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How to Secure A Remote Internship

How to Secure A Remote Internship

Having an internship is an excellent opportunity for students or recent grads to gain valuable experience, earn real-world knowledge of their industry, and bolster their network. However, in today’s market, landing a traditional in-person internship position may be difficult. Thankfully, with 20% of internship postings mentioning remote work as of March 2021, there is still hope for students and new grads to obtain an intern role. Here are four tips to secure a remote internship in today’s competitive market.

Leverage your school’s career services

Whether you are finishing this school year in person or remotely, your university or school offers resources to help you secure a remote internship. Most schools have a career center to provide job search advice, resume workshops, and share relevant job openings/ internship opportunities. With remote internships gaining popularity, it’s even easier to find one via your school’s career services. Any employer can add their internship opportunity to the job listings and request the school to promote it. Plus, the professionals working for the school’s career services can help you tweak your resume and help you prepare answers to common interview questions.

Utilize your professional network

Did you know that 70% of job seekers find a new role through networking? Connecting with other professionals at your target employers or other professionals in your industry is a great way to secure a remote internship. Networking has never been so easy with everything going virtual. You may not see any career fairs for a while but connecting with others online is just as effective. Go on LinkedIn and connect with your friends, family, parent’s co-workers, other students, and alumni. Also, it’s essential to let all your new connections know you are looking for an internship. Make posts asking for feedback, leads, or other advice to help find one. Plus, make sure you let your LinkedIn network know you are open to work by activating this valuable feature.

Additionally, join groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media sites designed to join job seekers and employers. These groups are an excellent means of expanding your network and possibly finding an internship.

Hacking the job boards

If you are looking for a remote internship, you regularly review job boards in search of new positions. However, are you optimizing your search to make the most of your time and energy? Most of the leading job sites, such as LinkedIn, Indeed, and Google, have advanced filters to sort job postings by internships and even remote opportunities.

For example, Indeed has a job board completely dedicated to remote internship opportunities. Also, while searching for an internship on LinkedIn, you can sort postings by job type, and there is a check box for internships to help you refine your job search. Regardless of what site you are using, it’s essential to use appropriate keywords. Use words like “remote” and “internship” in your search terms to ensure the search results match what you are looking for.

Avoid internship resume mistakes

Last but certainly not least, you must craft a resume worthy of a remote internship opportunity. Creating a resume specifically for an internship is different than for a traditional job. As a student or recent grad, you likely have little industry-specific experience. Thus, you want to demonstrate your knowledge by adding courses related to the position, any certifications you have earned, and showcase your personality. To grab the attention of hiring managers, you need to show your interest in the position. But before you can do that, you need to tailor your resume to beat an ATS. If you aren’t taking the time to tweak your resume for each internship opportunity, a hiring manager will never see your application.

Need more job search advice?

These are four simple things you can do to secure a remote internship in this tight labor market. If you are looking for more job-search advice or resume resources, take a look at our candidate resources! We have hundreds of helpful guides to help you receive that much-anticipated job offer!

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