Craft Your Own Internship

Perhaps it’s late in the second semester and you have yet to find the right internship opportunity for the summer. To launch an independent internship search we encourage you to meet with a career counselor. In addition here are some tips to get you started:

• Define your learning goals—Do you want to gain expertise in a field you’re unfamiliar with? Do you want to become experienced in a field that you are planning to pursue after graduation? Do you want to hone skills you developed in your course of study here at Brown? Is it necessary for you to be paid during the internship?
• Narrow your geographic search—To do a focused search begin by identifying one geographic location. You may have many options available to you, but you will find it easier to set parameters before each search.
• Identify potential internship sites—Your learning goals and industry interests should guide you. There are a variety of ways to do this:
  • Use Career Search, a database of over 4 million organizations worldwide offered through the Brown CDC. Use the client referral code of brown when creating an account.
  • For an International Search, use Going Global also offered through the Brown CDC to identify potential employers in your country of interest.
  • Use the Brown Summer Experience Database to see what other Brown students in your area of interest have done in their internships.
  • Use BRUnet the alumni career network and search by industry to identify alums in organizations of interest.
  • For additional nonprofit internships, use the general search bar of Idealist.org to identify organizations.
• Develop a list of contacts within organizations of interest—Reach out to people you’ve identified as current or former employees of those organizations. Begin by contacting people you know, and also remember to use Brown contacts (such as names discovered through the Summer Experience Database or BRUnet).
  • Seek out Brown alums to ask about the culture of the organization. When using BRUnet, note that alumni have volunteered to provide information. While it’s not appropriate to ask them for internships or jobs, they can let you know whether their organization offers internships. If the organization doesn’t offer internships you might still benefit from an informational interview or a shadow opportunity.
  • Search the Employer Directory of Brown Career Connection to see whether a particular organization has been on campus. The directory will provide contact information.
  • Cold call or send an email to an organization of interest. Utilize Career Search or the organization’s website to identify a contact.
• Stay organized—Use a spreadsheet to organize and track your progress.

By following these steps, you should be able to turn a “lost summer” into a great opportunity for growth, networking, and experience!