Ah, the million-dollar word - internship. Internships are super important for some jobs. The experience allows you to put something on your resume and employers seem to really like knowing you've had experience in your chosen field.
An internship takes place in a professional setting and is usuallly an individual's first experience in that profession. They're great starting places for college students, but can also be used for professional workers who are looking for advancement.
Many people joke that the only thing interns are good for is for fetching coffee, but it's unlikely that's what you'll actually be doing. While you may not make any life-changing decisions in your internship, you definitely will learn some valuable information.
Internship Overview
Internship Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an internship. For example, did you know that they make an average of $15.04 an hour? That's $31,289 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -4% and produce -110,600 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does an Internship Do
There are certain skills that many interns have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed customer-service skills, detail oriented and organizational skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be an internship, we found that a lot of resumes listed 15.7% of interns included communication, while 7.1% of resumes included powerpoint, and 3.7% of resumes included patient care. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the internship job title. But what industry to start with? Most interns actually find jobs in the non profits and health care industries.
How To Become an Internship
If you're interested in becoming an internship, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 64.6% of interns have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 13.8% of interns have master's degrees. Even though most interns have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become an internship. When we researched the most common majors for an internship, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on internship resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an internship. In fact, many internship jobs require experience in a role such as volunteer. Meanwhile, many interns also have previous career experience in roles such as sales associate or cashier.
What is the right job for my career path?
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Internship Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of consultant you might progress to a role such as manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title director of sales.
Internship
Director Of Sales
10 Years
Account Manager
5 Years
Assistant General Manager
5 Years
Co-Owner
6 Years
Marketing Director
7 Years
Business Manager
6 Years
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What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for an Internship
Interns in America make an average salary of $31,289 per year or $15 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $48,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $20,000 per year.
Average Salary
$31,289
Best Paying Cities
City
Average Salary
$23k
$54k
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Pivot Bio Plant Team Summer 2021 Internship Plant Team Summer 2021 Internship | Pivot Bio Pivot Bio | 03/31/2021 03/31/2021 | $39,65303/31/2021 $39,653 |
M Booth Intern, Corporate Intern, Corporate | M Booth M Booth | 03/31/2021 03/31/2021 | $35,47903/31/2021 $35,479 |
Opensesame 2021 Summer Internship 2021 Summer Internship | Opensesame Opensesame | 03/31/2021 03/31/2021 | $31,30503/31/2021 $31,305 |
Eurofins Scient. Agroscience Summer Intern Agroscience Summer Intern | Eurofins Scient. Eurofins Scient. | 03/30/2021 03/30/2021 | $27,13103/30/2021 $27,131 |
Drury Hotels Intern Intern | Drury Hotels Drury Hotels | 03/30/2021 03/30/2021 | $31,30503/30/2021 $31,305 |
Calculate your salary
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Internship Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming an Internship. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write an Internship Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Internship resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Internships
1. Western Carolina University
Cullowhee, NC • Public
In-State Tuition
$3,926
Enrollment
9,835
2. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$51,354
Enrollment
7,083
3. Ball State University
Muncie, IN • Public
In-State Tuition
$9,896
Enrollment
15,529
4. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,584
Enrollment
10,764
5. Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH • Public
In-State Tuition
$11,105
Enrollment
13,729
6. Cedar Crest College
Allentown, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$39,216
Enrollment
1,303
7. Morgan State University
Baltimore, MD • Public
In-State Tuition
$7,900
Enrollment
6,404
8. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
In-State Tuition
$54,568
Enrollment
8,451
9. Siena Heights University
Adrian, MI • Private
In-State Tuition
$27,124
Enrollment
2,035
10. University of Akron
Akron, OH • Public
In-State Tuition
$11,463
Enrollment
13,676
Job type you want
Full Time
Part Time
Internship
Temporary
Top Skills For an Internship
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 15.7% of interns listed communication on their resume, but soft skills such as customer-service skills and detail oriented are important as well.
- Communication, 15.7%
- Powerpoint, 7.1%
- Patient Care, 3.7%
- C++, 3.6%
- Financial Statements, 3.6%
- Other Skills, 66.3% See All Internship Skills
Best States For an Internship
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an internship. The best states for people in this position are West Virginia, Connecticut, California, and Washington. Interns make the most in West Virginia with an average salary of $41,612. Whereas in Connecticut and California, they would average $40,963 and $40,116, respectively. While interns would only make an average of $40,068 in Washington, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. West Virginia
Total Internship Jobs:
591
Highest 10% Earn:
$67,000
Location Quotient:
1.5
Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$41,612
Avg. Salary
2. Connecticut
Total Internship Jobs:
1,340
Highest 10% Earn:
$67,000
Location Quotient:
1.57
Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$40,963
Avg. Salary
3. Rhode Island
Total Internship Jobs:
613
Highest 10% Earn:
$61,000
Location Quotient:
1.96
Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$37,913
Avg. Salary
How Do Internship Rate Their Jobs?
Top Internship Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ interns and discovered their number of internship opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that The Walt Disney Company was the best, especially with an average salary of $30,545. Walgreens follows up with an average salary of $39,906, and then comes Morgan Stanley with an average of $39,077. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as an internship. The employers include Hoffmann-LA Roche, CVS Health, and Change Healthcare
Internship Videos
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Internship Search - How do I find an internship?