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Internship Search Process

Tips on conducting your search, interviewing, and evaluating offers

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Internship Search Process Internship Search Process

In order to maximize your internship experience, you have to put some time into planning your semester.

Prepare for Your Internship Search

Professional Networking

  • identify the skills you want to develop or enhance during your internship. Think about the realistic post-graduation entry-level positions you’re likely to apply for and identify what skills and experiences are required for those positions. This will guide your search and lead to a more meaningful experience.
  • Get to know people who are doing things you’re interested in doing. Use LinkedIn as a way to connect with Emerson alumni who live in the LA area. You can also register for Emerson’s networking platform, Emerge. Your objective when reaching out is not to have them help you find an internship; it is to learn more about what they do and how they got there. This insightful information is another way to guide your internship search.

Develop Strong Application Materials

All internship positions will require a resume, and the majority will also ask for a cover letter. It is critical that you spend time in advance of your search developing a solid resume and learn how to write an effective cover letter. These similar yet very different documents will determine if you are given the opportunity to interview with a hiring employer.

Resume

There are many ways to format a resume but also a standard approach that should be followed. For information and samples on how to create a resume, please check out the resources page of the Emerson Career Development Center’s Career Center Blog. If you’re interested in starting with a resume template, you can check out the hundreds of résumé templates on Canva. Keep in mind that a template is just a starting point and if you use one, and a lot of people do, try to change the design a little to personalize it and make it your own.

  • The ELA internship staff also makes the following specific recommendations that will help you with your internship search:
    One Page Only. A resume with more than one page is likely to get thrown out.
  • Remove Your Photo. Employers do not want to give the perception that they may base hiring decisions on physical appearance.
  • Focus on Job Descriptions. This is the heart and soul of your resume and what the reader will often read first. There is no paragraph writing on a resume so they need to be in a concise, yet detailed, bulleted format.
  • Education Should Be Very Prominent. You are applying to positions that require you to be enrolled in a degree-seeking program so your education has to be prominently displayed.

Conducting Your Internship Search

When conducting your search, you first need to know where to look. Consider all of these resources as you search:

Handshake

Your primary resource for finding internship opportunities is the online career platform Handshake. Each semester, there are over 300 internship opportunities from the LA area posted on Handshake, and these employers are actively seeking Emerson students. When searching on Handshake, avoid using a lot of filters that will exclude opportunities that might be a good fit. For example, only search for “internships” in “Los Angeles” and then sort it by date posted. This will always give you a comprehensive list of all internships in LA.

Online Searches

There is so much useful information online that may help you identify amazing opportunities. Visit these websites:

Networking/Referrals

Cultivating professional connections is critical in your career development. We encourage you to use LinkedIn or Emerge to connect with Emerson alumni who live in the Los Angeles area who are doing things you’re interested in. Find out more about what they do, what they did to get there, and ask their advice for what would make for a great internship experience. If you, or your family, knows people connected to your professional interests, we encourage you to reach out to them as well. Keep in mind that building relationships takes time, so when reaching out to someone online with whom you don’t have an existing relationship, the focus should not be on them helping you get an internship. Keep the focus on learning more about their experiences.

Submitting Applications

Conducting your internship search can sometimes feel like a part-time job, and you’ll need to incorporate your search into your schedule. We encourage you to start your search early, as waiting until your arrival in Los Angeles will mean missing out on some great opportunities.

The average number of applications an ELA student submits is 16, while the average number of interviews received is only 3. There is no specific number of applications you should submit, but it is highly recommended that you cast a very wide net during the application phase. Never stop sending out applications until you have formally accepted an offer.

Always make sure to follow an employer’s specific instructions when reading a position description. For example, if you see a description on Handshake and the instructions state “Please submit your resume to intern[@]company.com,” then only send your resume to the email address they provided. Not all employers have the same application process, so pay close attention to their specific instructions.

