How To Get An Internship In NYC Right After Finishing College

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By Jeremiah Green

As any college graduate knows, finding work after college is not easy. Not only are entry-level jobs hard to come by,depending on the profession, naturally, but even simple internships require a thorough and tough search. For people with no work experience in their fields, the quest to get an internship in NYC can seem quite arduous after college. But if you approach this task properly right after graduation, you’ll have less of a difficulty. Which is precisely what we’ll discuss here.

Look For Graduate Internships

There are many organizations and companies that come up with their own internship programs, including those whose specific aim are college graduates. For example, many professionals will tell you that certain job positions in the medical care field are woefully understaffed, which is why a lot of hospitals make their own internship programs precisely aimed at recent grads. And this market aside, there are plenty of others where job opportunities are available, if you find the right program.

Also, there are numerous nonprofit organizations that serve to bring recent graduates and different employers across the U.S. closer together, enabling both sides to make valuable contacts to mutual benefit.

Networking is Important

Speaking of contacts, one of the first things you’ll hear when you ask someone about what you need to do in order to get an internship in NYC after college is the fact that networking is absolutely crucial. And that’s something many young people do not understand, instead believing that their knowledge and education is enough to land them at least an internship.

However, keeping in touch with all sorts of people related to your profession is quite important. If you don’t know where to start, make sure you don’t become out of sync with other school alumni; people from the same educational background tend to stick together, and help each other out. Many colleges and universities even have official career network organizations for this very purpose.

Come Up With Your Own Internship

Regardless of your chosen profession, in the 21st-century capitalism landscape, you need to realize one simple fact—there will be competition in the job market. Scratch that—there will be a lot of competition. And this isn’t something to shy away from, but instead something to embrace. At the end of the day, it’s important to think outside the box, and be prepared to go lengths that others aren’t willing to go.

While the example we’ll give here isn’t applicable to every kind of profession out there, it’s still a way to get an internship in NYC and elsewhere, after college. There are college grads who want to pursue a career in government, but don’t know where to start. And some of them actually wrote to Congress members that campaigned on issues they were passionate about, asking them for a position on their staff, in relation to those specific issues.

In other words, if you can’t find an internship opportunity, you may need to make one yourself. Contact high-profile professionals in your field, and see if they’d be willing to find funding for an additional position for you. If you’ve got the right communication and persuasion skills, this may very well work, though, naturally, you’ll also need the academic credentials to back this up.

Volunteering

Once you finish college, unfortunately—in most cases, you shouldn’t expect to be a big earner right away. While there are certain jobs where that’s possible, most professions will leave you longing for even a paid internship. But if you’ve got family money, or other means to sustain yourself for a while, do consider volunteering in an unpaid position.

While this is, deep down, something people rarely wish to do on their own; the reality of the job market is such that there will always be graduates who can afford to do so until they advance to a paid position. With that in mind; trying to be among those people will surely net you an internship some time down the line.

Expand Your View

Sure, most of us would like to get an internship in NYC, especially if you went to school there. But you probably know what a certain proverb says about the plans of mice and men. In the end, you may simply need to widen your scope to encompass as many internship possibilities as possible. And in order to do that, you can go in two different directions, or both at once.

First of all, you could consider broadening your professional definition; in other words, looking for more varied types of internships that could lead to steady, full-time jobs. Sure, some of these may not be precisely where you pictured your career going; but it may be necessary. And otherwise—you could consider going somewhere else instead of the Big Apple. While there are many industries here with plenty of job opportunities, things change—and you might find yourself being offered more internship positions elsewhere. Don’t waste your time being solely focused on where you’d live.

Have An Online Presence

Sure, a LinkedIn profile is all well and good; but if you truly want to present yourself in the best possible light to any potential employers—you need to seem as though you’re a cut above the rest, regardless of how true that is. And translated to the language of 2020, you need to have a website.

And while your profession isn’t something where having a website to show off your portfolio is important; you’ll actually find that it leaves a more lasting impression on any recruiters who might come across dozens if not hundreds of CVs each day.

Jeremiah Green is a freelance author, mostly writing about sociological phenomena like education, migration and moving with companies, including IPS NYC Movers.

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