Research Internship Guide PDF

THIS GUIDE IS FROM RISHAB JAIN’S FREE INTERNSHIP & RESEARCH GUIDE. Rishab has created 3-4 free PDF documents for high school students to use. This is one of them. If you enjoy this guide and want to check out the rest, go to this link here: https://rishabacademy.com/lists ———————- Hey there high s...

THIS GUIDE IS FROM RISHAB JAIN’S FREE INTERNSHIP & RESEARCH GUIDE. Rishab has created 3-4 free PDF documents for high school students to use. This is one of them. If you enjoy this guide and want to check out the rest, go to this link here: https://rishabacademy.com/lists ———————- Hey there high schooler! You are about to read a guide with an insane amount of JAMPACKED information with free resources and tools. Stick around. You may have spent hours browsing through the internet looking for the perfect internship opportunity. Or maybe you found an internship and are now wondering how to ace the application process. This guide will help you in both scenarios. Over his high school years, Rishab has had 4 internships (1 paid and 3 unpaid). Rishab has interned at organisations at the top of their fields. From creating brain tumor models at MIT to interning as a software engineer at a biotech company, Rishab has had a fair bit of experience. In his favorite internship, Rishab worked on making software solutions that enable synthetic biologic workflows and pipelines. If you didn’t understand a word in the previous sentence then trust me, you are not alone, I didn’t either 👀. All this is to say that Rishab has mastered the “Art of Scouring” and applying for internships. I have spoken to Rishab extensively to understand each of his techniques. In this guide I will be condensing all his years of sacred knowledge into actionable steps, because “What good is knowledge if you can’t put it to use” - Sun Tzu 🗿 … probably The Why ❓ There are 4 main reasons on why you should consider getting an internship while you are still in high school. 1. The Money 🤑 - Internships are a good way for high schoolers to earn some cash on the side. The money might not be a lot but the experience of getting your first paycheck will surely be worth it. This brings me to the next reason which is… 2. The Experience - By doing an internship you will get a sense of what it feels like to enter a professional environment. An internship could also confirm if your current field of interest is what you are passionate about and if you would want to make it your profession in the future. 3. Fun 🥳 - This point is pretty self-explanatory. But if you are truly interested in the field you choose to intern in, then it would turn out to be a pretty fun experience. 4. Boost for College Applications - By doing an internship you not only show the admissions officer that you are willing to take initiative and you already have prior work experience. But you are also differentiating yourself from the rest of the applicant pool as not everyone would be having an internship. By interning you will also prove to the admission officer that you are a human of focus, commitment and sheer will (anyone get the John Wick reference???). Useful Email Reference ✉ Rishab has given me never-seen-before access to his cold emails which he uses to obtain research positions/internships. Look. I’ll dissect more of this below… Dear Dr. [redacted], I was recently admitted to Harvard College’s Class of 2027 for a computational neuroscience concentration and will be enrolling this fall. I have a keen interest in exploring how we can improve AI modeling with inspiration from natural systems. I have read about the [redacted]'s community-building in this space and am eager to learn more. I am seeking a research opportunity under your guidance. For the last five years, I have been conducting computational biology, neuroscience, and biomedical engineering research — (link to my Google Scholar). This research has manifested both independently and with formal institution affiliations. My independent research has revolved around using machine learning & predictive modeling to solve biological and medical problems. I have conducted research on predicting glioblastoma multiforme tumor growth with encoder-decoder networks (link: preprint), predicting sarcopenia status of head & neck cancer patients with deep learning (links: paper, paper), improving pancreatic cancer radiotherapy with machine learning techniques (link: ref), genetic profiling patient biopsies using computer vision, and optimizing synthetic genes with codon optimization (link: preprint). Most memorably, I was named ‘America’s Top Young Scientist’ and one of TIME Magazine’s 25 Most Influential Teens for my research. I have worked in the Department of Radiology at the Oregon Health and Science University (my local university) and published two articles as a high school student as a co-author in the Frontiers in Oncology and Nature Scientific Data. This research involved leveraging machine learning techniques to automatically predict the presence of sarcopenia in patients. I have had the opportunity to present my findings at conferences such as ESTRO. Last summer, I conducted research at MIT’s MSEAS Group, leading a project on forecasting the progression of glioblastoma multiforme tumor growth using deep learning. These experiences have taught me the skills to work in a lab, work with others and under guidance, as well as write academic papers. I am in the process of publishing this most recent research work. I am highly interested in a research opportunity with you and would be interested in starting parttime immediately, or full-time this summer. Please see attached my resume which details my accomplishments thus far, research goals, as well as work experience. I'd be very happy to speak to you further if you could find the time to