Interviewing

The purpose of submitting a resume and a cover letter is to get the opportunity to meet with the employer and talk about the position in more detail. This is essentially your audition. Like any audition, you need to come prepared. Please visit the Career Center Blog for very useful interview guidelines. Here are some additional tips and suggestions for the ELA internship interview.

Video/Phone Interviews

The majority of all your interviews for ELA will be done via video or telephone. It's important you familiarize yourself with all video chat platforms such as Skype, Google Hangouts, Zoom, Appear In, etc. Do not wait until the last minute to figure out how to use these online platforms. If it goes wrong, they may not give you a second chance.

Research

Gather information about the company as employers view the research that you've done as a reflection of your interest. If you're interviewing at a production company, you should know what content they've produced and be prepared to talk about it. Check out LinkedIn to find out if there are any Emerson alumni who work or have worked where you will be interviewing.

Prepare Questions

This is the most important part of your interview, especially if you cannot conduct your interview in person. It is critical that you go into each interview with a list of questions to ask. This is a major way to get information about the opportunity. It is never OK to not ask questions, and it plays a huge part in not only the employer’s evaluation of you but also your evaluation of the opportunity.

Voicemail

Make sure that your cell phone can receive voicemail messages and that you have a very professional voicemail greeting. Most employers will call you on the phone to schedule an interview, and they need to be able to leave a message if you don’t answer.

Practice

Successful interviewing is a craft and it is essential that you practice. careers [at] emerson.edu (Schedule an appointment with a Career Development Center advisor in Boston) or the ELA_interns [at] emerson.edu (internship staff in ELA )if you would like to prepare for any upcoming interviews.

Send a Thank You Note

After each interview, make sure you have the names and contact information of everyone you spoke with and take a minute to make a few notes about the experience so that you can customize your thank you note to each individual interviewer. All thank you notes should be sent within 24 hours of the interview. 

Follow Up

After you've sent the thank you note, it is a matter of patiently waiting. If you have not heard anything after the time period they said you would, it’s OK to send a follow-up and ask for an update; however, do not send a follow-up if it is still within the timeframe they gave.

Evaluating and Accepting an Offer

As you go through the internship search journey, you’ll discover that it is not a perfect process. Employers will not all make their decision at the same time, and you will not have all your options in front of you when you need to make a decision.

Before you accept any offer, it’s important you take the time to evaluate the opportunity. Does it check off all of your boxes? If not, which ones does it not check off and are you OK with that? What kind of environment will you be working in and who will you be working with? Do they complement your working style or do they conflict? You need to be able to answer all of the above in order to make an informed decision. Here are a few tips to help you navigate through this process.

Determine Deadline/Ask for an Extension

The first thing to do when receiving an offer is to respond and say thank you. Next is to find out how long you have before you need to make a decision. If their deadline is too soon for you, it is OK to ask for an extension. Be ready to give them a date and don’t expect them to give you until the start of the semester. Assess your situation and come up with an estimated date of when you think you will be able to make a decision. The employer may or may not give you an extension, but then at least you’ll have a definitive date of when you have to make a decision.

Don’t Accept an Offer as a Placeholder

Understandably, your first reaction may be to accept an offer. You’re excited and relieved that you have secured something—this is totally understandable. However, please do not accept an offer as a placeholder and continue to search. There are a lot of negative consequences that can result from doing this, such as adversely impacting your professional reputation and the relationship between Emerson and the employer, which may affect future ELA students.

Speak with Former Interns

The best place to find candid information is from the people who were once in the position you’re considering. They will give you the good, the bad, and the ugly. You can search for Emerson alums at a particular company on LinkedIn, creating filters for Emerson alumni in the LA area or alumni who work for a particular company. You may also want to ask the ELA internship staff if they can connect you to former ELA students who interned at the sites you’re interested in.

Ask for Help

If you are at all unsure about what you should communicate to an employer, ask! It’s OK to let them know you need to get back to them and give yourself some time for formulating a message. The ELA internship staff is here to help you through this process, so please contact them if you need help developing a communication strategy for an employer.