The Larmor Society

Internships

Work experience and internships in Science tend to be less commonly in the form of organised schemes that you might find in Economics or Law, for example. But that just means that there’s a huge range of work you can find!

The Careers Service is a great resource for finding work experience and internships. Log on with your Raven ID on here: http://www.careers.cam.ac.uk/ then you can search in the “Vacancies and Opportunities” section for vacation work. If you pop down in person (it’s only a 10-minute walk from John’s - see Google maps) they’ve got loads of leaflets about not only vacation work, but also advice on writing your CV and cover letters.

Google can throw up some good results if you know where to look. Science placements are often referred to as “studentships” as opposed to “internships”, or “research experience” instead of “work experience”.

There are a number of international programs that give you the opportunity to travel at the same time, which often pay expenses plus a small stipend.

Be aware that the deadlines for these are often around January/February, so you really need to be researching them before you come back to college for Lent term.

If you can’t find an organised scheme that suits you, then you could consider approaching labs yourself. Don’t be afraid of approaching supervisors or lecturers if they work in an area that you’d be interested in. There are a number of organisations that may be able to fund a placement if you find a lab that is willing to take you on (see here: http://www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/ftp/events/dlforum07/studentships.pdf for a useful list for biologists, or http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/undergraduate-research-bursaries-0 for a wider variety). Alternatively, College have a number of grants that you may be eligible for if the work is voluntary or very low-paid, but these must be applied for by a deadline in April so you need to get sorted early. If you miss the deadline for research grants, you may be able to claim back something from the Learning and Research Fund (the same fund you can use to claim back for textbooks etc) – details are all on CamTools under the Tutorial section.

One tip that I’d give you, based on my own mistakes, is not to wait for a decision from one placement before applying for more. Some of these placements can have more than 30 applicants per place, so realistically your chances of getting each one are pretty slim. While waiting for one decision, I ended up missing deadlines for a few other schemes, and that first one turned out to be a rejection. Apply to anything and everything you’re interested in – it is acceptable to reject schemes if you’ve been offered more than one.