internshipIN

Sure, it’s only November, but believe it or not, tons of companies start looking for interns this early. That means one thing: it’s about time you start beefing up your resume. Here are 10 tips to get the most out of your resume and land your dream internship!

1. Keep it to one page. If you’ve recently graduated, you probably have just enough work experience to comfortably fill one page. If you have less, expand a bit on your school clubs, volunteer projects, additional skills, etc. On the flip side, even if you’ve had nine internships, nobody cares about all nine. Don’t try to squeeze them all in — focus on the most recent positions that are relevant to the internship or job you’re applying for. Unless you’re a college freshman, your high school stuff has got to go too.

2. Here’s what you need to include. Name, address, phone, email, blog/website. Work experience, affiliations, education, skills. Your email should be something professional with your first and last name. One of my classmates recently gave me his email address: h3ybab3@[emailprovider].com. SERIOUSLY? I wouldn’t even be able to give that to my peers with a straight face, much less to an employer. If your blog or website is professional enough to show off and reflects your career interests, include it — it adds another dimension and is a great demonstration of your expertise/abilities.

3. Clean it up and use bullet points. This isn’t difficult, but I’ve seen my fair share of disasters. LINE STUFF UP. Microsoft Word is practically begging you to do it. Don’t use flashy fonts or colors; keep it simple. Uncommon fonts also tend not to show the same on everybody’s computers, which could mess up your formatting too. Write concise, easy-to-digest single lines that convey your accomplishments. Stay consistent with the number of points under each job to keep your resume looking as balanced and organized as possible.

4. Use powerful language and don’t be vague. How many times have you heard “use action verbs?” Well, it’s true. Use them. Start your bullet points with strong verbs (some from my resume: developed, implemented, coordinated, managed, directed). Don’t list responsibilities; describe your accomplishments and the solid results that you produced (e.g. trained 30 employees, boosted revenue by 25%, etc.) Instead of simply stating that you have strong leadership skills, demonstrate through the details about your work experience. (Don’t, however, use inflated jargon to describe your accomplishments.) And that’s great that you were a part of PPCA or CFS, but it’s meaningless if nobody knows what it is — make sure it’s clear.

5. Tailor your resume to the company you’re applying for. Focus on what the employer wants. Your resume is like marketing copy: Every word should sell you. Figure out exactly which of your qualifications make you a prime candidate for that position, and emphasize, emphasize, emphasize. Eliminate everything that isn’t relevant or impressive. So you cleaned tables at Red Lobster? Put papers in alphabetical order? Unless this somehow shows skills that your next employer is looking for, it’s not important.

6. Don’t give everything away. Make the person reading your resume curious about your work experience. If you tell everything there is to tell in your resume, you’ll come off as unimpressive in the interview. Give yourself space to expand on your achievements.

7. Ask for feedback, and then edit. Go to parents, friends, counselors, mentors, your professional network. What impression does your resume make? What suggestions do they have for you to improve it? Not everyone will agree, but you can get a general idea of how your resume comes across and edit according to your best judgment. The more eyes read over your resume, the less needless errors you’ll have. (Feel free to email me, and I’ll give you my two cents.)

8. Always take copies with you when you’re meeting with any sort of professional. You never know if the person you’re doing an informational interview with just might ask for one. (I’ve made this mistake with a top editor at a magazine and slapped myself the whole elevator ride down.)

9. In the same vein, keep your resume updated at all times. You might just meet someone who has the perfect internship for you. Don’t have a panic session trying to fix up your resume last minute — add your new work experience as you go. This’ll also keep you brushed up on exactly what you have written, meaning you won’t have to refresh yourself nearly as much come time to interview.

10. Maintain multiple versions of your resume. This may seem silly and excessive, but I save a new copy of my resume every time I apply for new positions. Though I generally apply to the same types of internships, it’s still useful to have ones with specific goals. For example, I have an editorial resume that includes all of the mags, blogs, and e-zines I’ve contributed to. I also have a social media resume that emphasizes my web 2.0 knowledge but doesn’t include every single bit of writing experience, because some of that frankly doesn’t pertain to social media/online marketing. With multiple versions ready to go, you’ll already have a batch to pick and choose from, making it easier to tweak that resume for a specific internship.

