Four tips to help you land your dream internship in Australia

A successful internship can help launch careers. For international students, they can be a fantastic way to gain industry exposure, build confidence, grow your network and refine your career goals.

But while the benefits of undertaking an internship in Australia are numerous, so are the different pathways to landing one.

To give you an idea of all the different ways you can go about it, we spoke with four RMIT staff, students and graduates to hear about their unique experiences. Here are their top tips for securing your dream internship:

#1: Work on expanding your network

Networking involves building and nurturing relationships with peers, mentors and industry leaders. As an international student, building these networks can open doors to opportunities that you may not have learned about otherwise. They are also a great way to gain exposure to workplace culture.

There are many ways to start growing your connections. A popular style of networking involves attending formal networking events, such as industry seminars, conferences or roundtable discussions.

Study Melbourne has a number of dedicated programs designed to help international students build their personal and professional networks. Additionally, industry groups and professional bodies, like Engineers Australia, or the Australian Computer Society, also host regular events.

Minh, an RMIT Bachelor of Business (Professional Practice) student from Vietnam, is undertaking a year-long internship with Advance Vision Technology. He says that working to grow his network was key to successfully landing his internship.

“I’d reached out to Career Connect and told them about my intentions of doing an internship, and at that point I wasn't sure how long I should do it for or what industry I should be working in.”

“I'd been going to a few networking events outside of uni and was fortunate to meet the Managing Director of the company I now work for, who was also there. We caught up for a coffee post-event, and that's when I discovered they were looking for interns to join their company as sales consultants. At that point I didn't really hesitate! I started a week later, and I've really, really enjoyed my time at the company. My majors are in finance and blockchain, so the company’s specialisation fits in almost perfectly with what I was expecting!”

Minh says the experience has strengthened his soft skills, and taught him a lot about which direction he wants to take his career.

“Throughout the last 10 months, I’ve learned a lot of new stuff, and it’s helped me navigate where I want to develop my career post-uni.

“Because of my internship, I’ve now realised I want to find something in sales or marketing, as I'm an extrovert and wouldn’t be afraid to talk to anyone!”

#2: Get creative in promoting yourself

While not the right approach for every industry or role, a creative job application or CV can make you stand out from the crowd. Some skills and competencies are hard to showcase with words alone, so creative applications can be useful because they demonstrate to employers what you can do, rather than just telling them about it.

Vivian, a Bachelor of Fashion (Design) (Honours) graduate from China, completed a four-week internship as a marketing assistant at MiniMe in Paris. She agrees that getting creative could be the key to successfully landing your dream internship.

“You don’t have to start with a traditional online application.

“Make yourself unique in the interview process. Ask yourself: What makes you irreplaceable and different from other interns? How do you leave a strong impression on the interviewer of the company?

“For example, could you do a one-minute fashion performance with your work? Think about how to leave a lasting impression that aligns with your personal identity.”

Vivian says that throughout her internship, she learnt more about where her strengths lie, and this helped her to establish a business of her own.

“I did things like capture photographs and short videos of fashion workshops, brainstormed ideas for social media promotions, generated quick, innovative concepts for clothing ornaments, and came up with ideas for different workshop themes.

“Ultimately, the internship helped me establish my own jewellery and teaching business. I now run workshops for community audiences in galleries, museums, libraries, and other organisations.

“One great piece of advice I got from my UX Design lecturer at RMIT was: ‘prototype fast, fail fast, and move on.’ This applies to many things in life, including internships. Experience as much as you can, learn from your mistakes, and move on.”

Vivian working on her jewellery making at RMIT

Vivian working on her jewellery making skills at RMIT

#3: Consider opportunities outside your field of study

Doing an internship that isn't directly linked to your field of study might be sound like a strange idea, but it can increase your opportunities post-graduation when you’re looking for a full-time job. Taking up an internship that doesn’t directly align to your degree title is a sign that you’re versatile, adaptable and open to new experiences. It’s also an opportunity to broaden your career horizons and discover new ideas about yourself and your future.

Mun Wai, a Bachelor of Psychology graduate from Malaysia, completed an internship with the RMIT Centre for Industrial AI Research and Innovation (CIARI). Although an AI research centre isn’t somewhere he imagined he’d be gaining work experience, he says it’s given him the opportunity to apply what he learnt throughout his degree in a research environment.

"I had to do a compulsory placement subject for my psychology degree. So by that time, I was already looking for placement opportunities or internships.

“I decided to start asking some of my lecturers. One of them took me on because he was doing a research project on an AI tool that can help determine the causal factors of success and failures. So that's where the internship started.

“Because I worked with them and we saw progress, I talked to my supervisors about an extension, and that led me to a paid internship with them this year! So now I am interning as a research assistant and data analyst for the team. I’ve learnt a lot about data analysis, but also understanding how to apply what I've learned in my psychology degree and how I can use that to make sense of information.”

Although the internship has helped sharpen many of his hard skills, Mun Wai believes that the most important lesson he’s learnt is about working with people.

“One of the things they told me when I first started was to ‘check in early and check in often.’ It's a very simple thing, but it's a habit to develop.

“Before I started, I tended to be a perfectionist. I used to have the habit of solely relying on my own ability, but that doesn’t really apply to real work because work is all about incremental progress. So I think the biggest things I’ve learned are how to work effectively with the people you're in a team with, and how to adapt to changes as they come.”

And if he had to give one piece of advice to aspiring interns, Mun Wai says it would be to seek opportunities in all kinds of places.

“There is more than one way forward. And there is no best way, or perfect way. Some progress is always better than none.”

Person sits on a rocky surface with mountains in the background.

Mun Wai exploring Victoria

#4: Leverage your unique perspectives as an international student

Because of their varied backgrounds, experiences and beliefs, international students bring unique perspectives and skills to workplace settings. And this is a huge value-add to potential employers.

When people from diverse backgrounds collaborate, they are more likely to approach challenges from different angles, which leads to more innovative solutions. Conversely, homogeneous teams are prone to “groupthink”, where people tend to think in similar ways and settle on familiar solutions. Research shows that diversity helps teams break out of this mould, sparking creativity and generating novel ideas. A 2023 McKinsey study also found that organisations in the top quartile for racial diversity were 39% more profitable than those with less diversity.

Brenda Wu, team leader of Work Integrated Learning in RMIT’s School of Media and Communication, agrees that the diverse backgrounds of international students can be a great asset to host companies.

“International students can improve cross-cultural understanding in a workplace, generate new ideas and provide insights about different markets around the world.

“As a former international student myself, I understand the pressure to excel academically. There's often a cultural expectation to aim for internships in large, well-known companies, as these look impressive on a CV.

“But smaller companies can offer broader exposure and hands-on experience across multiple areas.

“You don’t have to start in your dream company – focus on building your skills, networking, and learning how to navigate professional environments. These foundational steps are key to landing that dream job later on.”

Story: Sophie MacGillivray

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Four tips to help you land your dream internship in Australia