How do I find an internship?
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 see if your request has been received, and come back to hear about it.
The cover letter depends on the person you're writing to: 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 experience. Emphasize your experience in relation to the company's activity.
- And finally, talk about your collaboration with the company, what you could bring to them and what they could bring to you.
- Don't forget to end with an "invitation" to meet: "I'd be delighted to talk with you, so I suggest we meet at your convenience."
Where can I find an internship?
Large companies: often publish their own internship offers: if you're targeting a specific sector, you should start by visiting their website (employment or recruitment section). However, you shouldn't overlook the huge pool of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which don't advertise internships and don't have an intern recruitment department, but can still offer you exciting internships. It's important to know that an intern will often be more active, take on more responsibility, and get to know the company better in a short space of time in a medium-sized company than in a large, more impersonal firm where interns come and go all year round.
Company directories: list all companies by sector or region. They give you a description of the company, its activity, its workforce, and above all, the names of the people to contact.
Several recruitment websites put companies and candidates in touch with each other for jobs or internships:
The www.en-stage.com site posts internship offers for students, and you can submit your CV online.
- www.jobcampus.com - www.kapstages.com is the website of Kompass (see above) and puts companies and young people in touch with each other, offering internships, qualification contracts and apprenticeships. France and abroad.
Unsolicited applications: 50% of job vacancies are not advertised. This hidden market also exists for internships. By approaching the offer, you demonstrate your motivation and your profile can create the opportunity. Find out more about the company and its projects beforehand, so that you can target your application more effectively and hit the bull's-eye.
Look after your image on social networks: if recruiters consult the profiles of job applicants on social networks, they're likely to do the same for their future trainees! So don't leave photos of your drunken nights out lying around (to check, type your first and last name into 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 ;
- Anyone you meet during a work placement;
- Anyone you meet on the 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 recruitment, you'll have to get past the interview stage. When it comes to a permanent position, the stakes are high, both for you and for the company. It's a negotiation! When it comes to recruitment, companies interview candidates an average of three times. But even when it comes to finding an internship, employers insist on at least one interview.
Your goal is obviously to convince people that you're the best person for the job. You'll be asked to do the impossible: you need to be confident yet modest, 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 more 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 out
- 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 to wear The question of dress code is a thorny one. Do you find yourself trying on ten different outfits before you set off?
Finding the right outfit takes preparation: what type of company are you? Start-up or major corporation? Bank or Agence Créa? And the type of job: craft, manual, office? For example, it's good to know that most of the time, customer-facing professions have a stricter dress code than others, as you'll be representing the company.
Adapt yourself as much as possible to the industry and the position, and when in doubt, remain elegant and neutral while remaining yourself. Your host company knows that you're a student, and that's why they want you there! You can take advantage of this first interview to observe the dress code of the teams around you in the offices, and if necessary make adjustments for a second interview.
Follow-up, thank-you e-mail :
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...".
Maintain dialogue and stand out
Even if the recruiter tells you at the end of the interview that he'll get back to you within a certain time, the thank-you e-mail is a way of maintaining communication. After reiterating your motivation, you can conclude the e-mail by asking your interviewer to give you some feedback on your performance: "If you get the chance, I'd be delighted to hear your thoughts on the interview, as I consider all criticism to be worthwhile". Be humble and stay in your place as a candidate, even if the interview went very well. Don' t present yourself as if you'd already got the job!
If, during your interview, you discussed a particular detail, you can also send the recruiter a link to an article on the subject, to complement your discussion and/or as a friendly wink to elicit a response. Also, while keeping your message concise and simple, there's nothing to stop you being generous enough to catch your recruiter's eye. He told you during the interview that the company's visibility on networks was one of their weak points. Why not take a little time to work out some SEO tips for the company, which you can enclose with your thank-you e-mail? Finally, you can finish off by asking the person a question about the rest of the process, always with the aim of keeping in touch and fuelling the exchange.
Conversely, if the interview didn't convince you for several reasons, take the time to mature your decision, but don't 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 within the company, or to open up 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?
