Careers and Employability Centre

If you are looking at what to do this summer, here is our guide to finding out about, and applying for, summer internships

Why?

• They are a great way to get experience in a particular job or industry
• Many of the major graduate recruiters offer summer internships to undergraduates
• Increasingly, recruiters use them as part of their graduate recruitment strategy. Impress on your internship and it could help you to land a graduate job

How?

• Internships work differently in different sectors and in different companies
• Large corporates in the areas of business, finance, retail, pharmaceuticals, law, engineering & IT will often have structured summer internships
• Deadlines will generally be around January/March, although some may be earlier
• These will often be aimed at penultimate year students. It’s harder to find summer internships for 1st years, although some employers offer taster schemes. Check out our page on opportunities for first years
• Other sectors, such as international development, media, public services and the environment may not offer structured summer placements. You may need to try volunteering or speculative approaches to gain experience
• Smaller employers (SMEs) offer fewer summer internships and tend to employ people when they need them. Any that are offered are likely to be advertised after Easter. However, STEP Classic offers project-based summer internships with SMEs for science, technology and engineering students to apply for earlier

Where?

• Check out our handy list of summer internships sites. Use them to focus your search on specific sectors and locations
• Use our sector lists to find employer directories and sector-specific job sites. e.g Gradcracker for engineering internships 
• Try using creative jobsearch techniques to make contacts with potential employers that don’t offer summer internships