How to find internships that are still open
Search with the exact title words plus intern, keep results to the last week or two, and confirm each posting on the employer's own careers page before spending time on it. Old listings, reposts on aggregator sites and evergreen postings cause most dead ends; the employer's own page is the only place that says a role is still taking applications.
Search the title words, with the level in them
Most internship searches fail at the first step: a search for a field returns every job in that field, and the internships are buried under senior roles. Put both the role and the level in the search, as a posting would title them: software engineer intern, marketing intern, data analyst intern.
Watch what the search engine does with the word intern. Many search tools reduce words to a stem, and intern then matches internal and international, so a search for internships fills up with internal auditors and international sales managers. Read the first page of results and check that the titles really say intern, internship or co-op.
On Carir's job board, a level word you type is a must. A search for product manager intern returns internships only: titles that say intern, internship, co-op or working student, or postings the source itself marks as internships. It never matches internal or international, and when the list is short, Carir shows the near misses separately and says what differs, such as hybrid instead of remote.
Narrow by date first, then widen on purpose
A posting from this week is far more likely to be open than one from last quarter. Start with the last seven days. If that leaves too little, widen to two weeks and then a month, knowing that each step adds postings that may already be filled.
Many employers recruit for summer internships months ahead, often starting the autumn before, so a search in October is not early. Programs that hire many interns often post one listing for the whole program, which is why a single posting can matter more than its count suggests.
Confirm on the employer's own page
Job sites copy postings from each other and do not always remove them when the employer closes the role. Before you tailor anything, open the employer's careers page or the application page itself. Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby and Workday pages say plainly when a posting is closed; if the link lands on a general careers page instead of the role, treat it as closed.
- Open link lands on the role with an apply button: open.
- Link lands on the company's general careers page: probably closed or moved.
- The role appears on an aggregator but not on the employer's page: assume closed until you find it.
Spot the postings that are not real internships
- Any request for money, gift cards or equipment purchases before you start. The FTC lists these as the signs of a job scam.
- An interview held only by text chat, followed by an offer within hours.
- An unpaid internship at a for-profit company. In the US that is lawful only when the intern, not the employer, is the primary beneficiary, under the Department of Labor's test.
- Titles that only look like internships: Intern Program Manager and Internship Coordinator are staff jobs running the program.
Keep a short list and track it
Ten carefully chosen internships you apply to well beat a long list you cannot follow up on. Write down each role's link, deadline, the date you applied and who you contacted. Carir's tracker does this for every role you save, and the free plan includes it.
Sources
- US Department of Labor — Fact Sheet #71: Internship Programs Under the FLSA: The primary-beneficiary test that decides whether an unpaid internship at a for-profit employer is lawful.
- Federal Trade Commission — Job Scams: How fake job offers work, the payment requests that give them away, and where to report one.
Questions people ask
When should I apply for a summer internship?
As soon as the posting you want appears. Many employers start recruiting for summer roles the autumn before and read applications as they arrive, so the first week a posting is up is the best week to apply.
Is an unpaid internship legal?
At a for-profit employer in the US, only when the intern is the primary beneficiary of the arrangement under the Department of Labor's test. The department's Fact Sheet #71 lists the factors. Nonprofits and public agencies follow different rules.
What is a co-op?
A co-op is a paid work term, often full time for a semester, usually arranged with a university. Carir treats co-op and working-student roles as internships when you search for intern.
How do I know an internship posting is still open?
Open it on the employer's own careers page or application page. If the role is there with an apply button, it is open; if the link falls back to the general careers page, it has most likely closed.
Try it on your own search
Carir finds the roles employers posted today, scores each one against your resume with the lines that earned it, and tailors without inventing experience. The free plan includes the job board and the tracker.