Agree? Disagree? Got more suggestions? Tell me about it in the comments. Need more resume advice? There’s a wealth of resources out there. Here’s a Delicious.com search of “resume,” which will direct you to many more helpful articles.

We received some great feedback from the readers over at TechCrunch. It was definitely overwhelming to see some of the passionate ideas and suggestions that readers had.

Two common reccuring questions appeared that we immediately wanted to address. The first was: Are we a business or some afterschool side project? The second question inquired about our value proposition — what makes us different in the increasingly crowded internship market?

These are great questions and luckily, easy for us to answer.

1. Are we a company?

Yup. We believe a company is an organization that finds a problem for a group of people, solves it for them, and receives payment in return. We do just that!

We found a problem. We found that large companies dominate college campuses and university recruitment efforts. This bothered both us, as students, because we didn’t want corporate-sponsored polarized views on what job opportunities are available. PLUS this obviously bothered the smaller companies who needed kick butt talent to build their teams.

We offer an unique solution. With internshipIN, startups can post their listings with their only competition being other startups and (coming soon) they will have access to our student databases, rating systems, personalized tracking features, etc.

We make money for providing a solution. All of our features will be available at a super affordable price. Although the price is minor in comparison to the service we provide, we will charge for our services so we can afford to make them better for you!

Currently, our product is at the very early stages of becoming the link between startups and students, but it gets closer every day.

2. How do we compete in such a crowded market?

This is simple. We aren’t competing. We adore the internship search services that already available from companies like YouIntern.com, Interneval.com, InternshipRatings.com, Craigslist, and so on.

We think they all do great jobs at fulfilling the mission to help students. However, our mission is different — we want to connect smaller companies with students specifically. We want to add smaller companies into the student arsenal and show them ALL of the opportunities that are available for building their careers. We know we can only do this by going beyond listings and reviews, and that’s what we plan to do!

What are your thoughts? What makes a business?

It’s been quite a month of late nights, brainstorming sessions, and e-mail exchanges for the cofounders. Today’s kind of a big deal for us. Presidential election aside (we’re first time voters!), internshipIN launched earlier this afternoon — we’re now ready for companies to start posting up their internship listings. We’re still working out the kinks, but we welcome your feedback and suggestions. Feel free to follow our updates on Twitter.

Oh, and did we mention? We’re looking for student ambassadors. It’s a great way to make connections and get a firsthand look into working on a startup. Check the listing here.

PS: They even wrote about us over at TechCrunch!

Hey everyone!

I’m not sure if you got a chance to read our last post which was appropriately titled “7 Reasons You Should Pay Your Interns,” but you may have noticed that we have a new team member!

Teresa Wu joins us as our community manager and marketing extraordinaire. Don’t believe she’s incredible? Check out her personal blog and her hilarious site, mymomisafob.

Teresa is a social media information queen who truly believes in our goal to help startups and students connect. So feel free to take notes as she gives you everything you need to know about managing internships and interns the web 2.0 way.

Companies often wonder whether or not they should pay their interns. After all, there are tons of students out there searching for internships who are willing to do it for free, so why pay them? We explain why you should compensate your student interns — and why it matters so much.

1. You’ll get the cream of the crop.

The best interns — the kind you want applying for your internship opening — have solid work experience and skill sets. Those who rise above and beyond the qualifications you ask for know how much they can contribute to a company. They know they can find a paying job — so why wouldn’t they? Don’t miss out on the best skill out there by trying to skimp.

2. Make them feel like they’re worth your time, and your interns will work harder.

You don’t want to come off as just trying to get some free labor. If they’re not getting paid, slacking off for a day won’t be that big of a deal, but conversely, an intern who does get paid is much more willing to put in 100% effort. The internship should be a mutually beneficial experience: you can demonstrate that you value their work by paying them, by building their skills, and helping to expand their networks. In exchange, they’ll be more motivated to contribute as much as they can to your company.

3. Working while in school isn’t exactly affordable, so help them out!

Many interns are already paying for tuition, housing, food and other living costs. Some are even paying extra to work for you by relocating to a place in which the cost of living is especially high (Silicon Valley, anyone?) Though they’d much rather be working for your startup than at the Gap, when it comes down to it, if they’ve got bills to pay, the latter is simply more economically sensible. The least you could do is make it a little easier on their wallets.

