Beyond the Classroom

Careers and Internships

Get credit for your internship or research project!

Have an internship or research project that aligns with your sustainability interests? You can earn academic credit through ESE 401, a course designed to give you credit for hands-on experience. Offered every semester and open to both on-campus and online students, ESE 401 lets you apply what you're learning in the real world.

Learn How to Get Started

Looking for some resources to help you find a job?

Campus Career Resources

Job Board & External Resources

Searching for a job or internship?

Illinois Handshake is your friend. Create a profile and learn how to use it.

https://illinois.joinhandshake.com/

You will need a resume, material for a cover letter, and a LinkedIn profile. Start at the Career Center for directives about putting those together:

https://careercenter.illinois.edu/

Once you have a LinkedIn profile, go ahead and join the group that enables ESES majors and alums to connect:

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8363806

By adding themselves to this group, alumni have indicated that they are interested and available to talk with current students about their work and how they got to where they are.

If you’re looking for an internship, why not start with the Career Center’s internship search help?

https://careercenter.illinois.edu/jobs-and-internships/internships

Then, if you're looking for an ESES-related internship, try 

https://earth.illinois.edu/academics/earth-society-and-environmental-sustainability-academics/careers-and-internships/national

and

https://earth.illinois.edu/academics/state-local-internships

Advice from retired professor, Rob Kanter

  1. Tell everyone everywhere what you are doing, and ask them if they have any suggestions for you--i.e., thoughts on people who do similar work you might want to talk to, job openings, organizations that do work you might like (whether or not they are hiring). Who is everyone everywhere? Your parents. Your aunts and uncles. Your parents’ neighbors. Your aunts and uncles’ neighbors. People in line at the store. Current teachers. Former teachers. Current employers. Former employers. You get the picture.
     
  2. Use Dr. Kanter’s Patented Reverse Search® for jobs, internships, and contacts for information interviews. Nothing is more frustrating or worse for the psyche than feeling limited to answering ads as you search for a job or internships. So, get over yourself and get over that feeling. Use the resources available to you to identify people who do jobs you’d like to do at places you’d like to work, make contact with them by phone or email, and interview them!

    LAS Career Services guidance for informational interviews:
    https://www.careercenter.illinois.edu/informational_interviews

    Please remember that the world outside the university is far less hierarchical than most students expect, and many professionals are more than happy to talk with curious young people about how they got where they are. (The ones who are not will tell you so, and you lose nothing by asking.)
     
  3. Write the thank you. Every time. Whether or not things went well. Whether or not you liked the person. Whether or not you think you will ever cross paths with them again. Whether or not you write it “late.” Write it and send it.