[JordanS93]

Hi,
I'm about to go into my second year of university and I have been researching internships for a while now. I'm just wondering are they easier to get on to compared to graduate schemes or are they just as competitive?

I can't speak to my friends about any of this stuff because alot of them seem to be astonished about the concept of a graduate scheme and internships, as they have no knowledge of them. Only due to me mentioning them do they know of their existence. This is why i'm wondering if its easier to get on an internship as many people are ignorant of the graduate recruitment cycle until they are in their last year.

[Durido]

Depends on the specific circumstances.

[yothi5]

Well you need to provide more details:

uni?
Course?
Industry? (IB/otherwise)
Skills?
Work exp?
ECs?

Generally, it is quite hard due to the high calibre of candidates and the volume of applications. If you study at a top/good uni and you tick the right boxes as a person, be expected to get rejected by lots of companies but in the end...you could score one.

[Peel]

It can be yeah. Mainly because as a first year or even second year there's not that much to distinguish applicants on.

[Smack]

I personally think it's best to assume that it's as competitive as graduate positions and to treat it as such, i.e. apply early and put as much effort into your applications as possible.

On the one hand there is probably less competition because many students do not realise the importance of work experience until it's too late i.e. they're in their final year. But on the other hand there is usually less to differentiate between candidates because they won't usually have any experience.

I know many companies also liaise with specific universities for their interns so the number of graduate positions they have on offer depends on the amount of their interns that they'd like to keep, and the amount that would like to be kept on.