Internships

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Note: The information on this page is intended for students in English-related majors and minors.

The Department of English and Interdisciplinary Studies works hard to make internships available to all students who want them. Completing an internship is one of the top things you can do to enhance your educational experience. Among the benefits they offer are these:

Find out what work in your chosen field is actually like
Make valuable networking connections
Establish mentorships with industry insiders
Gain experience, which makes you more competitive in the job market
Earn credit toward your degree (by completing EN384)

And on top of all that, many internships are paid!

Read on for information about finding and getting credit for an internship. Or click a link below to jump to that section:

Is an Internship For Me?
How to Find an Internship
How to Get College Credit for an Internship
In-house Internships

Is an Internship For Me?

Maybe you already work part- or full-time. Maybe you're a distance student. Maybe you care for children during the day.

There are a lot of things that might make you think an internship isn't for you—that your budget, schedule, or other responsibilities won't allow you to pursue one. But you should know that internships have changed a lot in recent years, making them more accessible than ever. If you want to have an internship experience, there's an internship out there that can accommodate you.

First of all, let's explain some of the options available:

Paid vs. Unpaid: While the push in recent years has been to offer more paid internships, unpaid ones still exist. While an unpaid internship may seem like a bad deal, remember that there are benefits other than income—for example, you can get experience, networking opportunities, and credit toward your major or minor. It's worth carefully considering whether an unpaid opportunity could be right for you.
Summer vs. School Year: Traditionally, internships were offered in the summer when students were out of school and free to put in a full day of work; however, more and more internships are now being offered year-round. Considering what time of year an internship would best accommodate your work and/or school schedule can open up new opportunities.
Part Time vs. Full Time vs. Flex Time: Not all internships require a 40-hour, 9–5 work week. Nowadays, there are lots of opportunities to do part-time internships for 15–20 hours a week, and many (especially remote ones) allow one to pursue a flexible schedule. Students who work and go to school might find it preferable to slot in an internship that allows them to work a few hours in the evenings and on weekends in exchange for the benefits an internship brings.
Onsite vs. Remote: Onsite internships require you to be physically present at the workplace, while remote internships (which are becoming more and more common, especially for writing- and editing-related positions) allow you to work from home.
Local vs. Distant: While it is reasonable to expect an onsite internship to be within commuting distance of your home, many students find it worthwhile to spend a summer in a faraway city working as an intern. While living in, say, New York for a summer just for an internship can be expensive and/or complex, you might find the tradeoffs—travel to an exciting destination, experiencing the local culture, and making connections with a prestigious employer, among others—are worth it.
Credit for an Existing Job: In certain cases, you can actually be granted internship credit for a job you currently have or formerly held, provided the job covered enough hours and was closely related to the major or minor you are pursuing. You can talk to your faculty advisor for more info.

How to Find an Internship

The primary responsibility of finding an internship lies with each individual student; however, we offer a lot of resources to help you out.

Search for Internships Online

An easy place to start is by searching for internships on any of the major job posting sites, including these:

Be sure to use the filtering tools to narrow down your results—you can usually choose "internship" as a job or position type to filter out actual jobs, and you might want to restrict the location to where you live (or to remote internships).

Even Google will show job postings if you search for them, and it provides filtering tools like many of the big sites.

A few things to keep in mind when searching on these huge sites:

Local positions fall through the cracks: Big sites attract big organizations, so don't be surprised if most of what you see seems to be faceless corporations posting boilerplate opportunities. Smaller, local employers are much less likely to post their positions on these sites, so don't forget to use the other methods detailed below.
There's lots of spam: These huge sites are powered by algorithms, so the results aren't very effectively curated. Don't be surprised if your search for "editing internships" pulls up a bunch of burger-slinging fast food jobs that seem to have no relationship to anything—those employers just spoofed the algorithm somehow.
Some spam is predatory: Beware of postings that seem too good (or too vague) to be true—these might be scams. Especially for remote internships related to writing, you'll see a lot of content farms (companies that produce vapid, useless content meant to improve search page rankings) and dubious start-ups trolling for free or low-paid labor. Keep an eye out for the following:
- Typos and bad grammar
- Too little information about the employer (try looking them up online to see if they look legit)
- Too little information about the duties to be performed
- Over-enthusiastic promises about the value of the experience
If in doubt, ask a department faculty member about an internship that seems dubious.
You don't have to apply through the search site: Just because you found a listing on, say, Indeed doesn't mean you have to apply through Indeed. It can be useful to try to find a company's internship ad and application process on their own site, cutting out the middleman.
What keywords should you use in your search? It can be particularly tricky for humanities majors to figure out what search terms to use since these majors tend to focus on soft skills over hard skills, and the name of your degree isn't necessarily the name of your career (biology majors can become biologists, but English majors can't become "Englishists"). It can be useful to do a little research to create a list of potential search terms. For example, most of the job sites above have lots of additional resources you can read through, and some of them allow you to browse jobs by category Links to an external site., which can be a great way to see what job titles exist in a field and what other jobs are closely related. Additionally, the Bureau of Labor Statistic's Occupational Outlook Handbook Links to an external site. has information about hundreds of occupations, which can clue you in to career fields you hadn't considered and the jobs closely related to those fields.