discuss with me. If this is not possible, I would appreciate it if you could provide any references to help me obtain a research opportunity throughout my undergraduate years. Thank you for your time & consideration! Rishab Kumar Jain https://rishabjaink.com Cover Letter ✉ Now that you made your mind to apply for internships the first main piece of material that you would require… you guessed it… it’s a cover letter! A cover letter is essential while applying for internships, especially if you are a high school student. Because when recruiting, a company would want to know your reason for wanting to learn and your drive to work in a specific field apart from just your grades. For an internship selection committee, good grades are nothing new and they see it all the time. You need something to stand out from the crowd and a cover letter is essentially your pitch to the committee on why you are unique and why you are the best applicant for the job. Have a look at Rishab’s Cover letter below: The first thing that you notice about this “Work of Literature” is the tone. This Cover Letter has a really formal tone and starts off with Rishab’s address, phone number and email. Coming to the actual content of the writeup itself, let’s break it down paragraph by paragraph. The Hook 🪝 - In the first paragraph your aim is to hook the audience. It is said that an average admissions officer spends less than 15 minutes per application. The same can be said about an internship committee member. The only difference is that in college applications you are going up against people of your age, however for internships you might actually be competing for a spot in the same applicant pool as some one who is significantly elder than you. So for the same internship spot you might be competing against a person who is in process of completing university whilst you are still in high school. Therefore the only way you stand a chance is if you hook the audience. The goal is to make sure that the committee members root for you and remember who you are after reading your cover letter. Now the best way that Rishab found to do this is to name drop his achievements and then show his passion. This is why, he wrote about him being “America’s Top Young Scientist” and speaking at TEDx, because it immediately differentiates Rishab from the rest. His achievements are unique and not many people can say the same thing about themselves. So when you are writing your hook paragraph, don’t be afraid to namedrop a little. If it’s an internship where there is no set application for listing your achievements or attaching a CV, you likely won’t be able to mention any of your achievements later either. Why not do it now? If you are worried about not having enough titles or awards to brag about, don’t worry. Most people are in this boat. You still can have the same “Hook” effect by telling a captivating story about your journey. Think of this paragraph like one of your college essays—try telling a story which shows you overcoming a challenge by using your interpersonal skills or something of that sort. Skills 🎯 - Here (in the second paragraph) Rishab talks about the Skills he developed over the years. What he mainly focuses on are the skills that relate to the internship position that he is applying to. Therefore Rishab talks about Data Curation, Problem Solving, Statistical Analysis, Bioinformatics, etc. So while you are writing your skills paragraph focus on the skills that relate to the position that you are applying for in an internship. What’s even more insightful is that instead of plainly listing out all his skills, which would have made reading this paragraph a nightmare. Rishab instead cohesively weaves the skills he developed with major events that occurred in his life (being named Time’s 25 Most influential Teens, speaking at TEDxGateway, etc). This gives those skills a sense of narrative and makes the paragraph more engaging to read as now those skills that he developed have a story to them. So try to present your skills in a story like format as that would make it more engaging to read and would increase the chances of people remembering you. Community Involvement 🏘 - If you are applying for an internship at a local college or a local company then though it is not essential, this paragraph might help to show a bit of community engagement and add a bit of depth to your personality. Rishab added this paragraph in his cover letter because when he was applying for a science based internships, it made perfect sense that he talks about giving back to his community and giving back to science as well. His activities implicitly show that Rishab is a leader, He can collaborate with a team and lead one if the need arises. These are all skills that would be useful in a potential science based internship and a company or university would be looking for these skills in there applicants. Therefore, try talking about activities that you participated in to better your local community and try to focus on talking about actives that make people perceive you as a leader or a person with high social skills. Writer’s Note: IB Students—this a really good opportunity to flex your CAS activities. Probably the only time CAS will ever be useful. GPA 💯 - This again is optional but Rishab in his Cover Letter also mentioned his GPA as it shows the internship selection committee that he is doing well in academics and is excelling in all his courses and by extension will excel in the internships as well. CV (Curriculum Vitae) Here’s Rishab’s old CV: https://docs.google.com/document/d/ 1xIcD4V8Fnn854z0eqJ7ASQysnB_6nyrDnEIYxeqwZEI/edit?usp=sharing The next step is to make a killer CV/Resume. A CV is required if you intend of getting internships at really big companies or public colleges. The reason for that is…you