A résumé and a cover letter don’t help if you’re only looking in one place. Here’s where internships and jobs really live — most students never try more than one of these — with how to work each, and the search habits that actually land something.
Your career center
A free office whose entire job is connecting you to internships, jobs, and employers — most students never walk in.
How: Book an appointment in your first weeks. They review résumés, run mock interviews, and know who’s hiring.
Handshake
The main internship/job platform colleges use — employers post specifically wanting students from your school.
How: Log in with your school email, fill out your profile, and set alerts for your field. Many roles are student-only.
Professors & research
Faculty hire students for research and projects, and hear about openings first. This is how a lot of first internships happen.
How: Go to office hours, say what you’re interested in, and ask if they need help or know of openings.
Your department & program
Departments, first-gen offices, and programs (TRIO, McNair, cultural centers) get listings aimed right at you.
How: Check their email lists, bulletin boards, and Slack/Discord — and tell an advisor you’re looking.
A job board and a network in one — and a place recruiters search for candidates.
How: Build a simple profile, use the Jobs tab with “internship” + your field, and turn on “open to work.” Set alerts.
Indeed / general boards
Huge volume across every field and city — good for part-time jobs and broad internship searches.
How: Search role + “intern” + your city, save the search as an alert, and apply within a day or two of a posting.
Field-specific boards
Most fields have their own boards (nonprofits, tech, government, healthcare) with less competition than the giants.
How: Search “[your field] internship board” — and ask a professor which ones people in the field actually use.
Company career pages
Many internships are posted only on the employer’s own site, never on the big boards.
How: Make a list of 10–20 places you’d love to work, and check their “Careers” page directly every couple weeks.
Cold outreach
Smaller orgs often don’t post at all — a thoughtful email can create an internship that wasn’t advertised.
How: Find a real person, send a short, specific message (see the networking playbook), and ask to learn, not for a job.
USAJobs & Pathways
The federal government hires students and recent grads through paid internships and the Pathways program.
How: Make a USAJobs profile, filter for “student/intern,” and start early — federal applications take longer.
AmeriCorps & service
Paid service terms that come with a living stipend and an education award you can put toward tuition or loans.
How: Search AmeriCorps for positions; the education award can be a real way to fund school while you serve.
This site’s Arizona listings
Curated Arizona internships, jobs, and programs — already filtered for students like you.
How: Browse and save the ones that fit, then build your sprint plan from your saved list.
Apply early and broadly
Many internships fill months ahead, and you only need one yes. Aim for a healthy number, not one perfect application you submit too late.
Tailor lightly, not obsessively
Tweak your résumé’s top and your cover letter’s “why them” for each — but don’t let perfect tailoring stop you from applying to enough places.
Set alerts so the search runs itself
Save searches on every platform so new postings come to you. Applying within a day or two of a posting matters more than people think.
Track every application
A simple sheet (where, role, date, status, follow-up) keeps you from losing track and tells you what’s working. Follow up politely after a week or two.
A “no” is information, not a verdict
Most applications don’t land — that’s normal and not about your worth. Keep volume up, ask for feedback when you can, and keep going.
You only need one yes. Try several channels, keep your volume up, and treat each “no” as practice — the search is a numbers game you get better at. Nothing here is stored.