Springtime is here, classes start to intensify and the planning for summer has begun. Should you get an internship? Do you find a job in your hometown? Do you have enough money saved up to go on a trip? So many questions, yet so little time to figure out what to do next.
If you’re like me, all of these questions start to give you a pounding headache after a week. Planning for the future can be stressful, especially if you don’t quite know what is in store for you. Snagging that perfect internship is a difficult task. Eventually the right one will come along, but it will take a lot of searching and you’ll surely go through the ups and downs of the hiring process.
Adding on the process of finding an internship on top of classes is a difficult task. And adding onto your workload in the middle of a busy semester is not fun. Here are a few tips I have found helpful when juggling school, internships and everything in between.
Keep a calendar
At the beginning of every school year, I buy a planner that I swear to use and stay organized, yet every year, I fail. It gets to around the middle of the first semester and all the planning goes out the window. I start making reminders to myself in random places — on my computer or phone or even sticky notes — but not the planner that I bought. But when it gets to the spring and it’s time to apply for internships, the planner needs to make a comeback. There will be a day where you miss a deadline or an interview, and you will quickly find yourself crawling back to your planner.
Start off your search with a list of your dream internships
These are your reaches, the places that you have been thinking about since the beginning of your college career. Although these are going to be difficult to obtain in the beginning, it is important to set yourself goals. Maybe one internship is too far out of reach right now, but it is important to keep that in mind when applying for other internships. There are many others out there that would put you on the right path in order to get that dream internship the next summer.
Keep in mind where you want to be for the summer
Although I would love to live out my Carrie Bradshaw dreams and spend the summer in New York City, my budget would not be happy with me. Think about your housing possibilities and what makes sense for you.
Find an internship that allows a part-time weekend job
Many internships are unpaid, often making a part-time job necessary. It isn’t too early to start looking for your side job, too. The earlier you get everything set for your summer, the more time you will have to stay focused on your spring semester.
The planning of your upcoming summer can be stressful and annoying. It’s time-consuming to submit dozens of applications, just to hopefully find one internship. But the sooner you start and the more organized you are, the sooner you will have your perfect summer lined up. Summer will be here before you know it and soon enough it will be the first day of your internship — and the days of searching and submitting applications will finally be over.
