How to get Software Engineering Internship in 2022

Are you going to graduate from your college? Looking forward to gain industry skills?

Then it's time to apply for an INTERNSHIP.

More about Software Engineering Internship?

A software internship helps you gain industry skills by working on practical software applications . An intern works under an experienced engineer and try to gain experience in developing, testing, and deploying the software. Software engineers usually participate in coding, debugging, experimenting in code reviews, quality assurance testing, and some troubleshooting. As, it is a rapidly growing field, so the possibility to get an internship in this field is pretty high as compared to others.

Paid or Unpaid Internship?

Internships are of 2 kinds :

1. Paid internship

2. Unpaid internship

As the name suggests when a company is paying an intern then it's paid internship else it is an unpaid internship.

Paid internships are rarer nowadays, but if you find it, then you just lock in your choice immediately because it is much better than the unpaid internship. If the company is ready to pay you during your training, then you should, by all means, consider staying there.

Though money is not “everything”, still it plays an extremely important factor and you should always have it in mind when looking for an internship.

Unpaid internships sound very evil, but in reality, it is not so as the company spends a lot of time and money on getting you up to speed on how to do the job. And in some cases, it’s just not worth it for them to pay you. Now, you might be confused about how to choose a company for your unpaid internship. So, let us discuss some factors to decide whether to take an unpaid internship or not:-

1. The reputation of the company:- If you are getting an internship in any reputed company then that internship can be very fruitful as you will gain valuable experience, you will get good contacts and obviously your resume will become even stronger.

2. Competition in your field:- If the competition is very high in your field then it will be very difficult for you to get a paid internship, in this kind of case if you are getting any internship then just grasp that internship.

Some skills that intern may already know

1. Coding and programming:- Programming is the basic need of a software engineer. There are many programming languages that we can learn for example- Java script, HTML/CSS, SQL, Phython, Java, C++, Bash/Shell.

2. Software Development:- Software development basically means analyzing the market, and user's needs and then designing, testing, and developing software to meet those needs. If students work in this domain then they can even get some live projects included in their resume.

3. Testing and Debugging a software:- In this field, the software is tested and debugged before it is launched. It is also one of the important fields because it is a must to test and then debug software before its launch. People who have little knowledge of programming can join this field as the programming portion is very less in this field as compared to others.

You can learn all these skills using the handbook of mobiprep .

Steps to land your first internship

Following steps can help you land your dream software engineering internship in companies such as Amazon, Accenture, Flipkart, TCS etc.

1. Resume

The demand for internships is very high. The HR manager gets thousands of resume for internship. To look extraordinary in those masses we have to build a convincing resume. Now, the question arises how to build a convincing resume with 0 experience? Though the experience block in a resume is very important for college students or recent graduates it is not compulsory. Even the company is also not expecting any experience from interns.

To create your resume the most important and difficult thing is to choose the right template, font, and font size. Try to choose a simple template with nominal font so that it is easy to read, all those funky templates with some design are a big no.

Now let us see what we should include in our resumes:-

• contact information :- full name (always write your full name instead of only first name), email (your email address should look professional [name][lastname]@email.com), your social media profiles (LinkedIn / GitHub / Medium / etc.), Competitive platform(code chef, hacker rank).

• Resume summary or objective :- the difference is that if you have 2+ years of experience, you need a resume summary, if not, a resume objective. The summary simply summarizes your resume, while your objective lists your motivations and what you hope to gain from the job.

• Skills - they are of two types: soft skills and hard skills. Soft skills are the attributes and habits that tell how you work with other people (e.g. communication, leadership, etc.). Hard skills refer to skills that show your technical knowledge or the knowledge you’ve gained through experience (e.g. specific software, tools, languages, etc.)

• Education - This section includes university/college name, course name, and time taken to complete a course. Other details like CGPA, honors, academic achievements, and minor programs are not mandatory if they are good enough or they are relevant to your internship position then you may include them.

• Projects - This is one of the most important section of a resume as the interviewer can judge your skills through your projects. Even, at the time of interview mostly questions are asked according to the projects done by us. Try to build some good projects including some live projects(1 major project and 2 minor projects in resume may be enough) .

• Other sections - if there is some space left in your resume then you can add other blocks too like hobbies, personal achievement, certificates and etc. you can build your resume on some website like Canvas .

2. Start searching for job before time

Make sure to start looking for your job on time don't be late as many seats may get filled before you even apply for them. Starting to apply in august, September or October can be a good start. Don't be discouraged if you are already late you can apply now also but probability of getting internship in upper mentioned month is a bit high as compared to others. To search for some particular company you can other blog's of mobiprep.

3. Using Networks

Creating a professional network on LinkedIn is a great way to kick-start growing your network. Use your LinkedIn profile to build relationships with other software engineers, search for open internship positions, or join industry discussion groups(tips to create a LinkedIn profile). Even more casual sites such as Facebook , Instagram, or YouTube can be used for researching, connecting with alumni groups, and growing your understanding of the software engineer landscape.

4. Interview Preparation

A technical interview might seems to be difficult but a proper preparation can make it easy. HR always look for application with qualifications related to the job vacancy they are hiring for so always be familiar to the role they are looking for.

One of the best advice for software intern is to be ready for a coding interview that is coding round, where you have to give a real world test of your programming skills , this test can be attempted in any language like C/C++, java, Phython and etc. To polish this kind of skills you can take the help of some online platform CodeChef , Hacker Rank or mobiprep .You can test your skills by practicing sample test provided by mobiprep.

5. Learn more skills

Building a portfolio of side projects that you’ve completed on your own is one of the best ways to show that you’re serious about finding work as a software engineer. Self-initiated projects teach you hands-on skills and also add credibility to your resume. You can learn more skills using handbooks of mobiprep .