My Internship Search
One of the things that appealed to me the most about the Creative Industries program was the mandatory internship that students have to complete in the summer after their third year. I did a co-op placement at a local Ottawa magazine in high school, and found the experience helpful for my future endeavours. Finding a program that offered experiential learning was very important to me, and Creative Industries offered that!
Well, now I am finishing up the last semester of my third year, and the time for my internship placement is fast approaching. To successfully complete the internship portion of my program, I need to work 240 hours at a creative company or in a creative position at a non-creative company. I have been on the internship application grind since mid-February, and have learned a lot about the process and the services our university provides to help students find work placements.
As I mentioned, I have been working on applications for a while now. It is a lot to keep track of, so I made myself a handy-dandy Google Sheets spreadsheet. Whenever I find a position I’d like to apply for, I put the title, the company and the application deadline in my spreadsheet. I also have a column for me to track when I applied to the position. This tool is incredibly helpful for me as it allows me to have all the jobs I want to apply to in one place. I set aside time each weekend to apply for some internships and when the time comes, I look at my spreadsheet and apply to the ones with the closest due date. I encourage everyone searching for work placements to make a spreadsheet like this — it doesn’t take much time and will help your search immensely!
My spreadsheet! I don’t always apply to all of the positions I keep track of, but I find putting every position I find helps keep me organized and ensure I don’t miss any opportunities.
I have a spreadsheet to keep track of my applications, but where do I find these positions? I’m glad you asked! A majority of the positions I apply to I find on the Creative Industries internship job board, lovingly known as CRIIS (which stands for Creative Industries Internship Software). Our program has a dedicated internship coordinator who posts job listings on CRIIS and emails us with certain openings as well. I am also part of a Facebook group called The Creative School Careers (external link, opens in new window) . Here, the group admins (university staff) post open positions in the creative industries, and I keep an eye on this page for any internship opportunities. I also made a list of companies that I would like to work for and have cold-emailed these companies asking if they are looking to hire interns for the summer. Our university also has a job board called Magnet that can be used to search for employment in a variety of industries.
The CRIIS job board entry page!
For my summer internship, I am mainly looking for a position to do with communications and digital marketing. I’d like this position to be with a company in the entertainment or publishing industry, as these are where I would like to have a career after I graduate. When applying for internships, I highlight the experience I have in digital marketing and communications, as well as the work I’ve done in school. My Creative Industries modules are Journalism and The Music Industry, and if relevant to the job posting, I’ll mention classes I’ve taken or assignments I’ve completed to show off the knowledge and experience I’ve gained.
When applying for internships and preparing for interviews, our university’s Career & Co-op Centre really comes in handy! They offer resumé and cover letter reviews and interview preparation workshops. I’ve used their resumé and cover letter resource where I sent them my documents over Google Docs, and then staff members reviewed them and added in their feedback. It’s a great way for busy students to get feedback on their applications before sending them to employers. You can also book 1:1 appointments with staff if you prefer getting feedback in that manner. I cannot recommend their services enough! If an internship or co-op is part of your program, your program or faculty might even have services tailored to its students.
I’m not going to lie, applying to internships can be an overwhelming process! It requires a lot of time, work and patience. My internship coordinator accurately called it a marathon. I still haven’t secured a position for the summer yet— it’s still a bit early—but I’m just reminding myself that my hard work will pay off and to be patient!
Thumbnail from Unsplash (external link, opens in new window) .
