Evaluating the Legitimacy of an Internship Before Applying

There are a number of ways to get connected to Internships, whether it’s through job boards, campus resources or internship websites. Anyone actively looking for an internship will apply to multiple openings in the hopes of landing one of the coveted positions. While you’re knee deep in your search for the holy grail of internships, it’s possible that you have come across other opportunities that looked too good to be true. Chances are, they were. You see, for every good opportunity, there are also some bad opportunities as well.

While some people will tell you that any internship is a good internship, that’s not entirely true. An internship is more than coffee runs and making copies on demand. In fact, that’s not an internship at all. Fetching coffee and making copies are wasted skills and potential for students looking for internships such as tech internships or engineering internships for example. A legitimate internship guides you through the professional landscape, teaching you valuable skills that you can use in the workplace after graduation.

In order to determine the legitimacy of an internship before applying, here are a few tips:

·        Be wary of commission-based internships. Many of these internships are sales-oriented positions that will have you conducting cold calls. As an intern, you know very little about their product and cannot effectively contribute to the business. More likely than not, you’ll be stuck in an administrative role (i.e. coffee runs and lunch orders)

·        Legitimate internships conduct interviews and ask for resumes. They treat the process of the internship as if it were an actual job opening.

·        It’s ok if your internship is unpaid and only for credit. However, you should never have to pay an employer to intern or to learn more about the company.

·        Internships should occur in established work environments relevant to the field or project. Never should an internship be at someone’s home or unsafe environment.

It’s better to be safe than sorry. If you’re unsure about an internship, always do your research on the company before applying. Many internship websites do a pre-screening of the internships before posting from that employer, but is always possible that a few may slip through the cracks on other platforms.