Is it too late to look for sum­mer intern­ships after exams?
-  Paul Riley  ‘15

Thanks, Paul! A lot of stu­dents have the same ques­tion on their minds—so, I think your ques­tion is very timely and important.

No, it is NOT too late to look for sum­mer intern­ships!  Although some of your friends have already secured sum­mer jobs, a lot of indus­tries and com­pa­nies are still actively recruit­ing stu­dents for sum­mer posi­tions.  With that being said, you still need to begin look­ing as soon as pos­si­ble! Though intern­ships can still be found, appli­ca­tion dead­lines vary. Don’t miss out on a great oppor­tu­nity because you didn’t know when the dead­line was! Here are my quick tips on how you can START your intern­ship search now.

1. Make a list of your inter­ests. What do you like to do? Where do you want to work? Before you start look­ing, you want to have an idea of the type of oppor­tu­ni­ties you are look­ing for.  Also, remem­ber to keep your options open. Instead of look­ing for only paid intern­ships, also look at unpaid oppor­tu­ni­ties. Set on stay­ing in the U.S.? Why not research inter­na­tional intern­ships, too? Don’t box your­self in too early.
2. Check out the Online Resources page on the Career Ser­vices’ web­site. This is a great one-stop por­tal to a list of indus­try search engines that can help your intern­ship search.  Of course, Tiger­Tracks and UCAN should be your first stop. Make sure to reg­is­ter for both and start scour­ing the sites look­ing for posi­tions that inter­est you. Try keep­ing track of each position’s dead­line and needed mate­ri­als. Some post­ings may require ref­er­ences, writ­ing sam­ples, or a link to a port­fo­lio of some sort. Make sure you know what needs to be sub­mit­ted and when!
3. Ask around! Ask peo­ple you know about cur­rent oppor­tu­ni­ties they may have heard about. You never know who has infor­ma­tion about avail­able intern­ships.  Take the time to email friends, fam­ily mem­bers, for­mer employ­ers, pro­fes­sional con­tacts, alumni or even pro­fes­sors you know and ask them to keep you in mind if they hear of any poten­tial intern­ship opportunities.
4. Fol­low and like the Career Ser­vices Face­book and Twit­ter pages. We are con­stantly post­ing about career events, advice, and oppor­tu­ni­ties specif­i­cally for Prince­ton stu­dents.  You’ll also be reminded about our upcom­ing Career Ser­vices events such as our Sum­mer Intern­ship Fair and Non­profit Fair, which will both take place on Feb. 15th from 11 am — 3 pm at Dil­lon Gym.
5. Make an appoint­ment with a career coun­selor. Our career coun­selors are here to help you at what­ever point of the intern­ship search stage you are at. They can help you make a cus­tomized plan and search strat­egy. They can also review your resume, cover let­ter, or inter­view appli­ca­tions. Go to Career Ser­vices web­site or call us at 609–258-3325 to sched­ule an appoint­ment today.