Tips for Finding a Paid Internship

Are you ready to make some real inroads in reaching employment? Are you someone who is ready to get a job and who wants some professional experience in the field that you are going to be launching yourself into? If so, you will find that you need to consider what your options are going to be when it comes to getting a paid internship. When people think about internships, they all too often think about doing boring, if valuable labor, and of not getting paid for any of it! The truth of the matter is that there are paid internships out there and when you are ready to get experience while actually getting paid for it, these are the ones that you should be looking at.

Remember that the paid internship that you get might only be tangentially related to your field. Don't worry about it too much because as long as there is a relation there, you can cite it on your resume. You never know when an internship that seems a little out of left field is going to help you figure out what your needs might be and you never know when a whole new industry is going to open up for you. There are so many great options out there and so many spaces to explore that you are going to want to check them all out if you can. Don't dismiss a paid internship just because it is not precisely in the field that you are pursuing.

Also think about the resources that you have at your disposal. There are many people who are interested in helping you get set up with an internship that you like, and at the end of the day, you will largely find that you are in a space where you have access to them. Speak to the university that you are attending and see what office is usually in charge of keeping track of incoming internships and who they are with. It is usually, but not always, the career services department and the more time that you spend looking into the way that they work, the more options you will have.



Job fairs are another place where you can find out about paid internships. Don't hesitate to go to ones that are not necessarily in your field. You never know when more general skills might be appreciated and you never know who you are going to meet. This can be something that will allow you to network in a way that truly works for you and if you are ready to try something new, this might be the place to go. A job fair requires you to compete for attention and it will also be crowded, but you never know when you are going to find out what you need.

If you are in a place where you want to get real world experience in your industry as early as you can and if you want to make money while you are doing it, you need to remember that these things are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Take a moment to consider how you can get the paid internship that you need to move forward.