Internship

Before you can start writing your application and CV, you need to find out what you can offer a company and what you would like to learn during your internship.

You may start by answering the following questions:

• What have I been involved in during the programme?
• What are my academic interests?
• What do I want to be better at?
• What can I offer the company professionally?
• What other things should I take into account?
  (E.g. geography, family, health, finances)

If you need feedback on your competence assessment, you may want to sign up for KEA's mentorship programme

When searching for internship companies, you may start by looking at:

• Lists of former companies (available in your Fronter classroom)
• KEA's job portal
• Other job portals

You can also search for all Danish companies in the CVR register. How to search for companies (PDF), and here you can see which industry codes you can use for your search (PDF).

Also, keep an eye on when KEA organises a career fair for your programme area.

Before contacting a company, you should consider the following:

• Why is this company interesting to you?
• How can you be of interest to the company?

Application

Whether your application letter is solicited or unsolicited, it must be short and to-the-point.

Remember to write that you are applying for an unpaid internship 37 hours per week for 10 or 20 weeks and specify the period in question.

CV and/or portfolio are typically included in a written application.

If you are applying for an advertised internship position, the ad will indicate who the application must be sent to and what profile the company is looking for.

If your application is unsolicited, you may not know whom the application should be sent to. Therefore, it is a good idea to contact the company to find out.

It is important that you tell the company which tasks you can work with, so that the company has the opportunity to assess whether hiring you as an intern is relevant or not.

Before contacting the company, you should plan how to briefly present yourself and what information to use.

If you send an unsolicited application, it may be a good idea to write a short application text in the email itself and attach your CV and/or portfolio.

CV

A CV should give the company an overview of your professional profile and must be targeted to the company at which you are seeking an internship position.

Please note that your CV should normally be shorter when you apply for an internship position than when you apply for a job.

You can find guidance on how to write a good CV on most job portals.

PORTFOLIO

Your portfolio must show selected examples of your products and the processes behind. It should not contain a complete review of all your products.

Portfolios are only relevant for some programmes. It depends on the programme how the portfolio should be designed. Therefore, when receiving guidance, you should ask your internship supervisor for advice on how to design your portfolio.

ELEVATOR speech

An elevator speech is a brief presentation of yourself and what you can offer as an intern. It should last about 30 seconds.

You need an elevator speech if you contact companies by phone before submitting your application, or if you meet potential internship companies through networks or at trade fairs.

When agreeing on the specific content of the internship, it is important that you and the company meet. In that way you minimise the risk of making ambiguous arrangements. It is very easy to misunderstand each other if you only speak on the phone or write together.

All experience shows that the common understanding of what the internship should contain is essential for the internship to be successful.

If you are interning abroad, you may not be able to physically meet with the company before the internship. Instead, you should hold a Skype meeting with the company so that you at least get to look them in the eye through the screen.

The internship is your opportunity to work with the aspects from your programme that you find most interesting. Therefore, it is important that you prepare for the meeting with the company, so that you can tell them what work assignments you can and would like to help solve.

The work assignments must be study-relevant, and they must be described as accurately as possible, so that it is clear to both the company, your internship supervisor and you what the internship will contain.