How to get an internship

Do you want to get better at programming while improving job prospects and making some good money on the side? You should do an internship in technology!

I have had 3 internships -- one at a company doing web development, one at a really cool startup in San Francisco called IFTTT, and one during the school year doing big data-related things at a company called ResearchNow. I am currently interning at Uber for the spring semester, and I will be at Google in the summer.

In this article, I will be talking about how to land these jobs.

You should visit your school's career fair if you want local internships. This is a great option if you haven not had an internship before.

Hackathons are better than career fairs, however, because it shows that you have passion for what you do.

Make a list of apps and other kinds of services that you use normally, and get the companies associated with them. E.g. if you are a League of Legends fan, apply to Riot Games. It really helps to know the product beforehand, as during your interview you can even show what you would do to improve it or what you like about it.

Make sure you have the skills you need for the job.

For Dallas-area companies, usually it means you have written code before. Learn the skills that are required of the position you are applying for.

For SF Bay Area companies, it is tougher, especially for the more popular companies like Google and Facebook. You will have to study algorithms, as they often ask coding questions at interviews. Read Cracking the Coding Interview and practice the questions. Consider contributing to the github solution repo in your language of choice here.

Know the skills listed on your resume in detail. If you can not talk about the skill for 5 minutes, you probably should not have it on your resume.

Read Getting a Gig for more details.

It is ideal to apply in September to October, as that is when most companies start hiring summer interns. That does not mean you cant apply in the spring though -- startups especially hire year round.

I would explain this, but Cassidy Williams has already written a pretty good guide on this here.

Getting the interview is one of the hardest parts, especially if you haven not had an internship before. I have listed some common techniques on accomplishing this.

Use connections

Do you have a family member that works at the company? Great -- you can ask them to refer you. Make sure this family member knows how good you are so they give a good referral.

Build good relationships with your professors. Chances are they know people from major companies in the area. If they like you, they will help you land interviews at companies.

If you have friends that have interned at places you would like to intern at, let them know. They can refer you internally.

Furthermore, if you have friends that live in the area you would like to intern at, chances are high that they know other people in technology in that area. You should ask them if they know any companies that are looking for interns.

Get connections

Connections are very useful -- you should meet as many people as you can in your industry. They can help you land interviews and improve the company's opinion of you (and vice versa).

Collegiate Hackathons

If you do not have connections in the first place, hackathons are a great way to meet companies from the area. Many Dallas-based companies sponsor and attend HackDFW, so make sure to interact with everyone that you may be interested in working for.

If you are looking for companies outside of Dallas (e.g. Bay Area companies like Google) you should attend out-of-state hackathons as well. Large companies tend to sponsor multiple hackathons, so it would be very useful to know people from different parts of the company.

You should make your skill set clear to sponsors and show them why you would be a good fit for their company. If they have a prize, try winning it -- they will be more inclined to interview you if you have shown them that you are capable. Do not forget to exchange contact information.

Non-collegiate Hackathons

Often, at non-collegiate hackathons, people from companies will be participating. Make sure to meet the other people around you. If you are interested in potentially working with them, get their LinkedIn or business card and follow up after the event.

Meetups

Local meetups are full of people interested in technology. These kinds of people are always looking for motivated people to work with, and simply showing up to the event and being interested in the subject shows your drive.

Attend meetups of what you are interested in. If you are an app developer, look for Android/iOS meetups. If you are a web developer, look for JavaScript meetups, and so on.

The more niche the technology, the better -- an Erlang user group probably has a much harder time looking for people than a JavaScript one does.

Be sure to exchange LinkedIn's or business cards, and again, follow up.

Conferences are also great to attend, and they often have student discounts. They are also really fun, especially if they are in Las Vegas (e.g. Defcon). Go with friends!

Cold emails

Emailing employees directly can get you far. You can find emails from places like LinkedIn, or you can use tools such as SellHack to find emails.

Often it is as simple as [email protected], so you can try that if you cannot find an email anywhere.

You can also send someone a LinkedIn request with a short message explaining who you are and why you want to work there, then send them a message afterwards. However, this can be seen as spammy and you should be careful about this method.

Large companies

I do not recommend cold emails to larger companies. Likely, you will end up annoying the person more than making them want to hire you.

Startups

Since there is not much overhead, employees have a lot of influence over who is hired.

If the startup is over 100 people, you may want to email employees working on the team you are interested in joining and describe why you really want to work on that team. You can even suggest a project that you could work on.

If it is smaller than this, you can probably email the founders directly. Again, suggest a project and explain why you would be a good fit for the company.

I recommend not sending emails to more than 2 people if it is a startup, as they will think negatively of you if you have emailed everyone that works there.

Apply online

If all else fails, apply online. Make sure you write a good cover letter specific to the company you are applying for.

There are a lot of guides on this, but I believe Cracking the Coding Interview is the best.

Make sure you can back up what you put on your resume.

There are too many to write down, but these are some of my favorites:

• Getting a Gig
• How to Get Your Job Application Noticed Every Time

There are a lot of ways to increase your chances of getting an internship. Do not simply upload your resume to their website. Good luck on your search!

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