Just Ask: The First Step to Landing an Internship

Who wouldn't want to work at Wimbledon?! (Picture taken by me at Wimbledon, 2002)

One activity I often recommend students add to their high school experience is to intern in an academic area that they are interested in pursuing in college. Of course, the first response is always, "Well, how am I going to do that?"

If you remember one thing, make it this: the first step to getting an internship is simply asking.

Not experience. Not connections. Just asking.

Why It Matters

Most internships—especially for high school students—aren’t posted online. They go to the students who speak up first. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you do ask, you might be surprised how often the answer is yes.

How to Ask

Keep it simple:

• Introduce yourself

• Say what you’re interested in

• Ask if they offer internships or ways to learn

• Be open to helping however you can

You don’t need a perfect résumé—you just need initiative.

My Experience

In my third year of college, I was really interested in professional sports management. While attending UC Davis, the closest professional teams were the Sacramento Kings, the Oakland Raiders (when they were in Oakland!), and the San Francisco 49ers. Maybe it was naivety, but I emailed all three teams - simply looked on their websites and emailed the generic "Info @" email address, introduced myself, and asked if there were any internship opportunities. I was surprised to receive an email from the Oakland Raiders' Director of Internet Services, who asked me to come in for an interview, and shortly thereafter, I started a 2-day/week internship with them. My job entailed answering emails that came in to the general Oakland Raiders email address and creating content for their website (this was the early days of website building). I learned so much and had so much fun getting a chance to really see what it took for a professional sports team to run - everything from seeing how training camp was organized, to game days. This was back before phone cameras were a thing, so I rarely got any pictures, but below you'll see one I snagged while at training camp, catching legendary players Tim Brown and Jerry Rice sharing a moment on the sideline.

After my stint at the Raiders, I began to seek out more internships and work opportunities, which led to a variety of jobs, including a shift from sports management to sports television production. After a successful position at NBC Olympics, I was tapped to work for NBC Sports at Wimbledon in the summer of 2002. Alongside an amazing team of other young college-age students looking to kick off their careers in TV production, I learned more about camera operators, sound operators, editing, music, and more. It was a truly amazing experience!!

Not every day you get to sit in the Austin Powers "Shaguar"

(Most students are probably too young to know what this is! HAHA)

Final Thought

You don’t have to be ready—you just have to be willing.

Send the email. Start the conversation. Ask the question.

Because opportunities often start with two simple words: what if?