Entering the workforce can be a scary thing.
No matter your opinions on consumerism, capitalism, or the finnicky tendency humans have to extort all talent for it's lucrative potential, it's common knowledge that "marketing yourself" is an essential skill for anyone who wants to snag good work/volunteer experience. And what better experience to support your personal marketing and genuine interests than meaningful research positions and internships?
The week's webinar was hosted by a familiar face: Zane, the Social Media/Writing Team head of EarthBurned. EarthBurned is a youth-led non-profit organization dedicated to intersectional environmentalism ( a form of activism that connects social and environmental issues). To learn more about their initiatives, scroll down to the resource section!
The points overview was:
1. The definitions of an internship
2. The target audience for your emails/cold outreach
3. How to write outreach emails
What Internships are: an Intro
There are internships where you can conduct guided research. Research simply being the act of finding new information on a specific topic. To learn more about how to approach it effectively, see our recap of the webinar Zane previously hosted: "The Importance of Research and How to Conduct Your Own".
While it's a good idea for high school students to acquire experience with both research and internships, sometimes time constraints force prioritization. So Zane recommends that you choose researching endeavors if you're already certain about which fields and subjects you're interested in. After all, you will be completely submerged in your topic of choice. And remember to make researching commitments when you have ample free time, the summer for example.
Internships are more for people who want to try out different fields/workplaces/situations to see what best suits them. This qualifies as actual work experience and is often a more desirable option to a regular job; you'll have the opportunity to solidify specific professional skills. The best times to take on internships according to Zane are during fall and spring semesters of school.
Your success criteria, your target audience
The best way of finding internships in today's day is by sending out cold emails; make your interest and existence known to your demographic of interest!
Identify the right person to contact:
- For researching purposes, look to academic institutions near you, community colleges, local university campuses.
- Don't reach out to random workers in your desired company (if contacting companies), also avoid the CEO while you're at it (it's very unlikely your email will be noticed, remembered and answered).
- Arguably the longest step, lots of research goes into finding the desirable contact smack dab in the middle of the work hierarchy; someone leading their own project or with hiring ability/powers.
- Many companies list their employees on their websites
Tell them exactly why you're contacting them:
- Tell them who you are
- Where you work/previous notable volunteer experience (if you don't have much work experience as a student)
- How you got their contact information
- Why you're interested in their company/in them (if it's a econ professor at a specific Uni for example)
*Smaller companies are safer bets for getting replies back.*
*Think about including your resume and transcripts. Unofficial transcripts, as informal as screenshots of your grades, are completely viable options! Resumes are more important to include as they include work/volunteer experience and list off your skills/soft skills. Many online services offer free templates at your disposal. Some notable ones are Canva, Indeed and Google Docs. See an example of Zane's resume below.*
*Realize that many companies actually really value people that can navigate Google and Microsoft apps. Hello! We all do that without batting an eye, so Zane recommends it be included on your resume you impressive candidate!*
Start with a small request:
- Don't be overly imposing/entitled and expect a job offer after a single email.
- Some things you can ask about: reading materials in your field of interest, their willingness to take on student interns, open positions, face-to-face/zoom meetings. . .
- Be polite, formal and use correct grammar.
Personalize your message:
- Use their name if possible, or the company's name.
- Reference some of their work you admire: This shows you have a genuine interest in the individual/company, or at least that you care enough not to come across as someone who's openly trying to take advantage of people to bolster Uni applications and resumes.
Follow up:
You're allowed to do this!
You might feel it's rude, asking too much of a person or being to assertive/aggressive, when in reality it's often the gentle reminder busy people need to stay on top of all their correspondence.
- After a week, two weeks, send a short follow up email.
- It's plausible that your first attempt got lost in their crowded inbox backed up with emails they've yet to respond to.
- To stay out of the spam folder, keep it to one follow up email per week for about two weeks.
- Still if there's no response, look into different methods of contact like a personal email as opposed to the professional one.
- Look into other employees/faculty members you could reach out to instead.
- For research, it's easier to contact faculty members during the school year when they're at work, not during the summer.
- If you opt for reaching out via personal messages on platforms like Instagram, make sure to keep the same level of formality and respect in your writing.
Extra Tips:
- Send emails at appropriate times, best times being: 8AM-6PM
This is the polite time to send emails, 2AM being a bit too saucy, but the downfall is that all other emails come in at that time and yours may get lost in the crowd.
- Keep it short and simple, proofread (keep formal), include availability. Your goal is to get a preliminary interview where you can go more in depth on things that matter.
How to write outreach emails: Templates
Here are some email templates that synthesize all the info we've gone over so far!
You're now armed to the teeth with knowledge on how to network, do cold outreach and vouch for yourself. The last and hardest thing left for you to do is to start!
Resources
EarthBurned sources and contact information:
Zane's email: zane.earthburned@gmail.com
Website: https://earthburned1.wixsite.com/earthburned Activism Awareness Fundraiser: https://earthburned1.wixsite.com/earthburned/activism-alliance-fundraiser https://www.gofundme.com/f/earthburned-activism-alliance-fundraiser-3?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1
IG handles:
@earthburned
@earthburnedcommunity