listings posted in the past week, then in the past month. Anything older than a month may not be active and has simply not been taken down.
If you are interested in having social impact, there are opportunities, but mostly unpaid.
Check netimpact.org’s job and internship board for ideas.
If you are interested in conservation/climate change/ sustainability, there are opportunities to work outdoors in remote settings.
Check out https://wfscjobs.tamu.edu/job-board/ and
https://www.conservationjobboard.com for ideas.
Many colleges offer small scholarships to students who want to work for non-profits but need to get paid. Many application deadlines have been extended this year. This is just a random sample of schools that do this – check with your school to see if they provide summer internship funding for select students.
Amherst College
https://www.amherst.edu/campuslife/careers/find-an-internship/funding
Yale
https://ocs.yale.edu/get-hired/domestic-summer-award-dsa
Princeton
https://studentfunding.princeton.edu/
University of Michigan
https://lsa.umich.edu/opportunityhub/students/funding/scholarships.html
Sarah Lawrence College
https://www.sarahlawrence.edu/student-life/career-services/internships.html
University of Colorado Boulder
https://www.colorado.edu/career/students/find-job-or-internship/internships/funding-unpaid-internships
Tufts University
https://students.tufts.edu/career-center/find-internship/internship-funding
Johns Hopkins University
https://studentaffairs.jhu.edu/life-design/students/funding/
As always, try to find a person to connect to once you’ve applied.
Reach out on LinkedIn or by email, if you can find their company’s email system. (Hint: It’s typically first name.last name@, or first initial, last name@.)
Here’s some additional info to help:
https://www.npr.org/2020/05/21/858598827/theres-still-time-to-get-a-remote-summer-internship
https://www.findspark.com/best-internship-programs-new-york-city/
——-
I hope you found this useful. If you have any additional resources you’d like to share, or want to communicate with me directly about how I can help you find an internship or summer job, or anything else you think of, contact me here.