4. College credit is not just as good.

In fact, when employers mandate that students must receive college credit for their work in lieu of a stipend or salary, this eliminates even more potentially great interns from your applicant pool. Students have to pay their colleges more money for course credit, which can add up to hundreds of dollars. On top of that, the process to get paperwork cleared for college credit internship programs is often messy and full of red tape. Don’t turn off great talent by trying to compensate with college credit.

5. You won’t have to feel guilty about giving them hard work.

Most interns have to do arduous or menial tasks at some point during their internships, and they know it. That still doesn’t make it fun; however, if you’re paying your interns, you won’t have as hard of a time asking them to work on a spreadsheet for the day, and they won’t feel bitter and abused about it.

6. The office will be a happier place.

Who’s going to come into the office with a better attitude: someone who is getting compensated or someone who can’t even afford to buy his own lunch?

7. It’ll pay off for you in the long run.

If you want to hire employees in the future, your interns are the best place to start. You want them to have a great experience at your company so that when their internship is over, they’ll want to stay! They’ll build the skill, understand how the company works, and be able transition into a full-time job much more easily than a brand-new hire. Voila — you have another hardworking person on board, and you won’t even have to screen his or her Facebook profile.

Remember, even if you’re a startup with a tight budget, at the very least, even a small stipend for food or basic travel expenses makes the intern feel more valued and in turn, creates better results for your company.

For those of you who have hired interns at your company: Are your interns paid? What are some other reasons you choose to pay or not to pay your interns?

Where are all of the good intern bloggers?

Here is our list of the best intern thinkers out there so far (not in any order, of course!):

1. All of the interns from Revision3. Seriously, Grace Soriano-Smith is doing a kick arse job at putting together Revision3’s intern program!

2. Unfair Internships. Finally someone speaks up for the abuse of college labor. I’ll give you my personal thoughts on unpaid internships in another post, but this blog is great for communicating student rights.

I know… sad, right? I guess I am now on a search to find 8 more intern bloggers who are just as cool — if not better!

Hey guys!

So sorry about the time off on the blog. Jess, Andy and I were taken over by midterms.

The good news is we got right back to work and internshipIN is officially here!!

We have just launched private beta for all employers! What this means is a selective group of startups can set up a company profile and post their internship opportunities today.

In short, these companies will be have first dibs on the hundreds of students who come in.

PS We have some REALLY cool features coming up in the next couple of weeks. My eyes glitter when I think about them.

Because it doesn’t have the following……

1. Photos!!

Why shouldn’t you show photos of the office dog or of the free donuts in the morning?

2. Links!!

Give applicants a chance to get to know you from someone else’s perspective. Include both press links and links to employee blogs. This helps give applicants an idea of who they will be working with and what people think about the company.

3. Social Networking Elements!!

If your company is on Facebook, LinkedIN, Twitter or any other space, give the links and encourage users to add/friend/follow you.

We’ve found maintaining workflow is one of the most difficult problems students have as an intern. Most of the boring, unpleasant work is dumped you - the human garbage disposal … er… the intern - and you consume the work as work experience. This method may work well for the average intern, but you’re not average.

Here’s my tip – find ONE goal you plan to achieve during your internship and make damn sure you accomplish it. Sure, you should gain as much experience as possible, but you should also walk away with something tangible.

Want to optimize your time at an internship? Here’s what you should do:

1. Find where you want to be after the internship (your goal)

2. Tell your boss your goal on the first day

3. Rank your assignments by how close they will get you to your goal.

The cool thing is this doesn’t just pertain to interns. Here’s a bit more real world application. At internshipIN, we’ve been talking with several employers from across the world (literally!). We recently made the decision to keep our launch restricted to the San Francisco Bay Area for now.

You have no idea how much we would love to connect talented interns with some of the most innovative startups in the globe, but if we are going to truly help people we need to do it well. We want you to love using internshipIN, and we can’t give you support if we are spread too thin.

Got any ideas on where we should go next? Shoot us an email at contact at internshipIN.com. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Wanna know something cool?

We opened up our beta launch sign up list and we were ABSOLUTELY surprised at how well we were received by both students and employers! Let’s just say we signed up 20 employers from the moment we launched at 3:00 AM to 9:00 AM. At least I think that is cool.

Feel free to sign up at internshipin.com.

Other than that, we are moving along as quickly as possible to make sure you can either find or post your internship opportunities.

See you soon!