How to Find Internships for New Graduates

Summer 2026 internship recruiting is already moving FAST. don’t let it catch you off guard. I remember the stress of last season. so many roles, so much noise, and advice that rarely works in real life. So here are the exact strategies and tools I used to survive (and thrive) during recruiting: 1. Apply ASAP like, within HOURS of postings. I set up calendar reminders for application drops. Why? Because roles at top companies fill up fast and early birds really do get the interview. - intern-list from Jobright.ai: This is my favorite all-in-one board for finding open roles, sortable by role. intern-list.com - Internships Repo from Simplify : Updated daily by students. Refresh this religiously for the latest drops: https://lnkd.in/guntbVEt 2. Automate the busywork let tech do the heavy lifting. Simplify automatically fills out internship applications to save hours and cut down on mistakes. Seriously, I wouldn’t apply without it. simplify.jobs 3. Method to find the freshest postings. Go to LinkedIn, search for your desired role, filter by "Date Posted." Now, in the URL, change 86400 (last 24 hours) to 7200 (last 2 hours). This shows only just-posted jobs. Sounds small, but I landed interviews this way that most people missed entirely. 4. Don't ignore the behavioral Exponent & Interview Prepper Exponent: Role-specific question banks for behavioral and technical interviews, especially for PM/SWE. Insanely useful for real interview prep. https://lnkd.in/gnzGVf2V Interview Prepper: An all-in-one platform for personalized interview plans, company guides, daily prep games, and a new AI coding evaluator. I made this so people wouldn’t have to piece together 50 different resources. now everything’s in one spot. www.interviewprepper.co 5. Track everything don’t let any opportunity slip. After every application, I recorded: company, date, position, what I sent, and when to follow up. Tracking helped me follow up at the right times and see what actually worked for me. 💡REMEMBER: Recruiting is tough and rejection is normal, but you only need one yes. If you have questions or need help starting out, drop a comment or DM me. I’ll respond to every single one. You’ve got this. Don’t let the early crowd run laps around you. lock in, prep smart, and shoot your shot.

My recent post for new grads went viral - the biggest lesson was your career needs to be outbound before it becomes inbound. Now here’s how to actually do that ⬇️ 👉 Believe in yourself. Imposter syndrome holds us back. Humility is important, but don’t feel like you need to wait in the shadows for your turn. 👉 Ask for opportunities. Referrals, resume reviews, coffee chats, mentorship side projects, ownership on the team etc. Expect a ton of nos (like at least 80%) but get into the habit of asking. 👉 Create content. If you press publish every single day or week for a year, I guarantee your life will change. Start with things you know - what are you known as, online or among friends? what could you talk about all day? What brings you joy or pisses you off? Or if you’re working on or creating anything, document the journey (Day 5 of doing X). It doesn’t even have to be LinkedIn. 👉 Engage online - for every career path, there are online communities on Slack, Discord, LinkedIn etc. You should be in them and be visible. Share insights, help others out, become known. 👉 Go the extra mile - I don’t condone unpaid work, but sometimes you have to prove yourself. When interviewing for a job, present new ideas for how the company could grow. If you’re looking for freelance work, customize your pitch. Here’s a few hypothetical examples: 1. Associate Product Marketer → Startup Offer via Thought Leadership Started a weekly LinkedIn series breaking down viral product launches (e.g. Duolingo's TikTok strategy). After 6 weeks, a founder of a B2B SaaS company DMed them, impressed by their insights. They got a freelance project, which turned into a full-time offer. 2. Entry-Level Designer → Consulting Gig via Spec Work Redesigned the mobile app UI for a fitness startup they admired, posted it on Behance and Twitter with a thoughtful case study. The startup’s head of design saw it, reached out, and hired them for a paid project. 3. College Senior Studying CS → FTE Role via Twitter Networking Replied to a tweet by a founder who was struggling with page load times. Offered to review their site’s performance for free. After a quick Loom audit, they were invited to consult, then offered a full-time engineer role once the startup raised funding. 4. Early Career Consultant → Career Transition via Cold Pitch Pitched a local restaurant chain business with a 5-step business plan to improve growth. Met with founder then hired as advisor then head of strategy. 5. Aspiring VC → Job via Hosting Events Started a monthly “Future of [industry]” dinner series in NYC, inviting founders, operators, and junior VCs. Built a newsletter around event recaps. Met a partner at a VC firm through the event who later offered them a role as an analyst. The inbound opportunities will come — but you can accelerate the timeline by going outbound. #socialmedia #careers #linkedin

