I attended the internship panel and thought it was very helpful in giving me more information about the process of getting one. One of the main points I think all four panelists touched upon was that sometimes you just have to put yourself out there and see what happens. I had always been putting off looking for internships and research opportunities because it felt kind of weird to like, go up to someone and ask without having a bunch of experience or without knowing them personally… It turns out sometimes you can cold-email and get results. Rather than looking for specific advice, I think I attended the panel to kind of reassure myself that others go through the same thing and that it’s not as scary as it seems.
It doesn’t seem like I’ll be applying to anything in the near future, but now I feel like I’m more prepared to do so and will be more active/confident in my passive searching.
I have had interviews for internships in the past and I always get really nervous because I feel unprepared and unqualified. Even though I did not attend the panel, I liked reading all of the posts about how sometimes you just have to go for it! I hope you find an internship!
Thank you so much for your post! I unfortunately was not able to attend this event, but am really grateful to hear what you have learned. I never knew that sometimes cold-emailing an employer can produce results. I guess being direct is important! I hope that this event helps you while searching for potential internships!
I didn’t attend this seminar but I enjoyed reading your post! Thanks for sharing. From my personal experience, landing an internship depends on being proactive, rather than passively waiting for good opportunities. Reaching out is probably a good way to both introduce yourself and get to know more opportunities. I am more of a shy person when it comes to reaching out to strangers through emails, but I’ve tried to apply to more companies to make up for the missing opportunities. Also, I would say reaching out to personal connections is a good idea, especially those you know well that can extend you referrals.
Having also attended this panel, I thought all the advice they had to say was really refreshing to hear about a really stressful subject in general. I can also attest to what they are saying. At my old university, I was super interested in doing research in a field they only had a graduate program in, but I still sent an email anyways and they replied! The head of the lab was frankly surprised that an undergraduate had even found his lab in the first place and was glad to have me on board. Just send that email! It can be really worth it sometimes!