Getting My First Internship!
Ben shares the story of how he got his first internship and how the Carleton Career Center helped him achieve this goal.
Ben shares the story of how he got his first internship and how the Carleton Career Center helped him achieve this goal.
The thought of trying to land an internship during college was at first stressful for me. I was uncertain where to begin and looking back I put a lot of pressure on myself to find an opportunity. I am sure other Carleton students felt the same way, and I predict future students will too. Because of this, I want to share the way I found an internship and hopefully provide a picture of what the process can look like.
An unexpected development.
When I studied abroad in Denmark, my main goal was to immerse myself in a new country. I had originally not planned to study abroad during my time at Carleton, but last fall an opportunity arose to spend 12 weeks in Copenhagen. I would love to share many of my lovely experiences (perhaps in a future blog post!), but I want to focus on one unexpected development during my tip.
I took many computer science courses with the study abroad program, and through them I was able to meet with different Danish companies and learn about what they do. A lot of the companies did cutting-edge work, specifically in machine learning and artificial intelligence – both of which are courses offered at Carleton.
It was really cool to talk with the founders of these companies and hear a little more about their visions. One company we met that stood out to me was Kaspar AI. They were a small start-up that specialized in making artificial intelligence to aid the filmmaking process. Their goal was to create AI that could act as a personal assistant and editor for directors, speeding up the editing process and making it more accessible for smaller creators. The idea really piqued my interest, and I wanted to learn more.
Just reach out.
One important lesson I have learned at Carleton is the power of reaching out. Whether it be for a job, an internship, a research opportunity with a professor, the worst thing you can do is not say anything at all. Following our meeting, I sent an email to the founder of Kaspar AI. The email included my resume, a cover letter, and a link to my LinkedIn – all things the Carleton Career Center helped me set up.
The CTO then invited me to meet with him in person. I was super nervous, but we ended up working out a nice agreement. I started going into the office to help with some projects to close out my time in Copenhagen, and after I returned to the United States I continued to work with the team remotely. The Carleton Career Center helped me to receive internship funding, and I took the winter term off to pursue my first internship!
In conclusion
If you are stressed about finding an internship, it is okay. My best advice is to be proactive and prepared. Actively look for opportunities in areas you are interested in and use the resources available to you to help along the process (like the Career Center). Good luck!
Ben is a rising Senior from Boulder, CO. He is majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Spanish. Outside of academics, Ben is a long-distance runner for Carleton’s Cross Country and Track teams (his favorite event is the steeplechase) and he also plays the drums for The Megs, a student band that covers Australian punk rock music. Meet the other Bloggers!