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Good internships are like good
haircuts: easy to see, but not so easy to come by. As internships are
growing increasingly popular among college and grad students, the
competition for intern positions at big-name organizations is becoming
fierce. From the FBI to Hallmark Cards, top internship programs are now
forced to choose from an ever-expanding pool of applicants.
For those dissatisfied with the
internship chase, there remains a long neglected but potentially winning
route to a dream internship: make your own. Rather than apply only to
pre-established programs, internship seekers should consider persuading
an organization or an accomplished person who does not normally hire
interns to offer an "ad hoc internship."
Here's how: Think of six or so
accomplished people whose shoes you would love to fill. It could be a
bigwig advertising executive, a documentary filmmaker, a renowned park
ranger, a compelling author—the sky's the limit. Just make sure it's not
someone so famous that a letter from you would hit the trash before it
ever reached your quarry's desk. Supercelebs like Oprah Winfrey, Bruce
Springsteen, and H. Ross Perot fall into this class of virtual "unreachables."
After deciding upon a handful of
people worth writing, it is time to research them thoroughly. Go to the
local library and look up what that journalist (or cardiologist or ski
racer or pilot) was doing last week, last month, and last year. Use
biographies, databases, magazine indexes, annual reports, the Internet,
or anything else that will tell you exactly what your potential mentor
is all about.
Then, write each figure an earnest
letter that not only introduces you, but convinces him or her that
hiring you as an ad hoc intern would be mutually beneficial. Play up
your best qualities—abilities either directly related to your potential
mentor's work (e.g., your fluency in French if you are writing to the
French ambassador) or traits suggesting that you would be a valuable
assistant (emphasize your enthusiasm, discreetness, diligence, etc.) Be
sure to customize each letter, showing each person that you have done
your homework by incorporating into the letter choice bits of
information unearthed during your research. Convey why his work is
exactly the kind with which you want to be involved or why her
organization is singularly important to your career aspirations.
Chances are that your six letters,
voraciously researched and carefully written, will yield at least one
internship opportunity. If you think about it, this ad hoc internship
may be more rewarding than a pre-established internship. There will be
no preexisting limits to the internship, no areas where you are told
"interns have never been allowed to do that." There probably will be no
other interns, giving you the pick of possible projects and undivided
accessibility to your mentor. It is not hard to see how the ad hoc
internship will allow you to work closely with your mentor, forging a
professional connection that may last a lifetime.
Some students have already
discovered the rewards of the ad hoc internship. A few years ago, a
sophomore at a university in California was paging through an issue of
Life magazine that profiled the now late Albert P. Blaustein, a
constitutional law professor at Rutgers University who had helped more
than 40 countries draft their constitutions. His interest piqued, the
student dashed off to the campus library and researched Blaustein's
recent work. He then wrote this "modern-day James Madison" a detailed
letter, introducing himself and offering his services as a summer
research assistant. Within two weeks, Blaustein wrote back, informing
the student that although no undergraduate had ever asked to be his
assistant before, he would take a chance and hire the student for the
summer.
When summer came, the student ended
up researching constitutional histories for the professor's encyclopedic
set of the world's constitutions. Importantly, the professor and his
student assistant got along so well that at the end of the summer, when
the government of Romania asked Blaustein to help it draft its new
constitution, he invited the student to accompany him on a one-week trip
to Bucharest. The following autumn found the two journeying to
post-revolution Romania, where they met with the country's foreign
minister, members of Parliament, and various other officials. Watching
the professor advise government officials and academics, the student
received a hands-on introduction to constitution-making that he will
never forget.
When all was done, the student had
created an ad hoc internship that rivaled anything he could have
experienced at the best pre-established internships. It goes to show
that it sometimes pays to look beyond the internship chase-and create an
opportunity where none presently exists. |
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