How to get an internship as a high schooler
Other online guides will tell you to ask your teachers and neighbors for anyone they know that would hire you, or google "intership for high schoolers [your city name]."
This isn't a bad place to start, but there's an easy email you can send to a company that'll get you an internship ASAP.
1. Choose a company near you, or find one you like online
If you're not sure where to look, try the Y Combinator list of companies. Y Combinator is the place where innovative new companies go to raise money, so there are a lot of awesome places to work listed there. A lot of these companies would take high school interns because they're new companies: they just need smart people who are happy to help, they don't care if you have a college degree.
Let's go through an example from Y Combinator:
You can filter by industry if you know what kind of work you want to do.
Choose a company that sounds cool, maybe we'll check out Slash. Go to their website, Google around...
The founders are only 20 or 21, and their business seems to be about helping young people. They won't have a problem with you only being in high school!
2. Find three things you'd improve about their company
This is going to be how you impress them when you reach out asking for a job.
Try out their product: what was annoying/boring/a missed opportunity? What features should they add?
Think about how they make money: what else could they do to make more money? Are there other types of customers they could sell to, or a similar product they could add on to theirs? Are there cooler ways they could run marketing?
Give suggestions on what you're interested. If you want to do design, critique their website. If you want to do marketing, roast their IG. If you want to help them sell luxury helicopters to Middle Eastern billionaires, say so.
Check out Slash online and see what you would improve on, then compare notes with us! We noticed they...
1. don't have a YouTube channel (weird, they're selling to young entrepreneurs and there's so many of them using YT!)
2. have SO many features, it's not really clear how to get started - maybe a video explainer on their site or in their onboarding could help
3. have very few blog posts, meaning nobody is going to find their page from Google search, a huge missed opportunity
3. Send them an email asking for an internship!
Here's a template:
Subject: Ready to help out at [company name] with [opportunity]!
Hey [name],
I'm a [#]th grader that loves your mission for [product name//restate their mission statement//quickly explain why the company is cool to you.]
I tried out your product and noticed a couple opportunities I could work on over [the summer//winter break//whenever you want to work].
- [opportunity #1 + how YOUR skillset/experience can help]
- [opportunity #2 + how YOUR skillset/experience can help]
- [opportunity #3 + how YOUR skillset/experience can help]
[optional: "I come from an under-resourced high school where I don’t have opportunities to pursue work outside the classroom, so the opportunity to work with and learn from you would be invaluable."]"
Are you free to talk about how I could contribute? I'm free [narrow time windows eg. Mondays and Tuesdays after 3pm] and [wide time window, eg anytime Fridays].
With hope and gratitude,
[your name]
And here it is filled in:
Subject: Ready to help out at Slash with content marketing!
Hey [name],
I'm a 11th grader that's gassed about your mission and I love the way you talk about hustle.
I tried out Slash and noticed a couple opportunities I could work on over this summer:
- You guys could have a huge presence on YouTube: I've been making videos for my school's journalism club for years w/ 50,000 views.
- You've built TOO MANY awesome features, and as a first-time user it was hard to know what was what. I can create explainer videos for your landing page and onboarding.
- Money is super confusing for young entrepreneurs, and I could help you build interactive blog posts that make sure you win at SEO
Are you free to talk about how I could contribute? I'm free Mondays and Tuesdays after 3pm and any time Fridays.
With hope and gratitude,
[your name]
Wait... I can identify the problems but I don't know if I have the skills to solve them.
You can start out by asking them to mentor you, not hire you. Or you can try to learn the skills first, then get an internship. If you email ben@fix.school, we can set you up with learning resources for any topic you're interested in.
Too ambitious? You can play it cool, too!
Start with a small ask. Anyone you find in a career you're interested in will be open to haivng a 30 minute conversation with you, an informational interview, and you can wrap one of those up by asking if they know anyone looking for interns.
Read something online could be academic research from Google Scholar, a news article, or a thread or blog post you found on Twitter or Hacker News. Think of a question for the author, and reach out asking to talk!
Doesn't have to be someone your mom would love you working for. It could be a video editor who works for a YouTuber you follow or a local Zookeeper.
This emailing strategy got me my first ever job interview!