Talk to Local Organizations

If there's a small or medium-sized company or organization in your area that you'd love to internship for, it can be a great idea to reach out directly to that organization to see if any possibility for an internship exists.* Alternatively, you might ask your city's chamber of commerce representative if they are aware of any opportunities for internships among chamber members.

This option can be especially helpful for English majors and minors who are interested in experiencing the working world but aren't sure about exactly what specific job they have in mind. One of the things the humanities best prepares students for is the world of general office-based employment—that is, any job that requires good communication skills, critical thinking, and an attention to detail. Many jobs in banks, insurance agencies, real estate agencies, government, local non-profits, and other office settings are routinely filled by humanities majors, so interning in such a position is a great way to explore what such a career is like while also gaining valuable experience that will look good on a resume for any career.

* If they'd like to hire you but don't know how to set up an internship, talk to a faculty member and we can help work out the details.

Search Target Companies' Sites

Have in mind a particular company you'd like to work for someday? Go directly to their website and search for internship opportunities.

Have in mind a particular industry or job but don't know what companies exist in that field? It might help to do a little research. For example, if you want to get into editing and publishing, you can start by looking at the spines of books in your room and seeing what publishers exist. Then you could look them up online—on their own sites and on Wikipedia—and even Google "[company] competitor" or "companies like [company]." You could even get on Google Maps and search "editing" or "book publisher" to see if any companies exist in your area.

Talk to Your Advisor or a Faculty Member

Our department faculty are always happy to discuss your career plans and ambitions with you and help you plot a course to success. If you're an English major, you have a specific faculty member assigned as your advisor (find out who in MyPark). But even if you are only pursuing a minor or certificate, we're happy to help—you can read about individual faculty members' interests and expertise and then contact any of us. We want to hear from you!

Talk to Career Development

Park's Career Development Center specializes in helping student obtain meaningful careers, which includes preparing for and finding internships. In addition to exploring their FOCUS career planning tool, you can sign up for Handshake, a college student-focused job and internship site. They may also have leads on work-study opportunities here at Park.

Look Out for Announcements

If you're a Park student, be sure to join this Canvas course (click the "Join the Course" link on the home page) so you will be notified of announcements we post. The department regularly has in-house internship opportunities we advertise for, and we will share any external internship opportunities we hear about. Don't miss out!

How to Get College Credit for an Internship

EN384: Professional Learning Experience in English is a course that offers credit for completing an internship or similar workplace-based experience. This is a 3-credit hour course that is offered as an independent study and is meant to be taken at the same time that you complete an internship. While it is worth 3 credit hours, the actual work load is only the equivalent of 1 credit hour—the other 2 hours of "course work" is you doing the internship itself.

The most important thing to note is that your internship must be approved in advance.

Here's the process you should follow to get enrolled and get credit:

Find and get accepted for an internship. The internship needs to consist of, at minimum 80–100 hours of work (many internship are much more than this), and it needs to be closely related to your major or minor in some way.
Get the internship approved by your faculty advisor. Your faculty advisor will sign off on whether the internship constitutes enough hours and is appropriately related to your major or minor. Don't have a faculty advisor or have additional questions?
- English majors/minors can contact Dr. Kikendall
- Professional and Technical Writing majors/minors can contact Dr. Grover
Get enrolled in EN384. Since this is offered only as an independent study (that is, students take it as a special, one-on-one class with an instructor), your faculty advisor will help you fill out the paperwork and get enrolled.
Complete both the internship and the course simultaneously.

In some rare cases it may be allowed for you to take the course after completing an internship; talk to your advisor for details.

In-House Internships

The department arranges paid, in-house internships whenever possible. For example, ParkWrites regularly hires editorial interns to work on the two academic journals they produce as well as Writing Fellows to tutor students who need help with their writing.

We'll post announcements here on Canvas whenever an internship opportunity comes up, so be sure to join this Canvas course (click the "Join the Course" link on the home page) so you will be notified.

Here are the ads from some past internships (click to view as PDFs):