Work Backwards

Before going to job search engines or company career websites, lay out your professional goals first. 

  • What area of industry interests you?
  • If you could pick a desired job to have after graduation, what would it be?

After considering these questions, act on the following next steps:

  • What qualifications do you have now to prove to a company that you have the drive to intern at their company? Put those on your resume.
  • Think about some skills that you would need to have to get you to your desired job. After you have identified the skills needed to work in your area of choice, look for internship descriptions that align with those teachings.

Ex: If you like to work on airplanes & you believe you would enjoy being a project engineer, you would look for an internship description that supported job duties such as attending project meetings, help to track deliverables, & shadow testing/integration methods.

If you need help understanding what this might look like for you, schedule an appointment with a Career Advisor & we will help you.

Use Dependable Job Search Engines

Not all job search engines are created equally. COER has identified three reliable websites that you can use to search for real jobs that employers post:

  • Indeed.com is one of the largest & reliable job searching sites that employers use to post their job listings
  • Handshake is one of the easiest ways students can apply for jobs & connect with employers
  • Rezify is an internship searching site that provides students with opportunities based on the qualifications listed on the applicants resume

Go to Career Fair!

Employers around the mid-west come to Career Fair to hire students for all different kinds of positions, including interns. 

Prep for Career Fair by utilizing the resources COER provides:

  • 1:1 appointments with a Career Advisor to strategize how to tackle the fair
  • Attend Career Fair Prep Masterclass (view the date on MinerLink)
  • Look at the employers coming to the fair & do research on the top 5 that interest you
  • As you look at employers coming to the fair, apply for the opportunity you are interested in on their website BEFORE the fair starts

Keep your Options Open

When searching for internships, keep a flexible, open mind when considering the company & intern title of the opportunity.

Employers like transferable skills that can be used in multiple areas of work, which means there are quite a few internship options you can choose from to get valuable experience no matter your area of study.

If the internship available to you is something adjacent to what you want to do, take it. The opportunity does not have to be directly in line with what you want to do in the future; what matters is the experience you take out of the opportunity, not the direct compatibility between your major & the job.