There has been an exponential growth in the awareness amongst students regarding internships over the past decade. As a positive result of this, today, students are actively pursuing internships to gain practical experience, polish their skillset, learn new skills, and explore various career paths and discover their true passion. Students are excited to find the best internship opportunities for themselves hence leading to a competitive internship market. Here, in order to stand out among their peers while applying for an internship, the aspiring students must make an impressive internship application.
Here are 4 key tips to follow while applying for an internship:
1. Tailor your resume to each job and organisation:
In today’s cut-throat competition for internships, standing out among your peers while applying for an opportunity is crucial. One important step to take is to understand the internship requirements well and do a thorough research on the organisation. This would help you in creating a customised resume for each internship opportunity you are applying to. This also goes a long way in showing the recruiter your keenness in joining their organisation.
2. Keep your cover letter relevant and concise:
A cover letter answers the question as to why an employer must hire you for a particular job. Through a well written cover letter, you can make your case as to how your academic performance, your skill set, projects undertaken, volunteering and extracurricular work, and any previous internship experience make you the right person for the said internship. Keep your cover letter tailored to the internship prerequisites, demonstrating how you can contribute as a valuable asset to the company. Highlight your skills and validate them by mentioning how you demonstrated the same. For instance, in order to highlight your adept organizational skills, provide an example of an event you successfully coordinated during your academic tenure.
3. Highlight relevant skills in your application:
As an extension to customising your resume, it is quintessential that you showcase both your soft skills and hard skills skills which are relevant for the internship you are applying for. While hard skills are highly necessary for each job, soft skills are equally important. Oftentimes, most of the applicants for an internship would have a similar set of hard skills. In such cases, your soft skills could truly make you stand out. In fact, in today’s time of AI penetration across industries, employers are inclining towards putting a greater emphasis on a candidate’s soft skills while evaluating them for an internship or job role.
Following are some of the key soft skills employers are looking for in the post pandemic world. The students must work on building and highlighting these skills while applying for a job.
i) Ownership Skills: Internships often require individuals to work independently without constant supervision. Having high ownership skills is crucial for interns to take responsibility for their tasks, stay motivated, and complete their work efficiently.
ii) Tech Savviness: In today’s time when companies are following hybrid and remote working models, they rely heavily on technology for internal communication, client outreach, project collaboration, virtual meetings, and more. Being tech-savvy is a key attribute for professionals adapting to this digital work environment.
iii) Agility: The dynamic nature of recent times, particularly influenced by events like the COVID-19 pandemic, underscores the importance of agility. Aspiring students need to be adaptable to changing circumstances, such as the shift from in-office to remote work, and the ease of this transition often depends on their agility.
iv) Communication Skills: Effective verbal and written communication is crucial for an intern as they will be conducting their day to day tasks through emails, in-person interactions, video conferencing, and phone calls. Clear and polite communication is also especially important in a virtual setting where conveying ideas and inputs may pose a challenge.
v) Time Management: Time management is a key skill to have for interns in order to make the most of their internship experience. Having time management skill on your resume gives the employer confidence that you will be able to handle all the intern responsibilities and deliver your work efficiently.
vi) Creativity: Today’s dynamic work environment demands creative thinking for adaptation. Employers are keenly interested in creativity and fresh perspectives. Hence, having this particular skill highlighted on your resume could go a long way in convincing the employers of your candidature.
4. Proofread your application: Avoid making any spelling or grammatical mistakes in your resume, cover letter, or assignments, as it can create a negative impression on recruiters. Before submitting your final application, check for errors by proofreading 2-3 times. If possible, ask a senior or a relative to proofread it too. You can also use tools like Grammarly and Hemingway editor to improve the quality of your application content.
About the author: Sarvesh Agrawal is the founder and CEO of Internshala.com, the career-tech platform
