Prepare your cover letter and write your CV
You want to apply for a job with a specific company. To do so, you need to send a cover letter and CV to the person in charge of recruiting interns. If you respond to an internship advertisement, you will be given the name and contact details of this person. If this is not the case, you need to find out how to obtain them, by phoning the human resources department for example. It's important to avoid sending a letter or e-mail "blindly" without being sure of the addressee. Your request may never be read by the person it might interest. A week after you've sent it, make a phone call to find out if your request has been received, and come back to hear about it.
The cover letter is written according to the person you're addressing: its content varies, but there are a few rules to follow. A cover letter consists of three paragraphs:
- Talk about the company, show that you know them, that you like what they do without overdoing it.
- Talk about yourself and your experiences. Emphasize your experiences in relation to the company's activity.
- And finally, talk about your collaboration with the company, what you could bring them and what they could bring you.
- Don't forget to end with an "invitation" to meet: "I'd love to talk with you, so I suggest we meet at your convenience."
Where to find an internship?
Large companies often publish their own internship offers: if you are targeting a specific sector, you should therefore start by visiting their website (employment or recruitment section). However, you should not neglect the huge pool of small and medium-sized companies (SMEs), which do not offer internships and do not have a department for recruiting interns, but which can provide you with exciting internships. You should know that an intern will often be more active, have more responsibilities, and discover the company better in a short period of time in a medium-sized company than in a large, more impersonal firm where interns come and go all year long.
Company directories list all companies by sector or by region. They give you a description of the company, its activity, its workforce, and especially, the name of the people to contact.
Several recruitment websites connect companies and candidates for jobs or internships:
- The site www.en-stage.com publishes internship offers for students, and you can submit your CV online.
- www.jobcampus.com - www.kapstages.com connect companies and young people by offering internships, qualification contracts and apprenticeships. France and abroad.
- www.keljob.com - www.monster.fr - www.recrut.com
Make unsolicited applications: 50% of the jobs to be filled would not be advertised. This hidden market also exists for internships. By going to the offer, you demonstrate your motivation and your profile can create the opportunity. Find out about the company and its projects beforehand to better target your application and make a splash.
Take care of your image on social networks: if recruiters consult the profiles of job candidates on social networks, they may do the same for their future interns! So don't leave pictures of your drunken parties lying around (to check, type your first and last name on Google Images), lock your Facebook profile and think about creating a profile on Viadeo or LinkedIn if you haven't already done so!
Don't forget to raise!
How to build your network?
You need to move forward. Objective: to find out what companies need in order to find an internship. As a first step, you will contact the people around you. This is your basic list:
- Family
- Friends and relatives of friends
- Schoolmates and their parents
- Teachers
- Any person you meet during an internship in a company
- Any person you meet at a job
- Any person met in the context of extra-curricular and extra-professional activities: associations, sports, culture, etc...
Tips for being more efficient
Take a notebook, open an Excel spreadsheet, choose the formula you prefer but above all write down. Write down everything, the name of the company, the address, the name of the decision maker if you find him, his email address, his phone number and note the actions you have taken. Telephone contact, visits, sending applications by email, reminders, noting the date of each action. Do not forget anything. This will be your roadmap to know where you are in your research. It will give you a framework.
Prepare for a job interview before the internship
For an internship or a recruitment, you will have to pass the interview stage. When it comes to a final hiring, it's a big deal, for you as well as for the company. It is a negotiation! When it comes to recruitment, companies interview candidates on average three times. But even when it comes to finding an internship, employers want to have at least one interview.
Your goal is obviously to convince them that you are the one who is best suited to take their place. You will be asked to do the impossible: you must be confident and modest at the same time, curious but not intrusive, motivated but not boring!
Preparing for a job interview:
You have to prepare for an interview! It is absolutely necessary to practice at home, alone in front of a mirror, with a friend or with your family.
For the more emotional, you will meet a human being, not a "monster". Everyone has stage fright. The trick is to control it, so that it passes as quickly as possible.
On the big day, the number one rule is to arrive in shape. Clear your mind two hours beforehand. A good walk, a distracting reading will allow you to "clear your mind". Of course, arriving on time, five minutes early, is perfect.
Bring your agenda, a notepad, your CV and your references.
Find out about the company:
An essential step! This allows the recruiter to see that you are committed to this application, and that the overall project interests you, by observing whether you have spent time on it!
Details to dig into:
- What is the size of the company, its scope: small company, international company, holding company or subsidiary etc.?
- Who runs it?
- What is its main activity? And the activity of the team you wish to join?
- What makes it different in its market?
Find out about the people you will meet:
Who will you talk to during these interviews? Is it HR? Your future internship supervisor? Find out, because being in the unknown is much more frightening than having some control over what will happen to you.
