The fall of my junior year of college, I was just trying to get through my classes without crumbling under the pressure. Meanwhile, I had classmates who already had official summer internships before Thanksgiving and Christmas. Those who didn’t have anything finalized still had a number of interviews lined up. And finally, there were a few lucky souls who had multiple offers and were just trying to make a decision.
Meanwhile, I was a sitting duck, unaware of how to even get started with the process. I was slightly disadvantaged in that my formal major was Applied Math (as opposed to data science or computer science), whose departmental resources weren’t really focused on the internship scene.
Nevertheless, I knew I needed a technical internship during the coming summer, as it was my last chance to get a taste of industry before I had to make the decision of whether or not to pursue graduate school. The months that followed were hectic – and although I did finally get an internship, it wasn’t until March that the process completely ended.
Procuring a tech internship is a task that many are faced with, and it helps to have some kind of guide describing how to approach the process. In this article, I draw from my own experience navigating this challenge and outline a three-step process for obtaining a technical internship. In doing so, I’ll discuss common misconceptions you should release as well concrete steps you can take in order to maximize your chances of success. While I’ll speak from the perspective of someone who went through this process as a junior in college, the tips and tricks I talk about here are universally applicable.
Let’s get into it.
1. The Prep Stage
Unsurprisingly, this is the most arduous stage of the overall internship search process. Technical internships are difficult to obtain, and a large part of it comes down to the preparation you do. However, this goes beyond simply learning the material for your intended job and doing a few practice problems. There are many different facets to a complete preparatory experience – I discuss a number of them below.
Apply, apply, apply
A huge factor which limits people’s success in finding internships (or boosts it) is the rate at which they apply. There are a ridiculously large amount of applicants out there, and the majority of companies will ignore your application for no other reason than because they have tens of thousands to sort through and simply don’t have the manpower to give each one a detailed look.
Thus, to counter this, you should be applying to as many places as you possibly can when searching for internships. I’m talking upwards of 50 or 100 companies. These figures might seem large (they shocked me as well when I first learned about them from others), but in some ways they are necessary. I know talented folks who applied to as many as 200 internships, and even then heard back from 10–15 – if they were lucky.
Now, I’m not saying you should just blindly apply without regard for anything else. Quality of your application certainly matters, and I’ll be discussing that next. However, don’t skimp out on quantity either – it makes a difference.
Revamp your resume
Considering how widespread information about resumes has become, it’s surprising how many people still apply to internships with mediocre ones. It’s something I myself am guilty of having done.
Let’s get one thing straight: your resume matters. It matters if a human is looking because they need to be able to understand and digest it quickly, and it matters if a machine is processing it because it needs to be able to extract out the relevant information accurately and effectively.
So with that in mind, I’m going to provide a bulleted list of important characteristics your resume should have, collated from various sources – including people who have successfully obtained technical internships multiple times as well as experts from university career centers:
- Make sure the font is large enough to read (at least 11 pt).
- If you have a college degree, there is no need to include your high school education.
- There is no need to include your GPA.
- Use bullet points.
- Use action verbs to describe what you accomplished and contributed at your previous positions. Don’t just list standard job responsibilities available via a Google search.
- Projects, projects, projects! These are arguably the most important parts of your resume – some industry tech folks I have spoken to even recommend putting them before Experience and Education. This should include projects you did at previous positions, class projects, and personal projects. And again, use action verbs.
- Leave "Hobbies and Interests" off the resume. Seriously. The recruiter has all of 10 seconds to determine if you you have the statistical and computational skills to succeed as a machine learning intern – they do not care that you enjoy backpacking in the summer.
- Finally, as far as structure goes, your resume doesn’t need to be super fancy; it just needs to be comprehensible. Prioritize content over aesthetics.
Submitting a high-quality resume will increase your chances of receiving a response from the companies you apply to – put some effort into it.
Study diligently – halfhearted practice isn’t going to cut it
Technical internships are highly competitive. As a result, you’ll need to study intensely in the weeks or months leading up to an eventual interview.
