How to Find an Internship When You Have No Contacts

Published · by JOBB GROUP FZE

Plenty of internships are filled without a personal introduction: by employers who advertise programmes, by small firms that never advertise but answer a good email, and by managers who meet a student with something to show. If you have no contacts, you can use all three routes. You just have to be more organised than the people who are relying on someone they know.

Here is how to do it, starting with the routes where a network matters least.

Why employers want interns at all

It helps to see the internship from the employer’s side. Many organisations treat internships as a pipeline for graduate hiring. In the US, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) reports that many employers offer summer interns full-time roles to start after graduation, and its president describes internships as a way to “recruit once, hire twice”. NACE’s 2026 report found that employers expected to hire 3.9% more interns in 2025-26 than the year before.

That matters for you because a programme designed as a pipeline is usually advertised, has a process and has a deadline. Nobody needs to introduce you.

Route 1: Advertised programmes (network needed: none)

Start with the internships that are openly advertised:

  • Your university careers service. Employers who want students from your institution post there, and careers advisers know which firms hired last year.
  • Company career pages. Large employers usually run intern programmes on a fixed annual cycle. Make a list of 20 to 30 organisations you would genuinely like to work for and check each careers page for “internship”, “placement”, “summer programme” or “industrial training”.
  • Careers fairs and employer talks. These are the one place where meeting recruiters is the point. Go with two or three questions per stand, not just a resume.
  • Job boards. Filter by “internship” and your location, and set alerts so you see new postings early.

Write every deadline in one place. Big programmes can close months before the internship starts.

Route 2: Small and mid-sized firms (network needed: none, but you must ask)

Many smaller businesses would take an intern if the right person asked at the right time, but they never post a vacancy. These are often the easiest internships to get without contacts, because you are not competing with a large applicant pool.

Pick firms where you can see a specific job you could help with: a marketing agency that posts irregularly on social media, an accountancy practice in tax season, a start-up with a messy website. Find the name of the founder, manager or team lead on the company site or a professional networking platform, and send a short, specific message.

Illustrative example: “Dear [Name], I am a second-year accounting student at [university] and I am looking for a four- to six-week internship this summer. I noticed your practice works with small retail businesses. I have used Excel to reconcile accounts for my part-time job at a café and would be glad to help with routine bookkeeping or data entry during your busy period. My one-page resume is attached. Could we have a 10-minute call next week?”

Notice what it does: it names the firm’s work, offers a concrete task, gives one piece of evidence and asks for something small. If you want more on cold outreach, see our article on emailing hiring managers; the same principles apply to internships.

Route 3: Build one or two contacts from zero (network needed: you create it)

Having no contacts today does not mean you cannot have three by next month. The people most likely to reply to a student are:

  • Alumni of your university or school, who often feel some loyalty to students from the same place.
  • People one or two years into the job you want, who remember applying for internships themselves.
  • Lecturers and guest speakers, who may know which local firms take interns.

Ask for information, not a job: “What did you do to get your first internship?” or “Which firms in this area take students?” A short conversation like this can turn into a referral later, but do not ask for one in the first message.

Route 4: Make your own proof

NACE says the skills employers look for, such as problem-solving, communication and teamwork, are often built through internships and other hands-on experience. If you do not have an internship yet, you can still create evidence of them:

  • A short analysis of a public dataset, written up in two pages, for data or finance roles
  • A redesign of one page of a local business’s website, for design or marketing roles
  • A small app, script or automation you built for a club or society, for technology roles
  • A volunteer project where you ran something end to end, for operations or HR roles

Put the link on your resume and mention it in your first message. It gives a stranger a reason to reply.

A four-week plan

  1. Week 1: Prepare. Write a one-page resume focused on projects and coursework, using a student resume builder if you are starting from nothing. Draft a short, adaptable cover letter; the cover letter guide shows the structure. Build a tracker with columns for organisation, route, contact, date sent, follow-up date and result.
  2. Week 2: Apply to advertised programmes. Submit applications to every open programme on your list, tailoring the first paragraph each time. Register with your careers service and book an appointment.
  3. Week 3: Approach small firms. Send five to ten specific messages to firms that do not advertise. Message two or three alumni or early-career professionals for advice.
  4. Week 4: Follow up and adjust. Follow up once, politely, on anything with no reply after about a week. Look at your results: if advertised applications are failing at the first stage, fix the resume; if small firms are not replying, make your messages more specific.

Then repeat weeks 2 to 4 with new names. Keeping your experience and documents in one place, such as a career profile, makes each round faster.

What to check before you accept

An internship is still work, so check the basics:

  • Pay and legality. Rules depend on where you are. In the UK, GOV.UK says an intern is normally entitled to the National Minimum Wage if they count as a worker, and an employer cannot avoid this simply by calling the role voluntary. Exceptions include students on a required placement of under one year as part of a UK further or higher education course, and pure work shadowing where you do no work.
  • Permits in the UAE. Employers registered with the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation can apply for a training or work permit for students aged 15 and over. MoHRE’s service page lists proof of student status, a valid residence visa for non-national students, guardian consent for under-18s and, for training, a no-objection certificate from the educational institution. The employer applies, not the student. The u.ae portal, citing a 2018 ministerial decree, adds that student employment (as opposed to training) is allowed during academic holidays only, for up to three consecutive months at a time; confirm this with the employer or MoHRE.
  • Supervision and tasks. Ask who will supervise you and what a typical week looks like. NACE’s 2024 student survey found that 85.1% of graduating interns felt they had enough supervisory support and 87.8% learned skills they would not have learned in the classroom. Those are reasonable things to expect.
  • What happens at the end. Ask whether interns are considered for graduate roles. NACE’s 2025 report found employers offered full-time roles to about 62% of their 2024 intern classes, and offer rates were higher for in-person programmes (72%) than for mixed remote and in-person ones (about 56%). These are US figures, but the question is worth asking anywhere.

Frequently asked questions

When should I start looking for a summer internship?

Earlier than feels natural. Large employers often recruit interns months ahead, and many use internships to fill graduate roles. Check the deadlines of the programmes you want at the start of the academic year, then fill gaps with smaller firms closer to the summer.

Is it worth taking an unpaid internship?

Check the law where the internship is based first. In the UK, for example, an intern who counts as a worker is normally entitled to the National Minimum Wage, with narrow exceptions such as required course placements under a year. If the role is unpaid, make sure the learning and supervision are real and you can afford it.

Can international students do internships in the UAE?

Employers registered with MoHRE can apply for a student training or employment permit for students aged 15 and over who are already in the country. Non-national students need a valid residence visa, and training also needs a no-objection letter from the educational institution.

How many applications should I send?

There is no reliable magic number. Track every application and response. If you get no replies after a few weeks, change the target list or the application, not just the volume.

What if I have nothing to put on my resume?

Use coursework, projects, volunteering, part-time jobs and societies. Describe what you did and what changed because of it. A small, finished piece of work you can link to often says more than a long list of skills.

Sources

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