Have you been searching for that ever-elusive internship for months now? Have you applied to almost every possible place (many of them on Internshala) but have not got a positive reply yet? Do you wonder what is missing in your application that would make it stand out amongst 100 other applications? Are you curious what do the people who finally get the internship do differently than you?
Well, after having screened and seen thousands of internship applications on Internshala, and with a set of new changes in the application form brought in; we present for the first time, Top 5 secrets of how to make a winning internship application on Internshala.
1. Read the internship description completely and understand it: – There have been extreme cases of Accounts students applying to Aerospace internships and vice versa. Or students selecting 10K+ as ‘expected stipend’ while the advertised stipend for a particular internship is Rs. 5,000. What sort of image do you think that projects of you in front of any employer?
In addition, do pay attention to details such as skill sets required, when does the internship begins, duration and location of the internship, and stipend, etc. before deciding to apply. ALL of this information is captured from you explicitly in the application form and many employers decide to eliminate a candidate basis this information alone even before opening your resume.
2. A seemingly innocent question “Why should you be hired for this internship?” kills many: – You may not have realized the importance of this question so far while you were busy copy-pasting standard, over worded, meaningless cover letter as an answer to this question for EVERY internship on Internshala.
For many employers, this is the quickest way to figure out whether a candidate actually knows what this internship demands and whether he/she has those qualities or not. Please make your answer to this question as specific as possible giving relevant examples of past projects/coursework. More generic your answer is (“I am a hard-working, sincere, dedicated, etc., etc. person is NO good), more are the chances that your resume will NEVER be opened.
3. Answering internship-specific question(s): – This is a new feature on Internshala. We are gradually moving in a direction where we believe if a student has put in efforts in submitting an application, chances of him being sincere and serious are a lot more than those who apply everywhere at a click of a button.
If an internship on Internshala requires you to submit answers to a specific set of questions/problems; it would be clearly mentioned in the internship description under a separate section. Please go through the questions and understand them well before preparing your answers. The internship form now has a separate upload button where you can upload answers to these questions in .doc/.pdf/.rtf format. Please do NOT upload your CV/Cover letter there
4. Attending the automated telephonic/voice interview: – another exciting, first of its kind in India, feature added by Internshala making it even easier for companies to select/shortlist candidates without having to interview them or even read the resume.
Again if an employer has opted for this feature, it would be clearly mentioned in the internship description in a separate section and the instructions on how to attend this interview would be sent in the confirmation email that you receive post applying to the internship on Internshala. Make sure you read it!
5. Follow-up: – There is nothing more useful tool/tactic in the professional world than a follow-up email. If you have done everything right in the above 4 steps, you have every right to hear back from the employer on the status of your application. Moreover, following up on an application shows your genuine interest and keenness in the position. For example, for every role at Internshala, we consider ONLY those candidates who cared to follow up.
