Make Google your BFF
Spring break is over, April is upon us and summer is around the corner. That means it’s summer internship time! The great news is that because summer internships have become so popular, there is an overabundance of positions out there. The downside, though, is that sifting through all the postings can be an information overload nightmare. Thankfully, there are tools out there that help to organize and essentially automate your search to find your ‘dream internship’ sooner.
Over the next week, make Google your BFF as you kick off your summer internship. We have outlined a 4-day plan for this week to set up your ‘international internship system’ search.
Day 1 (Approximate time: 1 hr) Scope out your international internship
Start your search by deciding on the three most important areas for a successful internship abroad: prospective countries, industries relevant to your major and companies that you enjoy and would like to work with. Spend about an hour and do some research to narrow down those three areas. As you are doing this research, keep track of the key words that resonate with the experience that you want…be they company names, job titles or cities that you would want to live in. This is a building block for Day 2.
Day 2 (Approximate time: 1hr) Start a Google document
Create a Google spreadsheet building on the scope of your international internship that you identified the day before. Utilize this spreadsheet as your internship road map where you document: the key words that interest you (to be used later for your Google Alerts); the type of internship relevant to the work experience you are seeking; whether it is paid or unpaid; the company; the location (city and country); the URL and the status of your application.
Day 3 (Approximate time: 30 min) Set up Google Alerts
Set up Google Alerts for your international internship search based on the key words that you picked (e.g. London, Journalism). You can receive daily, weekly, or as it happens updates. Monitor internship listings from both websites and blogs – sent directly in your e-mail.
Day 4 (Approximate time: 30 min) Learn to use Google advanced search
Here is a breakdown on how to use Google advanced search from Intern Alerts (a great resource to find internships within the US).
“Before typing a search term on Google, you can set-up the advanced search settings to tweak results based on your needs. On this page, you can also include or exclude terms you want/don’t want to appear on the results. For instance, if you’re targeting paid internships, you can list down the words “unpaid,” “non-paid,” “credit only” words to NOT show on the results. Alternatively, you can also list down exact words or phrases you want to appear on the results – such as “paid internships,” “fashion internships” or “internships in New York.”
Related search – Sometimes, if you’ve been visiting a favorite internship-related website for a while now, but you want to look at all your options, you can simply search for their website on the Google search results page and click on “similar.”
This is good advice! I use Google docs all of the time, and never thought about it as a way to plan/document a big goal like finding an international internship
Hi Jeramy,
Since trying to find an internship seems like a insurmountable task, we thought that by organizing it on a google doc system would be largely beneficial. That way it doesn’t feel so overwhelming.
Glad to hear that it helped!
Cheers!
Olga
International internships provide greater professional experience than many domestic opportunities because companies are smaller and thus interns are exposed to a wider variety of job duties.
@international internships: I would agree that international internships offer a broader range of professional experience. Not only are students learning about working in another culture, but they are also learning skills like cultural awareness, handling their budget in another country, cross-cultural business etiquette, and the list continues. The size of the organization will dictate how much they can learn while in the office, but being in another working culture will open their eyes to a new world of business and offer a life time experience.
Thanks for your insights!