Each program has a variable period, from one to 18 months. These programs ask for a full time effort from the student, and therefore he or she cannot do any secondary job, included voluntary labors, temporal work, teaching, housework or au-pairs.

An Internship program can be free, paid or partially paid. Paid programs are normally directed to the areas of medicine, engineering, laws, business, technology, or publicity.

In the USA there exists two kinds of programs:

Work Experience Internship: In order to register in these programs you must course a second or a third year of a major, because you have to put in practice the knowledges gained until that moment in a certain area. The experience affects positively in the final stages of the studies, because the theoretic knowledge is enriched and fed through the practice.

Research Internship: Internship programs of researching are directed to graduated or to students in the final phase of their majors. The research activities in this case are directed to the problem of a specific company that has to be improved.

Some of the benefits to develop an Internship are:

1. Learn to live together and work in team with students from other cultures.
2. Improve your English language through the total immersion in the daily local life.
3. Get adapted to a different culture and be capable to value differences.
4. Get laboral experiences that will be very useful in your professional and even personal future.
5. Reinforce your CV
6. Improve the perspectives of your major learning about American laboral practices.
7. Take advantages of the opportunities of developing social and professional links.
8. Experiment the American culture in a direct way and not only through the media stereotype.
9. Be able to live by your own earning and learn how to manage your own money.
10. Be able to make yourself mature and independent, more tolerant and understanding.

First of all, when did you wrote your last CV? And the last good one? What, you always use the same? No way! Every internship is different, you have to rewrite your personal record/curriculum vitae on every occasion. Last but not least you need an excellent cover letter. We suggest you to proceed this way: write two CV, one with everything you have done in your whole life, a second, smaller one, whith all the facts important for the internship you are applying for.

The first one needs littel modification, just add new stuff, the second one has do be redone for every new situation. Concerning your smaller CV, don’t forget less is more, nobody is interested in your experiences as waitress or babysitter if you are applying for an intern position at CNN. The short version “of your life” should not exceed one and a half pages (Format: Character Size: 12, 1.5 Line spacing)

The cover letter should refer to your strengths and your motivation and your experience already gained. It does not make a sense to mention that this is the internship you ever wanted because everybody applying could do so. Underline rather why they should choose you and not someone else. The motivation letter should not exceed one page and as character size everybody recommends 12 with 1.5 line spacing, as for the CV.

Once it’s done (and believe us, it will take some time, you have to rewrite your CV and your cover letter/motivation letter several times, different people should been ask for proof reading, for suggestions and probably different phrases have to be rewritten. You have to clarify all your informations. Don’t forget to mention why they should take YOU and not somebody else), you’re in the second round, now you can apply with ease.

95 % of all students apply for big companys and organizations. But wait, if you want to do an internship in the World Health Organization, why should you ask the responsable for all the interns (he probably recieves 200 applications a day)? You can do so, but your chances decrease. Find out the names of people responsable in the department you would like to do an internship. Contact the person, explain your thinkings, he may just get 1-10 applications a day, as you see far better than the other option. Another point: he knows what kind of students they are looking for in his departement.

Whenever you can, contact people who already did an internship in the same place. They know best how to procede, they may easily contact ex-collgues, they may give you names, telefon numbers or usefull e-mail adresses.

When you’re done, go ahead, do some other things or another application, generally you wait several weeks and months before getting an answer, if so. That should discourage you, it’s part of a process to better your presentation and for other applications. Have a new, carefull look on your CV and especially on the cover letter. This letter is the first impression people are getting from you. As you know, the first one is the most important one. Hand your documents over to some friends parents or uncle, somebody you don’t know. Ask them their reaction after reading them. What can be removed? Could you rewrite a part of it? Any mistakes? And don’t forget, never ever send the same cover letter and same CV to different organizations. Show your particular interest for every position.

Have a look on our articles concerning CV (Curriculum Vitae) and cover letter (motivation letter). Have a look on our examples, use them as a model if you haven’t jet one. If you need them in another language, just look in the german, spanish or french section of www.eu-student.eu (you see the flags? There you go!).

Popular Summer and Winter Internship Programms:

United Nations Headquater – New York

http://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/sds/internsh/index.htm

World Food Program

http://www.wfp.org/contact_wfp/vacancies/interns.asp?section=8&sub_section=5

International Labor Organization

http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/pers/vacancy/intern.htm

United Nations Development Program

http://www.undp.org/ohr/Interns/intern.htm

World Health Organisation

http://www.who.int/employment/internship/en/

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/admin?id=3b8a31f94

Office High Commissioner for Human Rights

http://www.ohchr.org/english/about/internship.htm

Amnesty International

http://web.amnesty.org/jobs/internships

Greenpeace

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/about/jobs

CICR – Red Cross

http://www.cicr.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/5r7ggz

Procter & Gamble

http://www.pgcareers.com/indexPillar.asp?page=2

Nestle
www.nestle.com/Header/Internet_Directory/Home+Internet+Directory.htm

Audi
audi.de/audi/de/de2/unternehmen/karriere_bei_audi/jobangebote/suche.html