are literally a high schooler, bestie 👶 We don’t have PhD’s in Mechanical engineering, we don't have a job at SpaceX yet, so we cant flex college degrees or prior job experience to get internships. To make things even worse, we might be going up against university students for the same internships spots who might have a few of those certifications or prior work experience. This is why it is essential that we go above and beyond in the application process and make a really deep impact on the minds of the Internship selection committee. How do we do this you might ask… similar to how “Thanos used the stones to destroy the stones” in Endgame, we need to use our existing EC’s to create new EC’s (internships). What that means is to make up for the lack of college degrees that we high schoolers do not have. We instead need to flaunt our current extracurriculars (Research, Projects, Community service, etc). Writer’s Note: IB students once again a really good opportunity to flex your CAS (don’t let all that effort go to waste). For your CV—because you do not have a college degree or past job experience, you can instead talk about your coding projects that you worked on last summer. Or you can talk about how you developed content writing skills by freelancing for a bunch of creators Writers note: Kind of what I am doing right now, follow my footsteps, kids. Listing these experiences would show the internship selection committee that you are a passionate individual who strives to make time for your interests. It also shows that you are different from the rest of the people your age because most other high schoolers are wasting their time playing Valorant and watching TikTok (yikes). In the end, all this adds up. If done right a CV could be a game changer for your internship application. Important Note: You wont be listing any of these when you are creating a proper CV when you are like 30-years-old, applying for an actual job. You are just doing it now because you are a high schooler and you don't have better stuff to talk about. Interview (Rishab’s Top Tips to rizz up your interviewer) Rishab has given me access to his paid course about this. It’s honestly a game changer. I would recommend buying it here (using code P16 for $5 off): https://rishabacademy.com/scholar-class Imagine this, lets say you are an interviewer and you have 2 candidates in front of you. The first candidate is Harry. Now let’s say that Harry is a student who has the perfect GPA. To maintain his grades, Harry’s parents have hired 3 different tutors. Harry also has pretty impressive extracurricular portfolio. For the past 4 years Harry’s parents forced him to conduct research work at a lab owned by their family. While interviewing, Harry doesn't seem enthralled about his experiences. Instead, he gives all the credit to the nature of his over-controlling parents. Now on the other hand, you have a second candidate named Peter. Peter doesn't have a perfect GPA, though his scores are still pretty high. However instead of hiring tutors to teach Peter, Peter actually tutors younger kids in his local neighborhood to earn some extra money to support his family. Moreover, though Peter doesn't have as much research experience as Harry did. However, Peter worked with just one lab (using cold emailing strategies like Rishab’s email above) at his local university and wrote a research paper with him. It’s not a position at Harvard like Harry, but he did something real. While interviewing Peter, you notice that he is really passionate about all his activities and is really excited talking about them to you. Now if you were to pick 1 intern for your new STEM based enterprise, which one of them are you more likely to hire??? Most people would pick Peter rather than Harry. This is because though Peter has a lower GPA and though he has less work experience in research, he is more interested in the field. He is also more likely to work harder—and will get stuff done for your company. No matter whose team you were on (rip to students on team Harry), at the end of the day, you have to realize that your interviewer is a person too. They are more likely to pick you as an applicant for an internship if they genuinely see you as a person who is interested in the field (of course metrics & grades still matter). So don't be afraid to show yourself as a person and do what you would for your college application. Showcase your skills/talents ✨ Let’s now start with a few actionable stuff that you can do right now. The first main thing that you need to work on, is a way to showcase your skills/talents online. For that you need to create a portfolio for yourself. For example when a new actors want to get roles in a movie. Their talent agent sends the casting director a reel which is a mashup of all the different roles the actor has been a part off, along with the actors audition for the specific role. Similarly when you are applying for an internship and for college admissions too, creating a online portfolio for yourself will take you a long way. So whenever you are applying for an internship, link your portfolio to it. This shows the company/organisation that you actually have experience in the field and instead of being a liability for the org you would actually end up being an asset if you get the gig. What kind of portfolio you need to create really depends on your field. Here are a few examples: Design/Creative- Dribble Videography/Social Media- IG/Tiktok (please find an alternative 🙏 )/YouTube, etc. Coding/Software- Github Business/Anything else- Portfolio Website Rishab actually has 2 portfolio websites. Portfolio Website. Looking through it can give you a bit of inspiration to get you started. Now if you actually take a look at Rishab’s website then you will realise how extensive it is. Rishab sweated