Internshala's
100%
Placement
Handbook
Everything you’ve ever
wanted to know about
getting hired for any internship.
Before you put your hands on this handbook,
we would like to congratulate you for winning
this guide and we hope that this helps you in
finding your dream internship :)
We have created this handbook keeping in mind
the tons of questions we get every day from the
student community and we couldn’t be more
excited to share this with you.
The handbook will give you a walkthrough of
Internshala and we hope that you get the
relevant insights about creating a perfect
application, the tips and tricks to keep in mind
while building your resume, writing a good cover
letter, and a few tips to ace your final interview.
Happy Learning :)
Team Internshala
Let’s get started
Here’s what we’ll cover -
Introduction
How to score an internship during the
COVID-19 pandemic?
Walkthrough of the Internshala
platform
Making your first application
Filling the relevant details
Creating a good resume
A step by step guide
Acing the interview round
Telephonic interview
Interview etiquette
Preparing for the HR questions
Introduction
How to score an internship
during the COVID-19 pandemic
Even though unemployment has
reached a record high due to
business closures & social distancing
measures, you can still snag an
internship if you know how to adapt
& get creative. Below are the tips that
can help you-
1.Go for work from home
internships: During this pandemic a
large percentage of employer have
moved to virtual internship program
which has opened up opportunities
for you to work from home. Look for
employers who are hiring virtual
interns and start applying to those
internships.
2.Broaden your prospects: As you
start to make any type of career plan,
it is helpful to be focused yet flexible.
The pandemic demonstrates how
quickly even the best plans can
change. Expand your thinking and the
types of roles or industries you are
applying to.
3.Build career-ready skills:
Ultimately, employers will value what
skills you can bring to them. So if you
are having difficulty finding a formal
internship or a part-time job –
whether this summer or anytime –
use the time to identify and build new
skills. The top skills employers seek
on resumes, such as verbal and
written communication and problem-
solving, are skills you can build at
home right now.
Walkthrough of the Internshala
platform
Login on Internshala if you are an
existing user. New users can get
started by clicking on Register > As
a student.
Fill in the registration form. It
contains 4 fields - email, password,
first name, and last name. You can
sign up with Google as well.
After this, make sure you verify
your email address.
Making your first
application
Filling the relevant details
After you verify your email
address, you’ll be asked for your
personal details and your
internship preferences.
These details will help us suggest
the type of internships you are
looking for.
To help you understand the
process better, have a look at this
video -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=X0VLppxDvSU
Creating a good resume
In the above video, we saw how by
filling in the relevant details, your
resume gets ready in a few minutes
on Internshala.
But how are you going to decide
which details you should add in your
resume? Well, do not worry! Our next
video is here to help you out -
http://bit.ly/is_goodresume
*Extra Read -
https://blog.internshala.com/2014/06
/resume-blunders-absolutely-avoid/
Step by step guide
Now that you know what makes a
great resume, it is time to make one
for yourself.
Either, you can download and use
any of the templates below or make
one on Internshala as explained in
this video - http://bit.ly/is-create-
resume
Here are the templates -
1. Template 1
2. Template 2
3. Template 3
Acing the
interview round
Telephonic Interview
Make sure that you do thorough
research about the company. Be
clear about your role and then go
for the interview.
Have a look at this video to get
ready for the telephonic interview -
http://bit.ly/is-telephonic-interview
Interview Etiquette
Engage - Don't just give 'Yes/No'
answers to leading questions. For
example when asked 'Can you
write well?' - don't just say 'Yes'.
Talk about various kinds of topics
that you have written on.
Listen - Let the interviewer
complete his/her sentence or
question. Don't cut in.
Understand and think - before you
speak. It is OK to take time before
you answer. Just say 'May I take a
moment before I answer this?'
whenever you want to pause a
little before answering.
Ask - whenever a question is not
clear to you or if you could not
hear it properly the first time.
Be honest - If you don't know the
answer to a question, say so ('I am
sorry, I do not know the answer to
that.').
Don't whine or complain - about a
professor, or a team member, or
your previous work
experience/internship.
Show interest - when given an
opportunity, ask questions to the
interviewer about the company or
the role.
After the interview gets over, if you
get an opportunity, write a thank
you email and ask for feedback
(sample email below).
Dear sir,
I would like to thank you for giving me
an opportunity to interview with your
company. It was a great experience for
me.
Please do let me know if you have some
feedback on my performance during
the interview and what I could have
done better.
Thank you once again and I look
forward to hearing from you.
Warm regards,
Rahul Rana
4th year Computer Science Student
IIT Madras
+91 - 12345678890
Preparing for the HR questions
We have compiled the top 5 most
common questions that you may face
in an HR round with sample answers.
1. Tell me about yourself.
Understand why this question is
asked - Meant to be an ice-breaker
for you and the interviewer to settle
in and get comfortable with each
other. It also allows the interviewer to
judge how nervous you are and a
confident answer can be a great start
and half the battle won.
How to answer - Start off with a brief
intro, quickly move over to your
career interests (and why), and a bit
of info on your hobbies and interests.
2. Why do you want to join our
organization and not this other
company (say X)?
Understand why this question is
asked - To understand how much
research about the company you
have done before the interview and if
there is a genuine fit between what
organization does and offers to its
employees and what you want.
How to answer - Be specific. Mention
things that you know about the
organization which you find exciting.
There could be different things about
an organization (size, customer
loyalty, it being innovation-friendly,
work culture, team, maybe it offers
support for higher studies, etc.) that
one may find interesting and offer
that as a reason.
3. What are your strengths?
Understand why this question is
asked - To know you better, to
understand if you are self-aware of
what you are good at. Also to assess
your fit with the role.
How to answer - During your
introspection before the interview,
you may have identified a few things
that you are good at (say
programming or leading teams) or a
few positive behaviour traits (good
attention to details), etc. You can
mention all of them or pick 2-3 that
are most relevant to the organization.
Always support your claims with real
examples from your life.
4. What are your weaknesses?
Understand why this question is
asked - We don't think this question
can/should ever be asked to assess
whether you are a good fit for the
role because no candidate in his/her
right mind would tell an interviewer
about a weakness that will jeopardise
his/her chances of getting the
internship (such as 'I often beat
people up in my fit of rage').
However, this question can be used
to assess how self-aware you are
about yourself.
How to answer - Pick a relatively safe
weakness that would not hamper
your chances of getting the
internship. Also, offer what you are
doing to correct that weakness now
that you have realized that you have
a weakness.
5. What are your expectations from
this internship?
Understand why this question is
asked - To assess whether there is a
good match between the role and
your expectations. Also to assess
whether you have understood the
role in detail or not. Because if there
is a gap between the profile and your
expectations, it is unlikely that you
would stay for long.
How to answer - There must be some
reason why you have applied for that
particular role and you must have
some expectations in return - state
those. Ask yourself, what do you
hope to learn or get out of that role?
Getting an internship is not as hard
as you might think. In our recent
campaign 'Dil Ki Suno, Internship
Karo', there are 5,000+ work from
home internships.
Simply choose what kind of
internships you want to go for and
with the steps we have discussed
above, you can easily find your
dream internship!
So, go ahead and make your best
application :)