This means going beyond what you learned in a class, boot camp, or online course. Specifically, you need to get comfortable solving complex problems related to your field under a time constraint. The time constraint is what gets most people, since they aren’t used to having to work under that pressure (especially if they’ve been out of school for a few years). I’m not saying this is a perfect system, but it is what it is, and you’ll need to adjust for the time being.
This is best understood via a concrete example. Here are two:
- Data Science: It might vary from position to position (e.g. machine learning vs. data engineering), but generally speaking you should be ready to answer rigorous, theoretical questions about statistics, probability, and similar topics [1]. There’s no shortcut – you need to solve a lot of problems, and you need to do it often. For a tangible resource, check out the book _Ace the Data Science Interview._
- Computer Science: The screening process for CS internships will focus more on traditional programming puzzles. Even before the interview, companies tend to weed candidates out using online coding challenges. You’ll need to pass the test cases for a set of problems in a limited time. I can tell you from experience that these challenges are very difficult. To prepare, use LeetCode, which simulates these challenges and gives you realistic practice (the paid version even allows you access to specific past challenges used by top-tier companies – a perk that may be worth the investment if you can afford it).
Put your heart and soul into studying – you can’t get around the specific skill set you need to cultivate for these interviews. The only way is through.
You’re not late
This tip is short, but extremely important to mention. When a bunch of my peers had already procured internships by mid-November, I started to panic, thinking my chances were in the gutter.
This simply isn’t true. Companies have different hiring timelines, and you can obtain a summer or fall internship well into the new year. I didn’t get mine until March, for example.
So if February rolls around and some random, clueless friend tells you it is too late to apply to internships, ignore them and do it anyway.
Don’t get discouraged (Part 1)
The preparatory stage of obtaining a technical internship is grueling and arduous, and your patience will be tested multiple times. Impostor syndrome is bound to hit at some point, causing you to question your own abilities and consider giving up.
When this happens, take a mental break for a couple days, and then remind yourself why you got started in the first place. It’s hard for everyone – the people you see on LinkedIn boasting about their Google and Facebook internships are only displaying the highlight reel. The process was almost certainly difficult for them also, but they succeeded because they kept going. You can too.
2. The Interview Stage
Okay, so you made it to the interview. What next? Much of the success of this stage is dependent on how much preparation you put in before getting here (i.e. Stage 1 above). I won’t repeat those same tips. However, there is also the matter of not screwing things up after you’ve gotten this far. In order to help you avoid that, I’ll talk about a few concrete tips you can apply at your next technical interview.
Practice your presentations skills
This is technically preparation, but I am putting it here because it is immensely relevant to what happens during the actual interview.
Knowing the material is at best 50% of what it takes to have a killer interview. The other half is communicating the information you know in an understandable, efficient way. It doesn’t matter how good you are if you’re unable to convey any of it to the interviewer.
The best way to learn this skill is via mock interviews. Grab a whiteboard, get a friend, and simulate an interview. Some important things to keep in mind:
- Make sure you practice under a realistic time constraint.
- Go online and find real interview questions related to the specific job (and even company) to practice with.
- Have your friend interrupt and ask you difficult questions so you get practice thinking on your feet.
- Work on your concrete communication skills – some of which include speaking clearly, making meaningful eye contact, and displaying confident body language.
Do this as many times as you can – it’ll pay off. Interviewing well is a skill that can be learned and cultivated with practice.
Focus on what you know
A common misconception among applicants is that you must provide a perfect solution in order to even be considered for the job. This is not true.
Interviewers are primarily interested in your thought process and approach – so don’t panic if you mess something up or don’t immediately know the answer to a question. Take a breath, and take it slow.
When you’re answering, don’t get hung up on bits of information you are struggling with. Focus on displaying everything you do know during the interview. Most interviewers aren’t jerks, and they’ll actually encourage you along and give you hints if they sense you’re thinking in the right direction. Furthermore, receiving and acting upon these hints will not hurt your chances of landing an offer, especially when applying to internships.
