Let’s face it, being an international student in the US comes with a number of limitations and internship is one of them. The fact of the matter is that there are numerous opportunities for the students to get an internship but often, these chances are only offered to the US citizens. It is not easy to get an internship in the US if you are an international student.
How do you increase your chances of getting an internship as an international student?
Well, now that we have seen that it is not easy to get an internship as a foreign student, it is important that we now look at how you can increase your chance of getting an internship. Most of the students make the mistake of randomly sending hundreds of CVs and motivation letters to various companies across the country believing that they will get an opportunity. But that is the wrong way to go about it. It is no wonder that most of those that use that method end up being frustrated. It is because out of the letters and CVs sent, they only get a reply to only about 5% or less. And even getting those replies do not secure them an internship slot.
So what is the formula to get these internships? The answer is simple; networking. Yes, you heard it right. Networking is the key to getting to any level in this world including that internship. And what is networking? It is simply getting to know people from different professionals and building close relations or friendship with them. For example, if you are a business student, when you network, you will have to befriend professionals from various companies that are related to what you are doing in the university. These people will become your circle of friends and you will be meeting and talking issues about life as well as your professionalism.
For you to start networking, get out there and start making both local and international friends. This can be possible by joining events in the universities, sports groups or any other activity that brings people from different professions together. But you need to remember that even if your goal is to get internship and job opportunities, you should not show it directly that that is your intention because otherwise people will see you as an opportunist and believe me you wouldn’t want that. So try to start these relationships as just normal friendship where you want to learn their culture and establish personal connections with them.
Before I go on, I would like to point out something that I should have said earlier; networking requires time. It, therefore, implies, that if you are intending to get an internship in a year from today, then you need to have started networking by now. You cannot start networking today and expect to enjoy the benefits of getting an internship a week or a month from today. It takes time for the people that you have networked with to build trust in you.
And why will networking strategy work? Well, it is because when companies want to hire employees and interns, most of the time they prefer getting recommendations from some of the outstanding employees. It’s not always that the companies will randomly hire people. They hire people that have been recommended to them. It, therefore, implies that when you have friends that work in various companies you have an opportunity to be hired as an intern because of their recommendation. Your internship problem can even be fully solved if you happen to know a CEO or manager of a given company on a personal level because it will be easier for you to be hired as an intern despite being an international student.
Most popular USA internship opportunities for international students.
Business industry.
It is the industry with the highest number of opportunities for you as an international student. It is because there are many areas that you can choose from such as finance, management, and marketing among many others. There are thousands of businesses and companies that are hiring interns every day which provides numerous opportunities for you.
Diplomat.
These are opportunities to get an internship in diplomatic offices between the US and other countries which in this case it will be your home country. The slots in this industry are not many but the good thing is that they are just for you. There is no competition from the US citizens. It is an advantage that will easily make you get a slot particularly if there are no many students from your country studying in the US. These diplomatic opportunities could even be from various NGOs and international organizations such as the United Nations.
Hospitality.
There are numerous slots available for internship from various hotels and restaurants around the country particularly those that deal with a huge number of foreigners and travelers. The fact that you are conversant with more than one language makes you a better option because it will be easier to communicate with foreigners from other parts of the world. It is also worth noting that most of the companies in the hospitality industry will consider hiring international students because they are likely to bring with them more knowledge about food and culture of their home country which will be helpful to the management when deciding the kind of services to offer to its clients.
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