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Internship and Job Search Strategy

Career mapping

As you think of your career path, you’ll need to do some self-reflection, goal setting, and action planning.

We have a few career coaching tools that help you consider your skills, interests, passions, and values and map them to different career options and jobs.

Career assessments

There are a variety of career, work style, and personality assessments that can help you reflect on your strengths and values related to your career path. For example, you might discover you’d prefer a job with intellectual stimulation. Or one that allows creativity. Or a career that provides structure.

Unsure where to get started with a career assessment? Here are some common assessments. Your college career center might also offer assessments for you.

O*NET Interest Profile

Interest Profile

College Board Big Future Career Quiz

Career Quiz

Holland Code Quiz

Code Quiz

DiSC Behavior Inventory

DiSC Behavior Inventory

O*NET Skills Search

O*NET Skills Search

Connecting your academic major to your career

Often your academic major or minor opens a range of career possibilities. Here are some steps to align your academic pursuits with your career pursuits.

Getting started

  • What careers do my major or majors of interest typically lead to?
  • What career experiences can I gain that’s in-line with my education?
  • What skills and experiences may I need to supplement where my major/academic experience may be lacking?

Do some research

  • Find where alumni from your college or university work to get some ideas.
  • Go to your college’s or university’s LinkedIn page, click on the “Alumni” tab, scroll to “What they studied,” click on your area of study (or type it in) to find out where alumni work, what they do, what they’re skilled at, and more.

Reflection questions

  • How do the skills and knowledge gained through my major connect to jobs and work?
  • Do the careers my major typically leads to seem in line with my priorities and preferences?
  • How do my major and career prospects align with my self-assessments?
  • What’s my plan? What SMART (strategic, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound) goals can I set with my new findings?

Prepare for your job search

Here are some steps to developing your job or internship search plan:

  • Browse through listings to identify specific titles and opportunities to which you might apply
  • Familiarize yourself with the industry hiring timeline (different industries operate on different timelines, but generally most internships are available in summer and applications open around November and December)
  • Prepare your application materials (resume, cover letter, LinkedIn profile)
  • Prepare how you’ll stay organized during your search and when you’ll search (set a schedule for yourself)
  • Set up alerts from common job boards such as Indeed and Handshake
  • Practice intervie wing and running through common questions
  • Ask or give a heads up to potential references

Begin your job search

During your job search

Reflection questions

  • What feelings am I experiencing going through this process?
  • What common themes are arising with opportunities that interest me most?
  • How do opportunities align with my career goals and priorities?

More templates and tools

Job and internship search tracker

This tracker is a way for you to track your applications, the statuses, the jobs, the companies, the review dates, the job descriptions, and other next steps.

Job search tracker

Hiring timeline trends

Different industries tend to use different hiring timelines.

Hiring timeline trends

Career process map worksheet

This worksheet is meant to serve as a tool for you to brainstorm, take inventory, plan, and hold yourself accountable during your career journey. The worksheet runs through different aspects of career development like how your academic major maps to a career, checklists for job applications, and goals for networking.
Career process worksheet

Careers, skills, and personality Venn diagram

This tool is meant to help surface your personality, skills, and careers of interest to align the three and uncover possible career pathways to explore further.
Career Venn diagram

Internship, job, and volunteer listings

Whether you’re looking for summer opportunities, internships, entry level jobs, or positions specifically for new graduates, we’ve got you covered. Our comprehensive, searchable, and sortable database is specifically designed for high school and college students as well as recent graduates.
Job and internship board

Discover more resources

Get guidance directly from our Making Waves community of coaches, career specialists, students, and college graduates.

Hear from First-Gen College Grads

We’re here to support your career journey!

If you’re a Wave-Maker college student or alum and would like support with your job and internship search strategy, please reach out to the Making Waves Early Career Team for a free meeting.

Wave-Makers: schedule a free meeting with a Making Waves career advisor

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