Can I Get an Internship With No Experience? Yes, Here's How.

Trying to land your first internship with nothing but your coursework and a blank resume can feel brutal. You click through listing after listing, and there it is again: "Must have prior experience." It's enough to make you close the tab before even applying.

But remember: you can still land an internship, even if you've never had one before. We talked to the team at Simplify, who've reviewed thousands of early-career applications, and they had one clear takeaway:

You don't need to be perfect. But you do need to be visible and real about the effort required.

If you're aiming for an internship in tech, data, marketing, or product, and you've got no formal experience to show for it yet, this one's for you.

---

1. Start With What You've Got, and Make It Clear

Just because you haven't been paid for your work yet doesn't mean it doesn't count. But how you present that work makes all the difference.

You might have:

• Done team-based class projects or capstones
• Built tools or dashboards for a club or campus org
• Volunteered your time designing flyers or managing socials
• Contributed to an open-source repo or hackathon project

If all you've done is finish a single Python project for class, let's be honest, that's probably not enough on its own for a computer science internship with no experience. But:

• Did you build something you can link to?
• Have you shipped multiple projects that actually run?
• Have you worked on a team?
• Can you explain what you learned and what problem it solved?

Now you're talking.

This is where people mess up. They assume "beginner internships" = low standards. Not true. No one's expecting a stacked resume, but they do want to see direction, self-awareness, and effort that extends beyond class.

---

2. Short on Time? Go Wide.

If it's late in the recruiting cycle, say, spring semester and you still don't have anything, the smartest move isn't to stress-build a whole portfolio in a week. It's to increase surface area.

That means:

• Apply broadly to no-experience internships (filter for them, Simplify makes that easy)
• Use cold email + LinkedIn DMs to reach out to people you already know or admire from afar
• Ask professors, old TAs, or even student org leads if they know anyone looking for help
• Pitch small projects: "Can I do a one-off deck?" "Do you need help with XYZ?"

If you're not ready to land a full summer internship, start with a smaller "in", even 10 hours a week on a short-term project counts. That's the kind of thing that builds fast, real credibility.

Most people won't ask. That's your edge.

---

3. If You've Got Time, Build Something Public

When you're early in your career, and nobody knows you yet, publishing is how you get seen.

You don't need a massive GitHub or a startup. But you do need something that lives online, shows effort, and gives people a reason to take a second look.

Some paths:

• Aspiring PM or marketer? Do a teardown of a real product. Publish on Medium or LinkedIn.
• Interested in design? Redesign an app's signup flow and write a case study.
• Want to be a data analyst? Grab a public dataset and walk through your insights. Make it visual.

Pro tip from the Simplify team: "Hiring teams remember people who put their work out there. It shows initiative, and gives them something to click on that isn't just a PDF resume."

Yes, it's scary to put yourself out there. But the people who do? They're the ones who stand out.

And one more thing, don't over-rely on tools like ChatGPT. It's fine to get a jumpstart, but your output still needs to sound like you. Recruiters can smell copy-paste from a mile away.

---

4. Use Cold Outreach (the Right Way)

Don't wait for applications to open and then panic-apply and ask for referrals. Build relationships before you need them.

You can:

• DM someone who has a job you want and ask how they got there
• Reach out to alumni and thank them for a blog post or project
• Ask a recruiter or past intern what surprised them about the role
• Offer to help on something small, even just editing a doc or giving feedback

No, this doesn't guarantee an internship. But it makes you visible. And warm intros almost always outperform cold applications.

The Simplify team's take: "Referrals go to the people who already felt familiar, not the ones who spammed on launch day."

So start showing up early. Show you care. And follow up once. People are busy, not rude.

---

5. Stop Waiting for Permission

Way too many people think they have to wait until they get the job to start doing the work.

Nope.

You don't need to be an intern yet to:

• Write about your learning process
• Launch a mini-project
• Fix something that annoys you
• Volunteer on something low-stakes

You don't need someone to hand you a "first internship" if you can build your own version of one right now. Want to be in comms? Write a weekly newsletter. Want to do user research? Interview a few friends and put together the insights.

You're not behind; you're early. And you can start before you're "qualified."

---

Final Thoughts

Yes, you can get an internship with no experience, but you can't wait around for someone to find you.

Whether you're short on time or playing the long game, your biggest tools are:

• Clarity: Know what kind of roles you're aiming for
• Volume: Get visible, everywhere
• Proof: Show you can do the work, not just talk about it
• Grit: Don't give up when the first twenty apps go silent

Every intern started out as someone with zero experience. The ones who made it? They started anyway.

And even if you don't land something this round, you'll be ten times more prepared when the next one opens.

So stop overthinking it. Build. Apply. Publish. Reach out.

You'll be way ahead of the people who are still refreshing job boards six months from now.

Want to find an internship that requires no experience and matches your skills and interests? Join Simplify and get matched with relevant job openings. Over 200 million applications were submitted through Simplify this year - start using it to find your next internship today!!