Ask HN: How to stand out while searching for an internship

Great question.

Given the forum, going to assume you are seeking an internship in tech.

FWIW, I created/lead an internship program for software devs at a small(er) venture-backed startup. The program was responsible for hiring ~20 interns over two years.

Among the interns I hired, those that stood out had a demonstrated genuine passion for the field as well as our company, had deployed their own side projects to production, and were very very clear in what they were seeking to gain from an internship with us.

Also, very early in my career, I recall a discussion with an intern on how he landed the role at the company I was with at the time. He said he cold-emailed the CEO. He also said that was how he had landed an earlier internship at Amazon!

I've just finished an internship this summer, I'd say the #1 thing that makes you stand out is some kind of personal project in something you're interested in -- beyond the usual tutorial crud app.

Every company I interviewed with said it was the thing that stood out the most about my CV, and it gives you an interesting subject to talk about in interviews.

Work with your school's career center. They should be running career fairs and maintaining relationships with local companies and alumni affiliated companies that will help your resume get screened.

It helps if you have a personal project to highlight on the resume and discuss in interviews. But if you don't, highlight an interesting school project.

If you're graduating soon, you're also graduating into a downturn, so you're going to have to work harder to get started. Keep an eye out for good work in your field, but also look for other stuff where you can build up experience in a workplace, even if it's just office work.

portfolio projects are the best

for designers it could be dribbble stuff

for devs it could be github stuff

everyone can write things on a resume but i want something more tactile, more tangible, more itneractive. something that communicates your pursuit of your curiosity.

I recently had a convo with someone looking to break into software development. I ended up writing an essay on three ways to stand out: https://letterstoanewdeveloper.com/2022/09/19/ways-to-stand-...

The tl;dr is that there are tons of ways to stand out, you just should pick one and work at it.