Once you have the names, make your preliminary inquiries: go and see their background by visiting their Linkedin profile, this may give you interesting information to differentiate yourself in an interview if you see that your future manager has done such and such an education or shares such and such an association commitment! Are you afraid that they will say that you have seen their profile? Don't panic, they'll think you're invested in the process, and that's a good thing!
The position: what the company needs, what will be expected of you
What will be expected of the future intern? Knowing the challenges of the position, what it entails, will allow you to put forward the right skills to meet the employer's needs. If they are looking for someone, it's because they have a need, a lack of manpower or a lack of skills: know what you can bring to the table to position yourself as someone who offers a service!
Take some time to scan the internship ad, go through the lines, and don't hesitate to do some research on the Internet about this type of position or ask people you know who have held similar jobs.
Dress Code:
What will be expected of the future intern? Knowing the challenges of the position, what it entails, will allow you to put forward the right skills to meet the employer's needs. If they are looking for someone, it's because they have a need, a lack of manpower or a lack of skills: know what you can bring to the table to position yourself as someone who offers a service!
Take some time to scan the internship ad, go through the lines, and don't hesitate to do some research on the Internet about this type of position or ask people you know who have held similar jobs.
Follow-up, thank you email:
Don't forget, at the end of the interview, to send a thank you email to the people who received you, it's a good way to remember them and to make a difference! You can also put a reminder in your agenda before the interview, this will avoid you forgetting this last step, once the pressure of the interview has subsided!
How to make a success of your thank-you email
The objective of the thank you email is to remind the recruiter and to strike while the iron is hot. The ideal is to send this message one or two days after the interview: you need to show that you took the time to think about it, that you did not rush into it, but you should not give the recruiter time to forget you either. The e-mail should be concise and clear, i.e. between five and eight lines, polite but not necessarily as formal as the exchanges before the job interview. The more personalized the email, the more relevant it will be and the more it will work in your favor.
Start the email with a thank-you note, recalling the day and time of the interview, if the recruiter has met many candidates: "Following our meeting on Tuesday morning, I would like to thank you for the time you spent with me and for the quality of our discussion...".
Confirming your interest
The rest of the e-mail is intended to confirm your motivation for the position you are applying for. You can therefore repeat two or three elements that you discussed during the interview, in order to show your ability to listen and analyze. The trap would be to repeat one by one the arguments you had already put forward in your cover letter. The thank-you email must be different from the rest of your application, you must put into perspective what you learned about the position and the company during the interview. The candidate must show that he/she has understood and appropriated the stakes of the offer. If you feel that you did not express your enthusiasm sufficiently during the physical exchange, or that you feel that you forgot to mention something, the post-interview email is a good complement. However, keep your tone enthusiastic, but not desperate!
For example: "Your detailed presentation of the position and the company gave me a complete overview of the tasks that will be entrusted to the professional you are looking for. In my previous experience, I have taken part in many projects in an environment similar to your company and would be very excited to put them to use in the assignments you are offering..."
Maintain dialogue and stand out
Even if the recruiter tells you at the end of the interview that he or she will get back to you within a certain period of time, the thank-you e-mail is a way to maintain communication. After indicating your motivation again, you can conclude the e-mail by asking your interviewer to give you feedback on your performance: "If you have the opportunity, I would be delighted to hear your perception of the interview, as I consider that all criticism is good to take". Be humble and stay in your place as a candidate, even if the interview went very well. Do not present yourself as if you had already obtained the position!
If during your interview, you discussed a particular detail, you can also send the recruiter a link to an article on the subject, which is complementary to your discussion and/or which is a friendly wink to elicit a response. Also, while keeping it concise and simple, nothing prevents you from being generous to catch your recruiter's eye. He told you during the interview that the company's visibility on the networks was one of their weak points. Why not take some time to develop some SEO tips for the company that you will attach to your thank you email? Finally, you can finish by asking the person a question about the next step in the process, always with the aim of keeping in touch and feeding the exchange.
Conversely, if the interview did not convince you for several reasons, take the time to mature your decision but do not wait too long to let them know. If you remain courteous and on good terms with the recruiter, he or she will be more inclined to keep you informed when a position more in line with your profile becomes available in the company or to open his or her network to you.
Think beforehand about :
- Your weaknesses
- Your strengths
- Your argument
Some trick questions:
- Why are you applying to us?
- Do you have any questions?
- How many times do the hands of a clock overlap? (We counted for you and the answer is 22)
- Why did you choose this training? Do you regret this choice?
- Can you say "no"? (You must answer yes)
- Tell me about yourself
- Do you like teamwork?