Show up on time
This one is pretty self-explanatory. Your interviewer has set aside a specific time slot for you with a fixed numbers of questions, and there is no guarantee you will be able to extend the slot or reschedule if you’re late.
No interview = no internship. So be on time.
Ask your interviewer for feedback
This is an underrated method of improving your interviewing skills in the long run. Whether your interview went well or poorly, take a moment afterward to ask the interviewer for some feedback. They’re often very experienced (both as interviewers and interviewees), and they can provide insights into your performance that might be invisible to you.
You’ll learn what you should keep doing, and you’ll learn what you need to do differently. If you make it to the next round, you can apply the feedback to blow them away. And if the interview didn’t go as well as you’d hoped, you’ll be able to apply what you learned with the next company.
Don’t get discouraged (Part 2)
In the midst of the interview stage – especially if the first few were unsuccessful – is usually when people experience a second round of impostor syndrome. The advice is the same as before – take a breath, and push through. I’m just including this section here to remind you that feeling this way is normal, and your feelings are valid. Acknowledge them, but don’t give up.
3. The Offer Stage
Tips to negotiate
I am by no means a master of negotiation, but I’ve tried to compile three practical tips below. There are definitely ways to improve an offer you’re given (without sounding entitled or pretentious), and you should take advantage of them.
- If you have an offer from another company that’s better, you can use it as leverage with the current company. Caveat: Some folks recommend lying and pretending you have other, better offers even if you don’t, because who’s going to know? Please don’t do this. I can’t definitively claim the lie will catch up to you – but if it does, the consequences will be dire. You’ll feel better about yourself if you go through this process honestly.
- You can even use existing offers to get more interviews. If you’re waiting to hear back from your dream company, you can ping them with a currently existing offer you have. Here is a concrete example of how to do so, courtesy of Naman Singh on LinkedIn [2].
- If you have marketable, specific skills that you know the company needs, cite them when negotiating. If you show them they need you, you increase your chances of landing a better offer.
Make sure you know what you’re getting into
When you get an offer, it’s often an extremely exciting moment with flaring emotions. It’s easy to get caught up in these emotions and commit to an internship that might not be right for you.
I made this mistake. The company where I worked as a technical intern had a poor screening process, and once I actually started the work, I had no idea what I was doing. It involved intensive systems programming – something not mentioned once during the interview process, and also a topic I had no expertise in.
Sadly, this is true of many companies. The screening process is often flawed for technical positions, molded to fit the structure of standard interviews practiced by the majority of companies. It is extremely important to do your own research and confirm the work is right for you before committing, lest you end up miserable later on.
Don’t get discouraged (Part 3)
Surprisingly, many people often get discouraged at the end of an offer as well. Why? They start comparing their offers to the ones that their friends and colleagues received. If you start to do this, stop yourself immediately. Your success isn’t determined in relation to others.
This is your moment. Enjoy it.
Final Thoughts and Recap
In this article, I’ve attempted to compile a collection of tips that detail the process of obtaining a technical internship from start to finish. They have been helpful for me and others, and I hope they can be for you as well.
Here’s a quick "cheat-sheet" to recap:
- The Prep Stage
- Apply, apply, apply
- Revamp your resume
- Study diligently – no halfhearted practice
- You’re not late
- Don’t get discouraged (Part 1)
- The Interview Stage– Practice your presentation skills
- Focus on what you know
- Show up on time
- Ask your interviewer for feedback
- Don’t get discouraged (Part 2)
- The Offer Stage
- Tips to negotiate
- Make sure you know what you’re getting into
- Don’t get discouraged (Part 3)
Best of luck, and until next time!
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My name is Murtaza Ali, and I am a PhD Student at the University of Washington studying human-computer interaction. I enjoy writing about education, programming, life, and the occasional random musing.
References
[1] https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/data-science-tutorial/data-science-interview-questions [2] https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6912714379956228096/
