Three Tips for Finding the Ideal Digital Marketing Internship

Digital Marketing Internships Can Lead to Full Time Employment

In a prior  blog post I wrote about how companies can hire an intern for Digital Marketing.  Equally important as a topic is how to find a good Digital Marketing Internship.  Internships can be critical to future employment in the digital field. Many students take full time employment with their internship company as the intern-to-hire model takes hold.  At +Aurora University we require an internship for the Marketing Major. Here are the top three tips that I can give based on years of watching students and coaching them to develop their internship plans and successfully parlay internships into jobs.:

BuiltInChicago is One Site Listing Digital Marketing Jobs/Internships

1) Start early: Internships that provide the type of experience you want might require some extra looking.  I would start in the Spring for the Following Fall and the Fall for the Spring/Summer.  At AU we require an internship and there is also paperwork that needs to be filed.

2) Fish Where the Fish Are:  Most students in past years have taken internships in search, social media, email and website/design usability. I also notice employers wanting some facility with excel or other familiarity with a program to help analyze data such as SPSS or Google Analytics. Look at the job descriptions of several internships and make sure you develop popular skills before you apply.

3) Take Advantage of Resources: Your local University will have a job/career site.  Many of us in the area has noticed Indeed.com has a lot of jobs in the digital area.  BuiltInChicago.org highlights jobs for tech companies in Chicago.  According to their list of Top 100 Digital Companies in Chicago, there are 1500 plus digital companies in the area,  employing 40,000 plus people. The web site regularly posts marketing positions.  Fill out your profile completely in LinkedIn to receive relevant job postings.  Stay active on social media to keep up-to-date on local job trends.

These are just a few hints for finding a meaningful internship in the digital area.  Of course, most jobs are not posted and found by networking.  You should contact your professor and those working in the area to see if they can point you in the right direction.

By Debra Zahay-Blatz.
You can find Debra on Google+ and Twitter as well as LinkedIn.