The Student's Guide to Internships

Explore the motivations behind applying to internships - from curiosity and methodology to travel and building a CV - and learn to lean into what is fueling you.

Explore your interests through internships, a low commitment way to try different fields, including topics outside your studies. Embrace diversification, but know internships rarely dictate your life path.

Learn how internships help you build experience, strengthen your CV, grow your portfolio, and gain recommendations by developing professional relationships in your target field.

Traveling abroad for internships opens access to resources, expertise, machinery, and money, while exposing you to different working conditions to help you find a place where you feel supported.

Understand open calls for internships, their high competition and low acceptance rates, and how cvs, motivational letters, and eligibility constraints shape outcomes.

Apply on your own by directly contacting mentors, bypassing open calls, choosing your lab and topic, and communicating your value to secure a flexible internship.

Identify your top priorities for internships, such as financial stability, location access, flexibility, or prestige, and tailor your approach, from open calls to direct outreach, to meet those goals.

Tea shares how she navigated internships by directly approaching professors, seeking mentorship, and learning what works for her, including labs, research abroad, and honest self-assessment.

Evaluate potential internship labs for personal fit, team dynamics, and institutional support, including remote work options, adequate space, and resources, to ensure a productive, supportive experience.

Identify labs by topic using Google Scholar to discover recent papers and authors, then evaluate institutes, locations, and current projects to guide you toward a good mentor and fit.

Identify a good mentor by researching their work and content, then reach out to learn more. Visit their lab and talk with their students to gauge fit and leadership style.

Send short, well-formatted cold emails that show you’ve researched the mentor and their work, proofread carefully, with a clear subject line and a low-barrier next step.

Position your CV as a concise trailer tailored to the internship, highlighting relevant skills, while staying simple, ATS-friendly, and PDF-submitted; use templates like Canva and respect country norms.

Offset limited internship experience by adding self-taught skills, projects, and courses to your cv. Use free online courses in programming and bioinformatics, plus volunteering to showcase practical abilities.

Arty Kovynev explains how internships provide practical experience, help you understand research group dynamics, and emphasizes motivation and tailored interviews and letters to secure internships.

Understand internship rejection, from missing documents and typos to external factors like timing or space, and learn to build resilience while refining your application approach.

Follow the application rules, proofread carefully, and tailor everything to reduce your part in rejection, and learn to assess interview questions and run postmortems for continuous improvement.

Rejection can go both ways, and you can say no to opportunities that don’t fit your goals, preserving collaboration and control over your internships and career.

Learn how to navigate internship rejections with practical steps: apply broadly, check details with fresh eyes, tailor your CV and cover letters, and stay motivated after setbacks.

Explore how to handle internship rejection, evaluate opportunities for fit, negotiate boundaries, and build resilience to prioritize your well-being and long-term goals.

Learn how to start an internship on solid ground by establishing clear expectations through open, respectful communication, and asking the right questions about what you should know and discuss.

Clarify start and end dates, daily hours, weekly meetings, and leave/illness protocols with your mentor, and decide whether tasks are output- or hour-based.

Discuss how to request accommodations for disabilities at internships, outlining practical examples like wheelchair access, quiet rooms, and breaks, and emphasize privacy and advocating for a safe, productive work environment.