The CSE Guide to Summer Internship Recruiting
The moment you step on campus, we know that jobs and internships are the first thing on your mind. With experiential learning being such a vital piece of your education and future career aspirations, we will work year round to ensure that you are up to date on all the internship and job opportunities that we are curating for you prior to your graduation.
Understanding Recruitment Timelines for Your Industries of Interest
Recruiting timelines are notoriously difficult to navigate and understand due to the changing nature of company requirements, internal hiring processes, and student semester timelines. In general, a significant portion of the largest bank and consulting organizations are hiring their interns and new full time employees at least a full year in advance of the opportunity start date. This means it is vital for you to finalize your resume and hiring materials as soon as possible to be able to be considered for many of these positions.
Many organizations do not follow this strict of a timeline and even the major banks and consulting firms will have different opportunities throughout the year outside of their normal recruiting cycle. Throughout the year, jobs and internships will be made available to you and it is of the utmost importance that you maintain a strict schedule of searching for these opportunities to give yourself the highest chance of success.
These institutions are notorious for having earlier and earlier hiring timelines every year. As these organizations are in constant competition with each other, they will attempt to lock down their top talent as soon as possible, meaning a 12-18 month advance hiring structure.
We know for a number of our students, that timeline is exceedingly difficult to participate in due to the length of your programs and your start dates for when you need to be on campus. This is why it is vital to complete your summer pre-work as soon as possible, working with your career coach to ensure your resume is close to complete. We want you to be able to access and apply for these positions, but it will require immediate attention to these opportunities and working quickly and efficiently for you to be an appealing candidate for these organizations.
Smaller, boutique firms are generally later in their hiring than the bulge bracket banks and large consulting organizations.
Oftentimes, they are looking to hire their interns and new employees anytime between the months of October and February of the academic year, providing you with more time and accessibility. While some smaller organizations may try to emulate the timelines of the larger institutions, the majority have their own schedule and plan in place.
These opportunities will arise throughout the academic year and will require regular observation of Handshake and other job platforms to ensure you do not miss out on openings that are of interest to you.
While some positions in the Tech Industry follow a similar structure and timeline to the larger banks and consulting firms (primarily at companies like Apple, Amazon, Google, etc.), many companies in this space have a much less structured approach to their hiring timelines. With the fast moving nature of the tech industry, where positions of need are often identified quickly and filled on a rolling basis, positions will continue to manifest throughout the academic year.
However, it is important to also remember that the tech space is extremely volatile and competitive in its nature. Some years, tech companies are hiring and expanding at an increased rate, while other years, the industry is tightening budgets and hiring across the majority of companies.
What each individual year will bring is impossible to predict, but we will work continuously with you and for you throughout the year to bring you accessible and valuable opportunities in this space.
Obviously there are thousands of companies outside of the Finance, Consulting, and Technology industries that could be of interest to you and your future career.
While numerous companies, primarily those that are larger and more global in their scale, may have early recruiting processes in place, the majority will create positions throughout the year based on new needs and expanding areas of the individual business.
Be sure to set up a continuous schedule to look on Handshake and other job platforms to identify and apply for these positions. We will do our best to keep you aware of these opportunities as they arise, but there are too many for even our full office to be aware of them all as they come.
Identifying Summer Internship Opportunities Open Now
Using the Label “CSE Early Recruiting”
The CSE helps identify open summer internship opportunities on Handshake that are considered “Early Recruiting” (meaning that they are posted for application during April – October of the year before the start date of the internship), by giving them the label “CSE Early Recruiting”
Watch the Handshake How-To: Search for Jobs video below for instructions on filtering Handshake jobs by labels applied by your school’s career center.
Using Additional Handshake Filters
Employers are posting hundreds of jobs and internships to Handshake each day, so you may want to explore Handshake opportunities beyond the “CSE Early Recruiting” label. Check out the video below for instructions on how best to utilize Handshake to find internships of interest to you.
Occasionally, the CSE will come across Early Recruiting Opportunities outside of the Handshake platform. In those instances, we typically call your attention to them through the CSE Newsletter (sent by email every Thursday), or through ad-hoc targeted emails. Remember to promptly open all email communications from “Career Strategies and Engagement (CSE)” to ensure you are staying up-to-date with relevant opportunities.
If you have a list of target companies in mind that you plan on applying to, it is a good idea to not only follow that employer on Handshake and LinkedIn, but also set up a personal system to regularly check their website career page for open opportunities.
Preparing for Summer Internship Applications and Recruitment
Starting mid-June of their incoming year, students receive instructions for developing a CSE-approved Brandeis-format resume. Learn More
Make an appointment with your Career Coach and explore CSE resources like the Cover Letter Guide, Elevator Pitch Guide, Technical Portfolio Guide, BigInterview, and LinkedIn Guide by the Job Insiders. Contact globalcareers@brandeis.edu if you have any questions.
