Cybersecurity Internships
What is an internship?
An internship is when a company hires a student to work for a Summer or a semester. Co-ops are similar but usually there’s an agreement to return multiple times to the same company.
Companies provide internships because they’re a good way to test out potential hires. Additionally, an internship basically counts as training that a graduated new hire would receive, but interns are much cheaper than full time engineers.
Why should I get an internship?
Internships are good for students because they give you the types of hands-on experience you don’t receive in academia and help you build a solid resume for other future career experiences. If you can get one, you should (but it’s not impossible to succeed if you don’t).
Ok, so how do I get internships?
Cybersecurity specifically: companies love to hear about CTFs you’ve participated in or hacking tools you are familiar with, so talk about those.
1. Take advantage of OSU Career Fairs
This is by far the most efficient (in terms of time invested vs likelihood of receiving an offer) strategy for students. OSU has made it easy to quickly find then interview lots of candidates quickly, and companies want to take advantage of this. Companies likely know that the OSU curriculum matches up well with the work they want interns to do, so they are ready to hire OSU students. Additionally, you are almost guaranteed a chance to speak with and leave an impression on a real person, which is an immediate advantage over those who just applied online.
The 2 best career fairs for cybersecurity positions are the Fall Engineering Career Fair and the Spring SWE Career Fair. The Engineering Career Fair is early on in Fall semester so many freshman miss it, but you really should go!
You should spend some time preparing before the fair.
- You should create/update your resume and have someone at Engineering Career Services give you advice on it, then print 20 or so copies.
- You should look over the list of companies that will attend and pick several in particular you want to talk to. A list of good cybersecurity companies that have been at past OSU career fairs: Battelle, Northrop Grumman, Kudu Dynamics, Caesar Creek Software, PreTalen, KeyW. Some tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook also have cybersecurity positions, but you’ll have to wait in a long line of people looking to get software development positions to talk to the recruiters. That being said, if you do decide to wait in line, you can use your focus on a cybersecurity position as a method of standing out.
- You should apply to positions at companies BEFORE the fair so you can tell the recruiters you have specific positions in mind.
- You should research the companies you plan to talk to and prepare an elevator pitch which persuades them that you actually know the type of work they do and would be good at it. Don’t be afraid to be flashy and up front about your accomplishments.
- You shouldn’t stress too much. The recruiters don’t know if you failed a midterm that morning or procrastinated a paper for 3 months and stayed up the last 48 hours writing it: all you have to do is pretend to be confident for ~5 minutes. It’s ok if you bomb an elevator pitch: you get to try again immediately with the next company on your list!
If things go well, the recruiters might schedule a next-day interview with you.
2. Target specific companies
The goal with this approach is to utilize someone you know to end up talking to a real person, rather than submitting an application online and letting AI decide your fate. This might mean:
- Asking someone you know who works at <$TARGET_COMPANY> about internship positions.
- Reaching out to Cybersecurity Club contacts. This can be any company or person who has presented to the club. If you don’t know who the club is connected with, attend meetings and ask around.
- Asking a former coworker/employer to connect you to someone they know who currently works at <$TARGET_COMPANY>.
- Asking for referrals from former OSU students who now work at <$TARGET_COMPANY>.
- Sending messages to recruiters for <$TARGET_COMPANY> on LinkedIn.
If you succeed in getting a foothold, you are much more likely to get an interview than through the generic application process.
3. Cast a wide net
- Fill out the online applications for as many cyber-related internship postings you can find (via Handshake, LinkedIn, company-specific websites, google, etc.)
This option is listed last because it’s usually the least worth your time, only after you have exhausted methods which have a higher likelihood of success.
What does the internship work itself look like?
Typically you will have a mentor assigned to guide you. You might have training modules to complete. Ideally you would join a full project with a real team of full time engineers. However, in cybersecurity specifically, many projects require a security clearance to work on. If you don’t have a security clearance, you might instead work on a project with similar technical challenges as the projects for full timers, but with a target that isn’t important to national security. Often times this takes the form of an IRaD (Internal Research and Development) project where you work on an idea that the company wants to explore. If you want examples of specific past projects, look at the list of past club officers on the Club History page, add them on LinkedIn, then look at their descriptions of past internships.