Recruiting for Internships

UW students submit tens of thousand of applications to internships every year! The following tools and resources will help support you in recruiting candidates for your internship positions. Get started with our summary recruitment resource and please contact us with any questions or for additional support in recruiting student employees.

Conduct Outreach

• Post your internship opportunities to Handshake, the UW Job & Internship board.
• Attend Career Fairs and other recruitment events to meet potential candidates.
• Connect with Registered Student Organizations (RSO’s) about your internship opportunities.
• Reach out to Other Campus Contacts and Career Centers to spread the word about your opportunities to specific departments.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Key points from our Employer Diversity and Inclusion Toolkit.

• • Cast as wide a net as possible to ensure a diverse candidate pool.
  • Be intentional about which groups and organizations you contact regarding your positions.
  • Tailor your outreach to specific communities and explain why you are interested in them.
  • Avoid tokenizing diverse communities or only contacting candidates because of their identities.

Consider Timing

• In the 2021-22 school year, winter quarter was the most popular time for Huskies to be searching for internships.  There were 50,983 applications submitted by UW students seeking internships on Handshake between Jan and March; 31,089 between Apr and June, 41,515 between Oct and Dec; and 20,560 between July and September.
• About two-thirds of Huskies want to do summer internships, but internships can take place at any time of the year.
• Try to post your internship 3-6 months ahead of when you want an intern to start.
• In some disciplines, summer intern recruitment often happens in autumn; these include tech, engineering, accounting, finance, and consulting.