How to Find Your Dream Internship

One reason employers like to hire past interns is familiarity. They already know what they're getting in terms of cultural fit, abilities and work ethic. So, doing at least one internship while still in college is a good idea, even for students who attend online colleges or universities. The steps you take to find your dream internship are also the steps you can take when you start looking for your dream job.

Of course, you'll want to find the best possible internship. One way to do that is by taking some time to ask yourself a few key questions.

First, what does your dream internship look like? This is an important question to answer. So much so that you should actually sit down with a pen and paper and list all the things that your dream internship would have, in order of importance. The last thing you want to do is accept an internship in an industry or with a company that is at odds with who you are as a person. For example, some people only want to work for companies that are environmentally conscious. If that's important to you, then add it to your list. Keep in mind that we don't live in a perfect world. Anything that you could live without should go on the bottom of your list.

Second, what do you really like to do? If you love playing video games or cooking or photography or whatever, try to find a job with a company in that industry. For example, if video games are your passion, you could try to get a job working for a company that creates video games ... even if you're majoring in accounting. If the company has an internship in the accounting department, apply for it. Just because you start out as an accounting intern, that doesn't mean that you can't end up employed as a video game tester one day.

Finally, what do you want to give to your potential employer? Bet that caught you by surprise. It's obvious that you want to get a decent salary and challenging work out of your internship. That's what most people want. But it's also important for you have something to give. Make a list of the things you want to give to an employer, things that could benefit any employer in any industry, such as a sense of humor, a willingness to work extra long hours whenever needed, computer skills that go above and beyond what the average person might bring, etc.

It's not easy to find your dream internship or job, but it's not impossible either. By taking a moment to get to know yourself a little better, you could put yourself in a position to make all your career dreams come true.