I wrote this article specifically with marketing majors and internships in mind however, each piece of advice can be adapted to any major.

So… you’re a business major at a nearby state university and you’re looking to get into an internship soon? Well lets consider this.

Every year more and more people are going to college than ever before. In fact, 2025 is anticipated to be the largest class of college freshman ever. On top of that, business is still the most popular major. So let the rat race commence. Most people will default to the typical “GPA-Campus Involved-Highly Caffeinated-Sleep Deprived- Super Student” stage, at least until binge drinking on the weekend starts. But don't worry, you can keep the sleep deprivation throughout the weekend too.

Anyway, if you’re a marketing major looking for an internship you’re in luck. You aren’t exactly measured by your GPA, of course it will help, but there are ways to get around it.

1. Develop a personal relationship with someone from upper management

This one is the easiest and probably the most obvious piece of advice I will give you. I don’t really need to go into detail with this one so I will save your time. Just try to take your eyes away from Netflix for an hour, join your university’s marketing club, and shake hands with everyone that presents to your club. Then immediately add them on LinkedIn and send them a message as soon as they leave.

2. Treat your resume and cover letter as if it is a product you’re trying to sell

We all know the 5 P’s. We will focus on product, placement, and packaging, for your resume. If you fill out the basic online application and attach your resume to it then congratulations because you have done what every other applicant has done. You are now being measured by marginal differences that will not have a significant impact on whether or not you earned an interview.

Product: Obviously make sure your resume is strong. Tailor your resume specifically to what your desired employer wants. If you made a personal connection with someone from the agency then write your cover letter to them, assuming they’re within upper management and have influence over hiring.

Placement: Ask yourself: “How else can I send my resume and cover letter besides over email?” Well you could always spend a few dollars and mail it to them. They probably don’t get much mail from prospective interns so you will stick right out.

Packaging: Here is the good stuff. Having a strong resume and mailing it to them is not going to make much of a difference but packaging will. Take the easy route and have a pizza delivered to their office with your resume and cover letter taped to the inside of the pizza box.

Or get a little creative. There’s something called the retro effect and what it says is everything will eventually come back into style slowly over time. For example, take a look around at recent fashion trends and you will draw connections from todays fashion to the late 80's/early 90’s. One idea that I love is to use the retro effect to your advantage. Obviously mailing in or dropping off a paper resume is super old school but take it a step further and try this. Go to your local grocery store and buy a bottle of cheap wine and corks. Pour the wine out and thoroughly wash the bottle. Roll up your resume and cover letter and put it in the bottle. Seal the bottle with a cork that is easily removable and decorate the outside of the bottle for extra points. Honestly, they will think this is cool af if you write another letter along with it why you thought this was a creative way to get there attention using the retro effect. Everyone as a young child dreamed of finding a message in a bottle at the beach so, yeah, it’ll be cool.

3. Show your employer why you can get the job done before you get the job

Listen closely, I am going to ask you to do a little more work than what your classes and clubs require. I know it is asking a lot because you need to maintain your relationship with Netflix but it will pay off in the long run.

This is piece of advice is actually two parts. Go to the company’s website and do some digging. Read some of their blog posts. Now go to LinkedIn and try to find their head of HR/Operations/Marketing. Slide into their DM's. Introduce yourself and tell them that you’re super interested in working specifically for their company. You want to learn a little more about their internship and how its competitive to every other marketing agency’s internship program. They will most likely redirect you to the person in charge of hiring interns. From then on continue to be super suave and strike a conversation about a particular project the agency is currently working on. Throw them some ideas and how you would execute it. Before you even step foot into an interview they will already know that you have great ideas and understand how to execute them. (Of course you still need to know how to execute them, so if you don’t understand how the Facebook power editor works in conjunction with Instagram, Snapchats Geofilters for Business, Google Analytics, or Youtube’s ad platform works then you might want to start there.)

Have some sort of side project to work on. Run a blog. Make music and post it to soundcloud. Have a youtube channel. Prove to the marketing agency that you know how to start something online and attract attention to it. Show them that you have the ability to create content that will attract thousands of followers. Even if it’s just a couple thousand that is still tangible. Do that, or start a small side business. For example, I am rebuilding an apparel company and it has forced me to learn online advertising all on my own but it’s cool because now I have a unique perspective to offer.

To close up the article here's a list of things you should probably be knowledgeable about and be sure to tell the employer:

Hubspot Inbound Marketing Certification

Google Analytics Certification

Facebook/Instagram Advertising Platform

- Facebook Power Editor

Snapchat Geofilters for Business (They are SUPER and efficient cheap rn)

Twitter advertising platform

Youtube advertising Platform

Social media management tools (Ex. Sprout Social)

Email Marketing tools (Ex. Mail chimp)

Understand how pages of a website can be used differently. Ex. Landing pages vs Home page

If you thought any of this advice was valuable please share this article with your friends that are also trying to struggle their way into an internship. They will appreciate it and so will I!