a lot during high school and honestly speaking, this level of achievements/ honours or even web design of his portfolio isn't required for an average student like you and me. However if you are interested to know the more intricate details of the webpage then… Rishab essentially created his website by finding a template, cloning it and filling his own details about his EC’s, honours, etc. in it. You don’t need to have as many pages in your portfolio website like Rishab did. You can just have the following and that would be a good enough start and will make you stand out from the majority of other high schoolers: - About page (who you are) - Page for EC’s, projects, stuff that you worked on in your free-time - Contact page LinkedIn 🔗 Arguably this is way more important than the online portfolio or your own webpage. LinkedIn is a software that almost every corporate entity uses and is a really a good platform to flex your Achievements, Skills, Work experience, etc. Moreover you can link your LinkedIn profile in your email, CV and you can even connect with people from the internship selection board (of the org. you are applying to) prior to the interview to show initiative and make a good first impression. So, LinkedIn is like super versatile and very helpful for us high schoolers. If you make it to the latter stages of the college admission process, most admission officers actually look up your socials, so having a fully fleshed out LinkedIn profile could potentially score you a few extra points. Rishab has his own LinkedIn profile and it is something you can look for inspiration. It’s not perfect yet, however, it is something legitimate you can expect from a high schooler. Rishab’s LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/rishab-jain-k Rishab’s note: send a connect request to me on LinkedIn above!!! Writer’s note: I (the writer) also have my own LinkedIn Profile which I modeled after Rishab’s Profile, so feel free to look at my LinkedIn too: Rithik (the writer’s) LinkedIn- https:// www.linkedin.com/in/rithikjampala- 6aa599267 Remember guys: Bill Gates’ LinkedIn Profile < Rishab’s LinkedIn profile < Rithik (the writer’s) LinkedIn profile JK, please don’t fire me Rishab. Email Nicely 📧 When you are emailing be as professional and as polite as you can be. Here are a few changes you can do that will instantly make a difference: 1. Set a really warm and formal profile picture with your face clearly visible. 2. Use the Georgia font (Rishab’s signature secret) 3. Have a nice signature block (the ending part of the email) 4. Link your website For an idea of the cold email template Rishab used, scroll up! Here’s a free template for you to use: Dear Dr. _____, My name is ______ and I am currently a ______ in high school. I am emailing you to ask if you would consider me for a ___ internship in your laboratory. I am interested in the intersection between medicine/healthcare/neuroscience/machine learning/AI/etc. and hypothesisdriven laboratory research and I plan to go into (career, e.g. healthcare) in the future. It is for this reason that I would be very excited to have the opportunity to contribute to your laboratory’s research in/on ____. I am particularly interested in _____. Last summer I ______. I was introduced to ___(subject/topic)___ in my ____(class) where I learned how to ________. I really want to explore this subject further by being able to conduct research first-hand. Additionally, I would be highly open to attending meetings, journal clubs, or presentations to learn more about your research area. I have attached my resume to this email for your consideration. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would like any additional information. Thank you for your time and consideration of my request. Sincerely, [Your name] (include portfolio website if you have one) How to actually find an Internship 🔎 There are 3 main ways to find Internships: 1. Using Google Info Box- This is by far the simplest of all the methods. If you go to Google and search for something along the lines of “How to get internships in highschool,” you will actually find a list of internship titles that you can apply for in your local area: 2. Using LinkedIn- Once you make your LinkedIn profile, if you go to the “jobs” tab, the algorithm will suggest jobs and internships based on your current skillset and past experiences. You can try finding an internship here. If the requirements do not suit you but your skillsets matches with the job description then you can actually consider cold emailing that company for a short term internship that they don’t have listed on linkedIn. 3. Apply for Stem Programs- This is a whole new realm of knowledge that we cant really explore in this guide right now. However Rishab made a video on this topic on his YouTube channel so you should go check it out: Link Conclusion Rishab has a list of 50 high-quality research & internship programs here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/ 2PACX-1vRsaACC2R5aC9BPcfjn4hCPpBWMKSjA0I7gHANlX9GqjxBYSsgy8qnnn5Y5GKXOMAIP QnJOEJcMwADL/pub As well as a list of scholarships and STEM competitions here: https://docs.google.com/ document/d/e/ 2PACX- 1vSsEQt_DSnGUnN0IzHezY0h4Z9G07bUbWbBxqv8laDEgCBKBCBbl_g52sevTPQkLr13g KoBQqHTajEU/pub That sums it up for the internship guide. Be sure to check out Rishab’s YouTube channel for more videos related to college applications and EC’s so that you can get into your dream school. His recent videos have some unique advice no other influencers give. Rishab Jain Socials Instagram- https://instagram.com/rishab_j_23 Linkedin- https://www.linkedin.com/in/rishab-jain-k Rithik (The Writer) Email- [email protected] Email me if you need copywriting/other queries! LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/rithik-jampala-6aa599267