Up until now, we’ve directed all our internship searching readers to the One Day, One Job Blog for job search advice. Starting today, we’re going to be adding posts on here (the One Day, One Internship Blog) that are focused on internship search. We hope you find our posts helpful and insightful.
Would you cede to conformity and submit a resume and a cover letter and hope that your application landed at the top of the pile? Or would you change the rules of the game and show the company that you’re extraordinary?
Would you shrug your shoulders and keep looking elsewhere? Or would you give them a reason to create an internship specifically tailored to your talents and aspirations?
There is an astounding variance in the quality of summer internships. It’s a small cost for a company to take on an intern, so selectivity isn’t often a priority. The problem with this is that most intern-hiring organizations set ridiculously low expectations for their interns. If you can prove to a company that you’re extraordinary during the application process, then they will have time to adjust their expectations for you and prepare more exciting projects for when you arrive. Whether the company that you’re applying to appears to be highly selective or just looking for a warm body, it’s makes a huge difference to make yourself seem impressive from your first contact.
Brandon Laughridge is lucky. He never even had the chance to be tempted to fall into conformity when he decided to apply for his dream internship. Because Seth Godin was explicit when he told prospective interns to be creative with their applications, Brandon had no choice but to move out of his comfort zone and try something risky. Brandon is making the most of this opportunity by showing off his Search Marketing skills with his new website, Seth’s Favorite Intern.
Brandon had already started his campaign to become Seth’s Favorite Intern when Seth “admonished” students for lacking creativity and forwarding resumes without even writing a cover letter. I was embarrassed for my alma mater, since many of these resumes apparently came from Cornell students. At first I thought that somehow One Day, One Internship readers had become confused when they read our post, since we have a pretty wide readership at Cornell; however, it turned out that someone had posted the internship on Cornell’s MonsterTRAK site. Take it upon Monster to suck all of the life out of a job/internship posting… I should never have doubted the One Day, One Internship readers. In case you don’t understand that having a cool design for your resume isn’t enough to make you stand out, we give you…
1. Manage your personal brand. If you’re doing something extraordinary, you need to make it easy for people to find out who you are and how to contact you. Create a personal web site or blog and manage your personal brand online.
2. Show off! Instead of telling a company that you’re qualified, show them that you’re qualified. You can fake a resume, but you can’t fake something like a Search Marketing and Social Media campaign. If Brandon put on his resume that he was able to convince bloggers to write about him, it wouldn’t sound very impressive. If he aggregates all the posts about him on his site and makes it easy for Seth Godin to find them, that is impressive.
3. Pick one internship and give it all your effort. You don’t actually need to devote 100% of you internship hunt to one company, but make it seem that way. A resume and cover letter take a few hours to put together at the most. What if you spent an entire week putting together your application for an internship? How extraordinary could it be? There are plenty of internships out there, if you don’t get your first choice, you’ll have time to find another one (we can help you with that).
4. Ask people for help. Brandon e-mailed me and asked me to write a post about him and his quest to be Seth’s Favorite Intern. When I applied for a Summer internship at my favorite fly fishing company, I asked one of my Dad’s friends to put in a good word for me with a contact he had. I was hired without even a phone interview – just a resume and a really killer cover letter. Had I not asked him specifically for that contact, he might have helped me spend another summer weed whacking and filling in potholes at the fishing club he runs instead.
5. Make an investment in yourself. SethsFavoriteIntern.com probably cost less than $10 dollars to register, but it shows that Brandon is committed and serious about the internship. Forwarding a resume and cover letter is free. Anyone can (and will) do it. Spending even $1 on your application will put you ahead of everyone else.
6. Get your message to the right person. Seth Godin is easy to reach online. Brandon knows this, and has already had Seth comment on his blog. Administrative types might not be wild about your attempts to be extraordinary (because they certainly aren’t), so you might need to do some research and find out how you can directly contact the person who will be managing you as an intern. That in itself might make you stand out.
7. Pick the right internship from the start. No matter how hard you try, if you pick a dog of an internship at a dog of a company, you’re going to have a boring summer. Reading our daily posts is a great way to find companies that offer amazing internship experiences.
Just because the internship that Brandon is applying for requires this type of action doesn’t mean that you should overlook these types of tactics when you apply for internships. If you were going to compete with Brandon for the title of Seth’s Favorite Intern, how would you stand out? Now take that idea and craft an application for an internship that only requires that you submit a resume and cover letter. Spending the extra time now will save you from a painful summer of copies and coffee. A great first impression with your potential Summer employer will go a long way in ensuring your spot as someone’s favorite intern.
What would we do if we were Brandon? We’d make a Seth Godin’s Favorite Intern Action Figure like the Photoshop mockup above.
Tags: being extraordinary, brandon laughridge, resume, seth godin
Comments (2)
We realize that one internship every day isn't enough. That's why we've teamed up with Jason Seiden to develop a comprehensive, 21 day training course that will completely reshape your internship search. It's called Found Your Career, and we're offering a reduced price to the first 100 people to enroll.Want to look back further? Visit our internship archives, try a search, or use the tag cloud below.
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Want more insight on internship search? Visit our internship search blog or our archive of job search tips. Check out our Job Search Blog on One Day, One Job too - many of the tips apply to internship hunting.
I’m a big fan of what you’re currently doing. Since I started reading your blogs, I’ve landed my first two interviews. I don’t think there’s any direct correlation, but we can pretend there is! Keep up the awesome work :)
Hi Elyse,
Thanks for your comment. We’re working really hard to help you and other college students find great jobs and internships. We appreciate feedback – especially when it’s as nice as yours. We’re trying to think of ways to increase interactivity on both sites, so let us know if you have any ideas. And let us know how those interviews go, I’m sure other readers will be interested in hearing your experiences.
Willy