Internships

What is an internship?

Internships are an ideal way for students to enhance their knowledge of a career field while gaining practical work experience in the process. Designed to be a learning tool, internships can help students to clarify their career goals, develop new skills, build professional contacts and strengthen their resume.

Internships are:

• related to your major and/or career goals.
• designed to encourage learning through “on-the-job” experience.
• generally short-term (semester long) but can last longer.
• paid or unpaid and can be rewarded with HNU upper division credit.
• opportunities that provide on-site and campus supervision to assist in your learning experience.

Internships are not:

• meant to serve as an opportunity for an employer to have “cheap labor”.
• jobs in which a student serves as a “gofer”.
• part-time jobs where you have no learning outcomes or deadline for completion.

Why intern?

Regardless if your major at HNU requires an internship or not, being an intern can be a valuable experience for many reasons. If you’re still not convinced:

• Participating in an internship enables you to become more marketable and competitive once you graduate.
• Employers like to know that you have some experience in the field; completing an internship shows that you have given serious thought to pursuing a particular industry and that you have also acquired important related skills, all while working on your education.
• Some internships lead to full-time jobs after graduation.
• Some internships lead to a change of major – better to know sooner rather than later!
• Internships allow you to work along side a professional in your field.
• You can gain valuable skills that every employer looks for.
• You can gain confidence in your area of study.
• You will begin or continue to develop your professional network.
• Discover new ways of doing things not taught in classrooms.

HNU Major-Required Internships

For students pursuing the following academic majors - Psychology, Liberal Studies, Sociology and Business Communication, internships are required and are supervised by a faculty member within the discipline.

Required or not, we highly encourage all students to participate in an academic internship at some point in their college career. There are two options for students interested in participating in a non-required internship.

Option 1: CALP 196. Facilitated by a career generalist, this course is open to any student in any major and can be taken for 1-3 units for a letter grade. This class can be taken up to 6 units and does count toward upper division electives. Register early! There is a cap on enrollment.

Option 2: Independent Study or another 196 course. Students whose academic program does not require an internship often do take advantage of this option by enrolling in the 196 course linked to their program of study. For example, a business major may choose to enroll in BUS 196 or Independent Study 199 and seek a faculty member to be their advisor. This offers an advantage in guaranteeing that the faculty advising your internship has specialized knowledge in your field. Like CALP 196, this course also counts toward upper division units and can be taken for 1-3 units.

How do I look for an internship?

There are several ways to look for an internship and it is recommended that you combine multiple methods to maximize your options. Only searching on-line can really hinder your chances of finding “hidden” opportunities that you can uncover by talking to people (also called networking).

Step 1: Determine what type of internship you would like.

If your major requires an internship, this might seem straightforward but even within a discipline there are many areas that you can work. For example, a student majoring in Sociology could work for a non-profit doing community outreach or for a government official in their regional office.

Not sure how to figure out what you want? Make an appointment to meet with a career counselor!

Step 2: Once you have narrowed down what you are looking for - find an internship.

There are resources both on-campus and off-campus that can assist you in locating an internship:

• Faculty, including your advisor:Many faculty continue to work in the field and foster relationships with employers and alumni.

• Career Services:Career Services has relationships with several employers that seek to hire Holy Names students for internships. Some of these employers post announcements and visit campus while others have on-going internships for our students. Be sure to log onto HNU CareerLink to view all current internship listings.

• Online Resources:There are several online posting systems that can assist you in your internship search. Depending on your major, some sites specialize in internships related to a specific field. HNU students have found internships on the following sites:

  Indeed

  Young Non-Profit Network

  Idealist

  MonsterTrak

• Visiting specific company web sites is another good way to locate internships. For example, if you are interested in working at a radio station, go right to the web sites of local stations such as Alice, KFOG or KNBR, all of which have internships for Communication Majors.

Step 3: Apply for an Internship.

Now that you have found a few interesting opportunities it is time to apply! You should consider your internship application as you would a regular job application. Professionalism is key throughout the application and interview process as well as when you get the position. By this point, if you don’t already have a resume, you should begin putting it together. Not sure where to start? View the sample resumes below:

Sample resume 1 Sample resume 2 Sample resume 3

A few tips about applying for internships:

1. Follow the directions for application

This may seem simple but many people who do not do this are automatically disqualified for the position regardless of their qualifications. If the posting asks for your resume via email, do not mail it or fax it.

2. Email Application

Many employers ask applicants to email a resume and cover letter. Follow these steps to ensure that it is emailed as professionally as possible:

• Enter the internship title or job # in the subject line of the email.
• Attach your resume AND cover letter using Microsoft WORD (not works or other programs).
• Copy and paste your cover letter into the body of your email or draft a short message that tells them why you are emailing and what is attached.
• Run a final spell check.
• Enter in the employers email in the To: line and CC: your email address.

By following these steps in order, you will decrease the chance of your sending the email without the attachments.

Why attach your cover letter and put it in the body of the email? If an employer were to print the cover letter, you want it looking as professional as possible. By attaching another formatted copy, they can print the most professional copy available.

3. Online Applications

Online applications are often the manner in which employers accept applications. The upside of online application is that it provides text boxes for you to complete information, ensuring that you are not forgetting to include any information from your resume. The downside is that they do not allow you to format your resume and cover letter leaving your nicely formatted resume in plain text format.

To keep your resume looking professional follow these steps:

• In MS Word, reformat a copy of your resume in Time New Roman, 12 point font.
• Change the spacing to be all left aligned.
• Change your resume categories to all caps. Example: OBJECTIVE, EDUCATION, SKILLS, EXPERIENCE
• Copy and paste into the online text box.
• Check for areas that may need additional reformatting.
•  If the application allows, you should also attach your resume and cover letter.

4. Follow-Up

It is absolutely appropriate to follow-up about your internship application. If the organization or company accepts calls, go ahead and give them a call to see about the status of your application and ensure that they do not have any additional questions for you.

Remember, participating in an internship can be an important first step to get from merely thinking that you want to enter into a certain career field to knowing that it will be the right path for you or knowing that it's not for you at all. Take this opportunity to go out for a test drive and try something out!

Questions? Contact Lori Moskal in the Career Services Office.