{"id":2153,"date":"2021-03-18T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/?p=2153"},"modified":"2025-10-22T15:15:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T14:15:15","slug":"speculative-internship-applications-part-one-how-to-find-employers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/2021\/03\/18\/speculative-internship-applications-part-one-how-to-find-employers\/","title":{"rendered":"Speculative internship applications part one: How to find employers"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lot of internship opportunities are never\u00a0<\/span>advertised, or<\/span>\u00a0might only get created after a speculative contact to an organisation. This is especially true if you are interested in working at a smaller employer who won\u2019t have the more formal organised internships schemes that larger organisations have.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So how do you get these opportunities if they are never advertised? You\u2019ll need to take a speculative approach and seek out employers to target. In this post we\u2019ll take you through how to find organisations to approach. Look out for part two where we\u2019ll cover how to craft your speculative application to the organisations you find!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Get\u00a0networking<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

A great place to start is doing a bit of networking. This can be as simple as asking around your friends to see if anyone has any connections to any organisations that might be worth approaching. Or talking to people on your course who might have already done an internship and can recommend an organisation for you to approach.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You can also try online networking through\u00a0<\/span>Bath Connection<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>and LinkedIn. Bath\u00a0<\/span>Connection is<\/span>\u00a0an<\/span>\u00a0alumni\u00a0<\/span>networking platform specifically for Bath alumni and students. On here you can search through alumni experts who are on the site because they are happy to be contacted by students. Try searching for\u00a0<\/span>graduates\u00a0<\/span>working in the areas you want to gain experience with and start connecting! We\u2019d recommend not going straight in with asking about internships though, have a chat first. Even if this doesn\u2019t lead to work experience, these chats can still give you interesting insights and future connections.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Find out more about networking on\u00a0<\/span>MyFuture<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Try some searches<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Another approach is to try searching for organisations of interest.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Organisations on\u00a0<\/span>MyFuture<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

An easy way to start is by using the Organisations tab on\u00a0<\/span>MyFuture<\/span>. Here you can find a directory of every single employer who has ever advertised on\u00a0<\/span>MyFuture<\/span>. Most of the time, employers register directly with us on\u00a0<\/span>MyFuture<\/span>\u00a0because they want to target Bath students.\u00a0<\/span>So<\/span>\u00a0if you find them in the Organisation list there is a good chance that at some\u00a0point\u00a0they were interested in Bath students.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By searching through organisations on here, you can find companies to further explore and potentially contact.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

From the\u00a0<\/span>O<\/span>rganisations tab you can also see the vacancies companies have advertised with us previously, even if they aren\u2019t advertising anything now. This can give\u00a0you\u00a0ideas of what internships they may have advertised previously and help you target a speculative application as it will give you an idea of the skills they value.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Using the FAME database<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Another great way to search is using the FAME database available via the library (current students only). FAME is a directory of every company in the UK and\u00a0Ireland\u00a0and you can search it based on different criteria. This includes things like sector, location, number of employees and more.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By using FAME and narrowing down your criteria you can very quickly get a \u201chit list\u201d of companies in your area of interest to work through. This is a great way of finding smaller companies and companies specific to a\u00a0<\/span>particular area<\/span>\u00a0that you may not have come across otherwise.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Find out more about how to use FAME<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Be flexible<\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0open<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Our final tip for finding employers for internships that might not be advertised is to keep an open mind. Being open to exploring your career option and networking is not always going to lead to a formal internship but it may help to inform your career options and give you useful future connections.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, when seeking out opportunities you may get offered work experience, work shadowing or a careers chat. Even though this isn\u2019t the paid internship you were hoping for \u2013 these opportunities can still give you useful insights and lead to opportunities in future.\u00a0<\/span>So<\/span>\u00a0don\u2019t discount them!\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Final thought<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Hopefully this gives you some ideas for finding employers to target who may not advertise internships. You can find more information on\u00a0<\/span>MyFuture<\/span>:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n