How to Apply for an Internship - What 80% of Applicants do WRONG

Hey everyone, this is self made Millennial. I'm Madeline Mann. I had a bit of fun with this one and came up the five main types of internship applications a company receives. I'm going to give you a glimpse into those as well as I'll give you the percentage of how many people are that type. And I give you the pros and cons of each type and so now you'll know, okay, what are all the applications looking like? And so then you can do better than them and tweak them and get the opportunities for yourself. Alright, let's go. Intern application type number one, the resume sprayer. The resume sprayer is the number one most common internship application companies get. And basically what they do is they send out the same resume, same cover letter for all internships. They just look at the title of the internship. It sounds remotely like something to be interested in. They don't really read the job description, they send out their stuff and their idea is they just try to send out as many possible applications as they can and in hopes that at least one will stick. As a recruiter, it's generally pretty easy to understand who's a resume sprayer and who isn't. Though I wanted to make it painfully obvious so I could get straight to the interns who really wanted the role. And so what I did is in our most recent internship job applications, I just wrote, you know, please, in your cover letter to the top, write the price of Ethereum, which is the cryptocurrency. You can find the price by a simple Google search. Do you want to know how people just did not read the job description, did not put the price of Ethereum on their application? 79%. That's right, 79% of applicants are the resume sprayers. That means only 21% of interns that sent in their applications were considered for the position. Which to anyone watching is actually probably a big relief for you because you're actually not competing against as many people as you thought. So what are the pros for these people who are resume sprayers? Well, I would say the pro is that they can generally sleep at night feeling like they were productive. You know, they sent out lots of applications, they feel like they accomplished something. The cons of being a resume sprayer is that they are massively wasting their time. Them just shooting out their resume everywhere is actually takes up more time than if they were more focused about really applicable opportunities. Paying the time to customize everything, even building deliverables that would be appropriate for that company and building relationships in Those companies to follow up. Now, if you are a resume sprayer, there's tons of things you can start doing today that are pretty easy. So I'll link those videos in the description and that will totally help you out. Intern application type number two, the no non censors. The no non censors about 9% of our internship applicant pool and can sometimes be mistaken for resume sprayers. There's a bit of overlap because neither of them spend very much time on their applications. There's not really much customization. But the no nonsensor is different because they're actually very directed about the opportunities they go after and, and they're generally moderately to highly qualified. The pros of a no nonsensor is that they're generally qualified and they shoot off their resume. And if it matches with the skills needed, then they are likely to get a good amount of interviews. The cons of being a no non censor is while yes, you might be well qualified, and that's really important, a lot of internship programs are actually looking for a bit more. They're looking for for candidates who are also very passionate and interested in that specific topic or industry. The specific passion for a company and their product is often missing on a no nonsense or resume. Let me give you a real world example. So a no nonsensor applied to one of our internship positions. I ended up giving her a call and interviewing her. And through the conversation I realized that she's actually highly passionate and has some personal projects in the exact, you know, unique industry that I work in. My mind was blown. I was like, oh my gosh, why did you not put this on your application? We could have easily passed up on her because there was a lot of people who applied who were really highly qualified. And had I known that she had that passion, had that been shown in her resume and cover letter, I mean, she would have been top of the stack, you know, most wanted intern. Obviously it all worked out because I ended up getting a chance to talk with her, but it could have not. And there's a lot of no nonsensors who maybe didn't get the job interview who were perfect for it because someone else showed that specific passion for that company and expressed it in their resume and cover letter. The third intern application type is the eager Beaver. I just love these applicants. They are my favorite. They're about 5% of applicants and they're just so enthusiastic about the company, the role, the industry, and they just ooze enthusiasm. And I just get pumped up reading those applications. The Pros of the eager Bieber application are exactly what the first two categories lacked, which is that passion and drive. Also, their eagerness alludes to the idea that they'll likely be the type of intern who's constantly seeking knowledge, which I would argue is the best possible attribute of an intern. The cons are enthusiasm can only go so far and these applications can get real sloppy. These applications go off on tangents on how amazing this industry is and how the company is the greatest company that ever existed. But then there's no real mention of any skills or valuable attributes that they can bring to the table. I also noticed these people just reaching out to everyone in the organization, sending lots of messages, very kind of disorganized. And they'll send these messages before they've even applied, telling people that they're going to apply, which then they can't even go in and take a look at your resume and flag it to do an interview because you haven't even applied yet. So it's just kind of like a very disjointed kind of guerrilla warfare way of applying and it doesn't really get to okay, hey, I know what your company's about. Here's the value I can add and my resume is already in your system. Check it out. I'll link a video down description called how to Get a Job Without Networking which will give you the exact scripts and tips on how to reach out to people in a company in a organized manner. So you can check that out. The fourth internship application type is the formal Sur or Madam. About 5% of intern applications sound like an extremely polite robot like C3PO. This comes from following really dated career advice. Like if your career center hasn't updated their materials in like 40 years, a cover letter written by a formal sir or Madam generally sounds like Dear sir.

Or Madam, enclosed is my resume for you to review. I believe that my work experience, education and other insights will be a positive influence on your organization and so forth and so forth and so forth.

And their resume reads like a job description. It's just a bunch of tasks that they did and there's no accomplishments and they generally have a objective statement that really shouldn't be there. And I'll link a video in the description of the only time you should have an objective statement on your resume. The pros of being a formal sir or Madam and is that they will never be considered unprofessional or offend anyone. The cons is that there is no differentiation between them and anyone else on the planet. They are so focused on following this formal script that they think they're supposed to follow that they just are not talking about their personal accomplishments. They're not talking about why they are interested and passionate about this company and role that they're applying to. So it comes off super bland and could be anyone. So I'll link in the description an article on how to write a cover letter to take it from being this formal sir or madam into something that's a bit more focused and interesting. All right, so let's round up this list with our final intern application type. And that is number five, the out of the Boxer. The out of the boxer is about 2% of our applicants and they just fuck any tradition as far as the way you're supposed to apply for a role. For example, we had a candidate who applied and their entire cover letter was this really long choppy poem that was like, if you choose me, then I will be the best me that I can be. Or one didn't even include a resume and just wrote a note that said, look, I'm the smartest person that you will find. I will show up Monday and within a week you will realize that I am the most talented intern you've ever had. The Pros of being an out of the Boxer I is honestly I really admire people who are creative and take chances and some of the out of the boxers actually come up with really practical and excellent deliverables for a company. So it doesn't have to be something crazy weird and creative, but it can be something that is actually shows your value as well as it could be something a little wacky like a video or a song. But you have to know your audience. The cons of being an out of the Boxer are are just like the two examples I first mentioned. While these are taking a different approach and have a different voice, they lack substance. Your creative energy really should be directed towards understanding the company and showing your value. I'll link a video in the description where I go through three highly creative job applications. I go through the pros and cons of each one of those. There are so many links in that description, so don't get lost down there. To review, here are the five types. Now, which type should you be? I really think that depends on the role and company you're going after. I think you should take a look at all the different pros of the different categories and match them up to be the right combination for you and you'll be on the right track. So there's a glimpse into what our summer internship applications look like. Make sure you subscribe to this channel because I'm coming out with new stuff every week. Gotta look out for it as well as. If you're an eager beaver for this episode, hit a like on it, please. Thanks, everyone. See you next time. Wi Fi. High five.