What if a company doesn't have a formal intern program?
An internship is a pretty loose idea in many respects. It can be very, very structured and it can have workshops, and it can have this and it can have that and it can have a point person who is in charge of you. And then on the other side of the spectrum, you call company A, and usually this is a little more local, this is like a small little office or something along those lines. So you call the company and say,"Hey, I'd love to intern for you". "Well, we don't really have an intern program". "Ok, well I'm working for free. Do you think you could put me in touch with someone who might be interested?" Hey, you never know where it is going to go, and that's the point, you can't, you just have to call - you have to make that phone call, you have to make that leap of faith, and you know what, sometimes get on the phone with someone, you're like, "ok, that went nowhere" but don't let that discourage you. Because yeah, you know what, there are going to be times when things will go nowhere. And actually, there might be a hundred phone calls that you made that just are all dead ends. But then, there's that one phone call that is so money, and you're like perfect, and so companies might not have an internship program. Companies might have never had an intern before and you're going to pave the way. And get on that phone, and say, "I'm really good. I'm really responsible. I really, really want to work for your company because X, Y and Z." So before you get on that phone, before you start looking into companies, before you start applying to companies, look into them, know what they're about. So when you get on the phone with someone and say "I really want to work with you because..." Right, and that's, and then they're like, "Oh, you know, he's really smart. He really learned a lot about what we do. I now know why" and someone might help you. Someone might not, and if a company doesn't take interns, then you're out of luck. Before I was in college, I really wanted to intern at a place, they didn't accept people who were in college. Had to find something else, had to be creative, had to look in a different light then, a different angle to see what else I could do in that industry, but not necessarily at that company or at that level.
