In the AI era, it's difficult to land an offer with 60 job applications. How can one find internship opportunities?
According to the annual college recruitment trends study of Drexel University cited by Bloomberg Businessweek:
- Approximately 20% of companies said they will reduce intern recruitment this year or cancel internship programs altogether. This proportion has been rising steadily since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022.
- The proportion of companies planning to expand internship programs is slightly over 30%. Although it has increased compared to last year, it has dropped significantly compared to before 2022.
Some companies reduce internships because they assume there won't be corresponding full - time entry - level positions in the future, so they no longer use internships as a talent reserve channel.
Employers' expectations for the prosperity of the college job market are:
The internship recruitment platform Handshake shows that since 2022, the median number of applications received for each internship position has tripled. Some fresh graduates applied for 60 - 70 internships but only got 1 - 2 opportunities.
Some students start applying earlier. One - quarter of junior students start applying for summer internships before the end of September.
Wrong ways for students to cope with the impact, such as
- Using the one - click application function on platforms like LinkedIn extensively without submitting targeted cover letters;
- Using AI to generate and modify resumes and cover letters, and conducting mock interviews just to cope with AI screening, while ignoring the expression of genuine interest in the position and the cultivation of interpersonal communication skills.
- Career advisors found that students need to be taught basic communication etiquette more than ever because many students are used to taking classes on Zoom and writing papers with ChatGPT, and they treat internship hunting as a frictionless process.
If you (use AI tools) to find small companies that match your interests and then send short and sincere emails and messages to recruiters (preferably directly to senior executives) in the hope of getting one - on - one guidance, the success rate will be higher.
Small and medium - sized enterprises are replacing giants as the de facto reservoir of internship opportunities. In 2022, large enterprises received about 8 times as many applications as small enterprises. Last year, this ratio has shrunk to about 3 to 1. Large enterprises still attract a lot of attention, but the competitiveness of small enterprises is much stronger than a few years ago.
The aforementioned Drexel University report found that employers prefer to see job seekers communicate with them without the help of AI (which is obvious).
Some enterprises specifically recruit interns with AI skills and hope to learn how to use AI from young people. It's also worth a try. Since 2022, the ratio of internship position descriptions mentioning AI has doubled to nearly 10%.
These positions can emphasize AI skills more:
- Product Management
- Data Analysis
- Strategic Consulting
- Software Engineering
- Scientific Research
Of course, what you can think of, others can also think of. In 2025, internship positions mentioning AI received an average of 78 applications, while non - AI positions received only 32 applications.
Moreover, don't wait too long after sending an application. The proportion of applicants who received feedback on whether they were hired within the first week after submitting their resumes increased from about one - quarter in 2022 to 44% last year. Among internship positions mentioning AI, 46% of applications were received within the first 7 days after the positions were posted, while this proportion was 40% for other positions.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Hangtongshe" (ID: lifeissohappy). The author is Hangtongshe. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.