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How to apply for Foreign internship
Full Foreign University Internship Guidance
App timing- well, time for applying is normally mid august and up to mid march. If you start early, you always have advantages like getting lots of chances.
Some important points-
- Whole internship program is based on demand and supply theory. So you might not get a response if there is no vacancy in the place you are applying
- Patience is the key friends, sometimes even after 100 mails you might not get even a “no”. You can think about the nice time you will have abroad if frustration creeps in
- There are few internship programs like Top US university internship, DAAD, French govt. internship, Max-plank society internship etc., which you can try for.
A good resume is a key to your dream internship. And same goes for cover letter. Check out resume360 to know how to build a good resume
- At last it’s your choice that which subject you like most and want to work. You can get help from your seniors about available choices.
- Make 2-3 copy of resume if you have not decided area of interest
Cover letter-
- Try to make cover letter short, impressive and informative (at least upper half portion). its better to get some sample cover letter to get idea of format. Here is some tips -
- The cover letter must be addressed in person eg. Dr Jack and not Sir/Madam. Also avoid multipe signatures and other errors which happen with forwards
- Start with your introduction including your institute name ,your branch and year. Mention your GPA and DR if it’s good (and highlight it) or you can skip it. and Next line should be like
- I have gone through your research work and area of interest and my research interest lies in same field.
OR
- It’s better if you know lab name in which professor is working.
- I have followed your work in XYZ lab and found it quite innovative, which inspired me to work under you.
- Now write about your best project ( 1 or 2). Highlight project title. Add some fatte and conclude with some soft sentences.
Make sure that there are no spelling/grammar/formatting/other mistakes in your resume and cover letter.
Where to apply –
- Now if you are ready with resume and cover letter, next step is to find destination and how to get email address. Most favorite destination is Europe (France, Germany, Spain, UK, Italy, Scandinavian countries) and Australia .In these countries, you will find plenty of opportunities. Also lots of people go there, so you will get company.
- Do research on all the professors you are applying to
Basic and Traditional Approach -
- Go to college/university web page.
- Go to respective department, then faculty page.
- Find faculty having similar area of interest and mail.
The traditional way has some benefits-
- Every university have at least 4-5 professors/lecturers, having similar research field. so, in one visit you will have 4-5 contacts. Mail only one person at a time and save rest for future purpose.
- Many universities have some internship program, which you can find in internship/summer work/career/join us /work with us section of depts. Such links will be posted here in sometime.
- Whenever you visit any university web page, also visit research labs section. There you can find notice of available position in lab.
How to get university list-
Go to
http://www.webometrics.info/
here you can find country/continent wise university ranking and many more features.
but still there are some problems. web page of many universities other than UK/US/ Canada is available in their native language and English version possess limited information. Though you can use google for translation but still its painstaking.
Follow wikipedia
wikipedia is also a source of information and it is more organized and precise. Every reputed university has wikipage , which contains useful and precise information in English. so its easy to follow it. Just read one page article or some parts of article and concentrate on two aspects-
- Make sure your department/branch is listed in university department.
- If your branch is in list, then judge yourself, university is reputed enough to provide internship or not. Now go to university webpage.
So here is simplified way. Copy name form university list, search it on wikipedia then go to webpage. This way you can avoid unnecessary search. Search some recent journal related to your area of interest and go to that journal page, you will find contacts. Even some journals have author’s introduction in bottom of page. Every journal has 2-6 contacts, in which some are of research students and some are of professors. sort out professor’s contacts .Now, Here you can do 2 things-
1. Just copy professor’s name, email ID and mail.
OR
2. You can Google that id/name, go through his webpage and read information, his research labs and also other professors of his lab/ department .This way you can get many contacts.
Choice is yours.
Note- when you Google for internship, avoid searching like “internship in US “/”paid internship in Europe” . Most of the time these search gives useless results.