Send them an email (jump here if you can't find the address) like:
Subject: Loved your article on [topic], are you free to share career advice?
Hi [name],
I'm a(n) [#]th grader passionate about [topic] - [specific note about the article/tweet you read, eg. "your explanation of CPUs was really helpful for me, as I'm working on building my own computer!"]
Would you be free to talk about your experience as a [career name]? Hearing about your experiences would be invaluable - I've never had the opportunity to talk to someone in [industry name] before.
I'd be free to Zoom/call [narrow time windows eg. Mondays and Tuesdays after 3pm] and [wide time window, eg anytime Fridays].
With hope and gratitude,
[your name]
If you’re nervous about your email, send it to us first to proofread: ben@fix.school
If you’re passionate about education, we might be able to give you a virtual internship: email ben@fix.school, use the same strategies to pitch me :)
Prepare a few questions for your call like "Can you walk me through a problem that's been on your mind today?" or "What did you learn or gain from working at [company] that you don't think you would've gotten anywhere else?"
At the end of the call, hit them with: "Do you know anyone who might need an intern this summer?"
If your high school has a lot of successful grads, try googling:
site:linkedin.com “[your high school name]” “[a topic you’re vaguely interested in]”
The results will be people who use LinkedIn, a job-finding site, who went to your high school. Reach out to them! You already have something in common!
Even if you don't see anyone, you can ask your teachers if they keep in touch with any cool former students.
FAQ
- Try googling “[person’s name] email” and poke around.
- If you get results from a site like Apollo or Rocketreach, it’s fine to make a free account there to see emails–those sites are legit.
- If they work at a company, find someone’s email at the company: all emails will be in the same format, like firstinitial.lastname@company.com.
Reach out to local philanthropists for funding. Look at the names of donors for your local public library and YMCA (should be a plaque somewhere), then look up their address at peoplefinder.com.
Mail them a letter, handwrite it if you have time!
Here's a template:
Dear [Mr./Ms. ____]
I'm a(n) [#]th grader at [high school name] with a summer internship at [company name].
This internship would be a life-changing experience, but because it's unpaid, I may not be able to accept the offer.
I come from an under-resourced high school where I don’t have opportunities to explore [topic] outside the classroom, but I believe [topic] could be a deep, sustaining vocation. Without work experience in the field, I don't know that I'd be able to get a job like that when I graduate.
Would you be able to support funding my living expenses for the summer through a donation of $500, $1,000, or $1,500?
Thank you so much for your consideration.
With hope and gratitude,
[Your Name]
Sending out fundraising requests like this can be really scary, and it really hurt our ego when we were starting Doorstop Education. But it works!
Funny story. This email (our first successful donation) actually went to our spam folder at first - we almost missed it.
- Chegg Internships lists internship opportunities in several major cities, including Atlanta, Austin, Boston and Chicago.
- BRAINYAC connects high school students in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx with Columbia University neuroscientists for research-based summer internships in working laboratories.
- The Met High School Internship Program offers museum internships to students who live in or attend high school in New York, New Jersey or Connecticut.
- The Microsoft Discovery Program is a paid opportunity for graduating high school seniors who live within 50 miles of the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington to gain insight into tech careers.
- Smithsonian Internships, run by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., offers a variety of programs for high school students at various Smithsonian museums.
- The Stanford Compression Forum Summer Internship offers high schoolers and community college students the chance to complete multi-disciplinary research projects over the summer.
- The New-York Historical Society’s Student Historian Internship Program allows students entering 10th, 11th, or 12th grade to conduct research and tell stories using the society’s vast resources.
- The Library of Congress offers a wide variety of internships in and around Washington, D.C., some of which are open to high school students, as well as a paid work-study program.
- Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh has a limited number of unpaid internships open to high schoolers at its four museums.
- The Bank of America Student Leader Program connects about 300 juniors and seniors with nonprofits in more than 100 communities. The paid internships are combined with a national leadership summit.
- NASA High School Internships offer research and experiential learning at NASA facilities in Maryland, New York, Virginia and West Virginia.
We have a Doorstop on finding cool careers coming soon: you’ll find it at /doorstops/othercareers. Want to get notified when it comes out? Ping us!