“Are you a high-school student interested in the glamorous world of unpaid internships?”
– Family Guy

I had a love-hate relationship with internships throughout my time in college and grad school. At first I hated them because everyone was trying to get an internship. There was this crazy anxiety and if you didn’t have an internship, well, there really wasn’t any sense in graduating. You had to have an internship – so I didn’t want one. Smart, I know. 

Then I tried applying for jobs after school and discovered that – WHAT? – I didn’t have any experience so I couldn’t get a job. So then I hated internships because I needed one but didn’t have one. So far – internship hates = 2, internship loves = 0.

Then I started applying to internships in DC (I was going to grad school in Denver at the time). With my fancy grad school experience I started to get some traction with applications out east. I got offered an internship at my first choice, but it was unpaid. So I went with my second choice which was one of the rare paid internships in DC (not much, but any pay was huge). So I started to love internships.

Now – to the point of this article. What can you do to turn an internship into a full time role? Sometimes vacancies will open up or the company in question will actively use interns as a feeder system for building an employee base. Other times, interns are there for six months to do menial tasks and then leave. The key to avoiding the six-months-and-out fate is to create intrinsic value in yourself. Look around the company for areas that could be improved and start formulating a plan for how you’ll fill those deficiencies. Do you have a unique skill set? Build a role for yourself that will leverage those skills.

- Does your company’s website have holes (i.e. are there services or offerings listed on the site that don’t have enough content or products?) Research and write articles to fill in those holes. Do two or three and show your boss – suddenly your idea is something very real and you’ve just added value to the company.
- Do you have web design or technical expertise? Propose a new app or function for your company site or, on a smaller scale, for your department in particular.
- Do you have language skills? Could using those skills allow your company or firm to offer additional services? If so, you just came up with a way your company can make more money. That will get people’s attention.

The point is, you make yourself valuable when you – wait for it – add value. It will take some thought and research, but find a way to add value and you’ll find the surest way to a golden full-time gig.

Have you been able to carve out a role for yourself?  Let’s hear about it below.

The post Internship Alchemy – How to turn an internship into a full-time job appeared first on ApplyMate Blog.