How to Find a Research Internship
I started a new internship this week. The 2nd semester of my master’s program is dedicated to completing a research project - an internship at a research lab or with a researcher from any university in the Netherlands. I will be completing this internship full-time for about 6 months (until summer school at the end of June) and it’s a semester long project!
This is going to be the first time of me interning at a research lab and I’m excited to network and learn new valuable skills. Although I already have some research skills it’s always good to practice them, as well as learn something new! I can’t say much about my internship and the project but the broad topic is related to empathy.
I wanted to share some tips with you because I am still new to research and I know that finding internships may be a struggle, so I hope these can help some of you out! A couple of months ago I was freaking out about the idea of having to find an internship by myself and actually doing but look at me now.
This is one of the hardest things to do when thinking about a research internship because before applying you have to know or at least have an idea about what kind of topic interests you. Although you don’t need to have a concrete topic yet, you do need it for starting your internship search. I would recommend making a list and start from there. If your program offers a data base for finding available positions you can start by looking at them and then move to contacting people.
A good way of figuring out which topics you like (if you’re clueless like I was/still am) is by attending lectures, reviewing the topics that were presented and thinking about what you like/dislike about them! For example, during my neurophysiology course I learned that I’m interested in fMRI research and to some extent modelling (for methodology/data analysis). The lecturers were often guest speakers that would also share about their ongoing research projects that they’re looking students to intern for and I would recommend keeping a list of topics and e-mails, so that you would have something to refer to. Maybe one day you will be super engaged with a topic from a guest lecturer and they will be offering internships that you can apply for!
2. FIND PLACES TO APPLY TO
Once you have a topic or a few in mind the next step is to look for data bases, research labs and/or researchers who are working in the field of your interest. Some online stalking on LinkedIn and ResearchGate is healthy in this case but also make sure to visit their lab websites (if they have them) for more information about projects and position availability. Almost everyone has some sort of a social media profile that you can look at to find your potential supervisors!
Twitter is another wonderful resource for finding available internships and you can contact those who are offering directly on there! I know of a couple of people who have successfully found their first internship positions via Twitter because researchers and labs often post when they’re looking for people!
Start curating a list of topics and e-mails as it will be your reference for when you’re ready to start contacting people. This stage is going to consist of Google search.
Talking to people to expand your social circle is extremely important, especially if you’re new to the city. I would often talk about internships with other people, asking where fellow students are planning to apply to, if they have started their applications already, as well as if they have any recommendations about a specific lab/topic, etc.
I was able to find my internship through networking by making friends with a 2nd year student who was very helpful in answering general questions about internships but also forwarding an e-mail from my supervisor when they were looking for a student. All I had to do was prepare an application and send an e-mail to my supervisor. I then received an interview offer and because it went well was offered a place! An important detail to mention is that the topic fit my interests and that’s when I knew that I had to apply! Amazing opportunities can come your way if you put yourself out there and network!
4. E-MAILS, E-MAIL, E-MAILS
Begin by writing out a professional e-mail draft that you can send out to people. I would recommend including your:
current study program and university
what kind of internship you’re looking for (full-time, part-time)
the duration of your internship (e.g. 6 months)
reasons why you’re contacting that person
If you don’t have reasons for contacting the person other than that you’re looking for an internship, it’s ok to include that you’re inquiring for availability and request current topics that they’re working on. Sometimes a lab will have enough interns and may not be looking for new people at the time.
I would also recommend having a pretty long list of places that you would like to apply to and not pick favourites until interviews because chances are you may not receive replies for a while. There were so many instances where my friends and I have never even gotten a reply to our initial e-mail inquiring about internship positions!!! Researchers are busy, so don’t get discouraged if you’re not receiving immediate replies! Apply to more places or send follow up e-mails until you get an answer.
Your academic CV/resume is important for applying to internships and I would recommend including it in the inquire e-mails. I have a separate blog post about graduate school applications where I covered the making of an academic resume, as well as provided useful links to great examples that you can use, which you can read HERE. I used the same academic resume as the one I had made for my graduate school application, I just updated it with my current education!
Please take your interviews seriously and prepare for them. I have a separate post about graduate school interviews and the tips I have shared there also apply to internship interviews. You can find and read more about it HERE.
Important things to ask for during an interview:
A tour of the lab/research facility
Dedicated work space (if you’re going to have a desk, separate work space)
Observe the environment and how people interact with each other
Bring questions about the project you’re interviewing for, so that they would see your interest!
I hope these tips help land you a research internship! This is specific for graduate schools and masters programs with a focus in research, sorry about that! If you would like to read more from me, click HERE to see other blog posts! You can also follow my studygram HERE for some inspiration!
