I lowkey sabotaged my own internship search☠️. And no, improving my resume wasn't what got me my internship. Beginning of Summer 2026 , I knew I would face the demon of finding an internship as my college demands it. So, the semester break started exactly how you'd expect with me binge-watching The Boys, Daredevil, and Invincible instead of worrying about internships. But eventually reality hit. Or I should say I ran out of Good material to watch (I did found a few afterwards tho ) and the good part was over then I , like any other desperate student , started scanning platforms like LinkedIn , Naukri.com , basically any platform I could think of , for internships, commenting on Every insta reel that claimed to have an "underrated internship platform." Meanwhile, the evil part of my brain was like, "If it's actually underrated, why are you telling everyone? Just DM me and let everyone else keep struggling until I get my internship." 😭. Well so begins the search Operation to find my “Made for me“ internship. I started searching LinkedIn applying Blindly to any job opening Sales, marketing, Founders office intern and the list goes on. And oh yeah ofc ChatGPT and Claude came to my rescue like my “Knightess in shining armour?” when I wanted to design my resume. Guiding me at every step of the way, it’s not like I don’t know how to make a good resume or a cover letter I mean we had an elective subject in our semester 2 of my course as “Resume Writing and Corporate communication” (where I flew like Superman – Man of steel during my exams btw). So, all done, a decent resume with 3-4 achievements, hobbies and my experience as an intern in an NGO mentioned. Now here is how I pulled a few Star-Lord mistakes on my own internship hunt which btw was and is no less than an Infinity War ( I really hope u get the reference) Star-Lord Move #1: Applying to Literally Everything During my search I wasn't applying strategically but I was applying emotionally. If there was an "Apply" button, I clicked it. Sales? Sure. Marketing? Why not. HR? At this point, absolutely. Founder’s Office? Sounds fancy, count me in. Star-Lord Move #2: Only using LinkedIn and Internshala For weeks I convinced myself LinkedIn was the place for internships. If it wasn't on LinkedIn, I would go to Internshala then I would either throw a tantrum or be demotivated ( yeah yeah ik how Naruto of me). Star-Lord Move #3: Refreshing Gmail every 10 minutes I don't know what I expected. That a recruiter would wake up in the middle of the night, see my application, and immediately schedule an interview? Every notification gave me hope...but again it would either be one of my friends sending the Gayest possible reel or a WhatsApp message from my brother sending his annoying, new yet funny and relatable sticker. Star-Lord Move #4: Thinking bigger company = better internship Every startup with 10 employees? Ignored.(Just like your crush ignored your messeges ) Every company with a shiny logo? Applied immediately. Turns out, smaller startups were actually more likely to reply and let interns do real work. After a week of constant ghosting, I finally stopped trying to be Spider-Man swinging from one application to another and became Tony Stark for a day. Instead of asking, "Why isn't anyone hiring me?" I asked, "What am I doing wrong?" and “How do I make myself more discoverable by recruiters?” That last Question did the job , coz my friend told me something similar about a platform where recruiters call u and look for u if u have ur resume uploaded I remembered and he added me to a Group for jobs, so I opened WhatsApp searched for that group I didn’t remember the name but I knew I would know it when I see it , well then it was my opening a chest I'd been walking past the entire game moment , The group was- “SarthiQ Internships &Jobs” There were way more openings than I expected. At that point I was already tired of getting ghosted, so I figured, "What's one more application?" And so I open it and applied for the role that I thought matched my strength and then started playing Watch Dogs 2 (underrated game btw ). I remember sleeping at that night and saying it’s been one week of constant applications let’s give time to them for replying. And so I genuinely stopped. A few days later I receive a call , Truecaller’s notification informed me it was someone probably their HR from SarthiQ , I picked up that call and I won’t lie the first few moments were like I am Bear Grylls stumbling down a rocky plateau or a terrain or a valley. First question , felt like my brain left the station no notice, no goodbye, just gone , I just sat there, buffering like Tony's suit trying to boot up with 12% power, while outside I was probably giving off "definitely has an answer, just building suspense" energy ( probably ) But then they asked about my NGO internship at Ashtradharini, and that's when I stopped being Peter with stage fright and switched to a confident Tony Stark mode. Not because I had a rehearsed answer but I genuinely just started talking about what that experience was actually like, what I learned, why it mattered to me. And I could feel the energy shift, like the call went from interrogation room lighting to "okay we're just talking now." After that it was a smooth ride no reboots needed Turns out the rocky start had used up all my nerves, and what was left was just me, actually talking like myself. A couple of days later , I received the offer letter through a mail , I shared the news with my cousins then me and my cousins went out to celebrate. Funny enough, the internship I finally got came from the one place I almost ignored. Looking back I realised that resume was never the villain but my strategy was once I started playing at my strengths , I could find what was for me. If you've somehow made it this far, here's what I'd tell anyone looking for an internship: • Stop applying Randomly to every job opening u see on the internet • If u can’t find internship on one platform try other platforms ,explore startup communities, WhatsApp groups, referrals, and newer student-focused platforms too. In my case, that happened to be SarthiQ. • Give yourself some time to think about what and how are u applying for internships. • Apply for the roles that match ur strengths • And lastly Don’t wait for a perfect resume , just start with what u have make it better later.

I lowkey sabotaged my own internship search☠️. And no, improving my resume wasn't what got me my internship.