Researching Career Interests and Experience-based Opportunities Using the Internet
Using the Internet to uncover potential sites and contacts for internships, volunteer experiences & jobs
In this section, you can view different approaches that students have used to research various interests, internship, volunteer, and employment options. You can use similar strategies to successfully uncover sites and resources relating to your interest areas. Regardless of what your major or academic interest may be, the steps below illustrate how you may want to approach your research.
Example
STEP ONE: (Identify goal of research)
Goal of Research: To discover internships or jobs with children at hospitals in Boston
STEP TWO: (Identify key words to use for search terms)
Key words used for Internet search (notice the words "internship" and "jobs" were intentionally not used):
Hospitals for children + Boston (will limit your search to specifically Boston)
Pediatric hospitals + Boston
Hospitals for children + Massachusetts (enables you to also find hospitals in areas outside of Boston)
What The Search Terms Yield:
The search terms yielded links to home pages of hospitals in Boston and surrounding areas that have a pediatric focus.
STEP THREE: Uncovering opportunities for internships/volunteering or jobs
Goals:
- To identify areas of interest within the company or organization
- To identify contacts to whom you can send a resume and cover letter
How To:
Read through the company/organization's web pages to learn more about what they do. Focus on reading information (when links are available) in the following sections:
-about us -careers
-departments -employment
-services -volunteer
-staff -clients
-mission
The information in these pages can be very useful in learning more about which areas within the company/organization are of most interest to you, and in identifying specific people within the organization/company to whom you could address a cover letter and resume inquiring about internships, volunteer opportunities or future employment.
Develop your own research action plan- Click on the link below to begin researching your internship, volunteer, and employment interests.
Exploring potential internship, service, and employment opportunities