I was rejected not one, not two, but DOZENS of times when applying for internships going into my junior year of college. To be honest, I had given up. I was discouraged, heartbroken, and in extreme distress😭 I vowed that I would NEVER receive rejections like that again. Sure enough that next Summer not only did I receive multiple internship offers, but I had my dream internship offer. Here’s what I did differently: 1️⃣Turned on job notifications on LinkedIn When I tell you all this made finding internships 5x easier! Because I was looking for internships in DEI at the time, I went to the LinkedIn jobs tab searched “DEI Intern” filtered the experience level specifically by “internships” and “entry level” roles then toggled on the “get job alerts for this search” button at the bottom of the page. After that, every time a new role was added to LinkedIn that matched my search, I was notified! 2️⃣Created a company fast facts sheet This was SO helpful! I wrote down everything that I needed to know about the company from their core values and mission to their current initiatives and projects. I also did a deep dive into the LinkedIn profiles of my interviewers and compiled key points of their roles and responsibilities. I studied this sheet daily so I would be able to leverage some of the information during my interview P.S- It helps if you make the sheet fun and decorative 3️⃣ Tailored my resume and my cover letter to each role As soon as I learned how applicant tracking systems (ATS) work, I did whatever I could to try and beat the system. I found that the cheat code was aligning my resume and cover letter to match key words in the job description. When I tell y’all that this hack changed my life! Tailor those resumes y’all! 4️⃣Came prepared with solutions The goal is always to be one step ahead of your interviewer. When prepping for your interview, keep track of industry trends to find ways that you think the company could improve against their competitors. Then take it a step further and show how you could use your skills to help make that improvement. When asked if you have any questions at the end of the interview try saying something like this: “When doing my research I noticed that Company X doesn’t have [fill in the blank with a process, system, program, etc]. I have skill X, Y, Z relevant to implementing this. Is this something that is in the works or an idea that your team would potentially be interested in?” 5️⃣Tracked my applications This was a game changer! I created an excel sheet that I used to keep track of when I applied to internships so I could monitor the timeline of the process as I proceeded (or didn’t lol) to the next rounds. ——————————————————————- What are some things you’ve done in your internship search that have made a difference? #tipswithtaylor #internships #dreaminternship #internships2024 #collegestudents #intern #techinternship

Everyone has been asking me how to get offers at companies like Dell & Tesla I don't go to a top 500 school. I'm an immigrant, so I don’t have uncles at these companies. But I still landed internships at Dell and Tesla, here's how: 1. Hustle, Hustle, Hustle - When I was a freshman, I did everything on campus. Joined every organization, went to every career event, signed up for LinkedIn, Handshake, and even some random platforms my school pushed. This helped to get the attention of professors and faculty. So when a national competition came up (HBCU Battle of the Brains), they nominated me to represent the school. We ended up placing 2nd nationwide, Dell was a sponsor, and a recruiter passed my resume to a hiring manager. That’s how I got the internship. 2. Projects - Do interesting stuff. I'm CEO of Sorce, so I’ve seen thousands of resumes. Everyone has a LangChain chatbot now - that won’t make you stand out. My Tesla manager said the only reason he interviewed me was because of a side project: a tool for detecting AI-generated text right after ChatGPT launched. Do projects that you care about and is interesting. Even better, work on something that's useful and people use. 3. Conferences - Go to conferences and hustle. I got the Tesla internship by handing my resume to a Tesla recruiter at AFROTECH - simple as that. I didn’t even think I was going to be a top candidate, but I shot my shot. Attend every conference you can. Sneak in if you have to. No shame in trying. 4. Numbers - Don't forget the numbers game. Every new application you send is a new shot at goal and increases your odds of getting the internship. It's a marathon. So keep applying for roles, keep connecting with people on linkedin and keep editing your resume. This is also why we built https://lnkd.in/etr6msZG, it's basically AI to help you apply for jobs faster. If there's any other tip I might have missed, please add it in the comments! If you liked this, repost.

I landed 2 internships with zero experience in data. Not by applying. But by learning how to network — one conversation at a time. 📌 If you’re not at from an Ivy college, 80% of companies at your career fair won’t sponsor. That’s not unfair — That’s just how it works. 👉 Your job is to find the 20% that do. I focused only on that 20% at two career fairs. And I walked away with two internships. 📍 How I Started With Zero Network Just arrived from India. No U.S. experience. No connections. No idea how hiring worked. But I was extroverted. And I genuinely cared about people’s stories. So I started with what I had: → Friends from undergrad in the U.S. → Family friends in any industry → My cousin (data scientist in Australia) → Anyone who could connect me to a sponsor-ready company 💬 My cousin gave me advice I’ll never forget: "Stop building Titanic survival analyses. No one cares. Build projects that show how you think like a business person — not just a coder." So I picked real problems from real industries. And I focused on insights that could help teams make actual decisions. My 3-Step Networking Process: ✅ Step 1: Start with warm contacts I listed 15 people I already knew. And booked as many calls as I could. 🎯 One day in class, I gave a thoughtful answer. My professor, Jason Cirilo, said: "That’s a great take. Let me introduce you to someone in the industry." He connected me to Rakshit Goyal! That one intro taught me more than any textbook would. Now he shares great job search content on LinkedIn — go follow him. ✅ Step 2: Attend everything — even irrelevant events I went to every event on campus. Not because they were useful. But because I needed reps. Every awkward conversation made me better. I stopped rambling. I started asking better questions. ✅ Step 3: Use LinkedIn — but do it right → Engage with someone’s posts for 3–4 days → Send a connection request with context → Follow up after they accept with a good question 📬 The Realities of Outreach → 20% response rate is normal → Follow up after 5 days → If no reply after 2 follow-ups, move on — no emotion You don’t need a perfect resume. You need 100 real conversations. Start before you need the job. Because by then, it’s already too late. 👇 What’s your biggest challenge with networking as an international student? Drop it below — I’ll reply to a few directly. 📸 One of the proudest moments from this journey and a bucket list moment: Having my family visit me at American Airlines HQ. They saw where I work. I saw what it meant to them. #InternationalStudents #NetworkingTips #CareerFair #JobSearchStrategy #F1Visa #NetworkingForStudents #CareerAdvice #InternshipSearch #LinkedInNetworking #GradSchoolLife #PersonalBranding