Where to Find Internships in London

One of the best ways to transition from full time studies to a career in your chosen field is by doing an internship.

Doing an internship in your penultimate year of studies is one way to gain insightful experience in your career. Doing it in the penultimate year ensures that you don’t get too distracted before final year exams. 

There are a few ways to go about doing an internship, with many of them paid and others offering permanent job opportunities post-internship. Those who participate in internships already have their foot in the door with the company and so have an advantage over the endless pile of CVs that stack up in the recruitment office.

An increasing number of shorter internships exist  -  ‘insight weeks’ - aimed at first year students and lasting around two weeks. These days there are even online, virtual internships. 

London is a huge city full of endless opportunities and big businesses. A great deal of those companies offer internships. But where to find them? Let’s take a look at just a handful of London internships to point you in the right direction.

1. Organised Internship Programmes

One way to find internships in London is by applying for an organised internship programme. These basically make life easier for you by setting you up with businesses and offering some training and careers advice to boot. Here are a couple of examples of London internships programmes:

Global Experiences

At Global, the full-time internships programmes last between six weeks to six months.

The wide range of internships on offer are tailored to students and their individual career goals. You can choose from London internships in careers as varied as fashion to finance, amongst many others.

On the programme you receive individual support and group work, while enjoying the cultural and social programming and networking opportunities.

Global also organises full-time internships lasting between 8 to 12 weeks, taking place in summer, autumn and spring.

The Intern Group

If you’re looking for internships in London it might not have occurred to you that virtual internships from the comfort of your own home are an option.

The Intern Group has a global online London internships programme which offers a more flexible professional development path. 

You receive training and twelve-month access to exclusive, real-time keynote career talks from global business leaders. 

You can choose how many hours you complete per week, whether it be 10 hours or 40 hours - you are in charge of your timetable. You also decide how long the internship lasts - anywhere between 4 to 24 weeks. The programmes begin every month of the year, so it’s never too early or too late to get started!

2. Job Search Websites

One of the most common ways that prospective interns find their position is by using job search websites. All you have to do is upload your CV and covering letter to the job platform, add in a few preferences to tailor the search, and you’re off.

By simply searching for ‘internships in London’ you’ll find yourself deluged with opportunities, so make sure you whittle it down to your defined career field. And remember, London is a vast sprawling metropolis, so make sure that your search is tailored to be within reasonable travelling distance from your London student accommodation!

Here are just a few of the job search websites out there. Most of them have an app version too.

• Indeed
• TotalJobs
• Guardian Jobs
• Simply Hired
• Glassdoor (make sure you check out employee reviews of businesses on this website, so that you have some idea of what to expect before you get started)

You can always ask your university’s careers advice service to point you in the right direction for internships in London. Have a look on the uni jobs board website, as businesses often reach out to interns via university channels.

3. Ad Hoc Applications and Website Research

By doing a bit of research in your own time, you can easily come across some great opportunities for internships in London. If you take the time to look at company websites related to your chosen career, you’ll soon find placements.

It’s worth taking a look at governmental websites and big organisations in the city as well, as they are likely to offer opportunities. Take, for example, the internships at City Hall in London, which regularly post openings for paid London internships.

If you don’t find the information you’re looking for on the website, it’s also worth sending over an email, calling up, or contacting them via social media sites like LinkedIn to see whether such openings exist. Employers like pro-active candidates, and it doesn’t do any harm to ask.

In all, internships are a fantastic way to get some real-world experience before graduating, and a real CV-and-confidence booster. Living and studying in London, you’re in the best place to have a great student experience and long, fruitful career upon graduation!