As February begins, the search for internships intensifies for many upperclassmen. Handshake, a popular job search tool, reports a major uptick in internship applications this year. Each posting now attracts 109 applications on average — up from 62 last year and 43 in 2024.
Zoe Fundora, a career coach at the Toppel Career Center, states several reasons for this increase in internship applications.
“People feel a lot of pressure to secure jobs earlier, as well as social media, seeing people working immediately, finding these internship connections,” she said. “Every year things are getting more competitive and starting earlier.”
Handshake reports that 41% of students in the class of 2025 had applied to at least one internship as of January 2025, compared to 34% of students in the class of 2023 by the end of their undergraduate careers.
Students are increasingly understanding how internships not only provide real world experience and resume building, but also help students figure out what they want to do in the future.
According to Handshake, among the students who participated in internships, 79% said “the experience had a moderate or significant impact on their level of interest in working full-time for their internship employer.”
Sawyer Bland, a sophomore double majoring in finance and quantitative economics, is on the hunt for a summer 2026 internship in commercial real estate.. Last summer he worked as a management operations intern for the St. Louis Shock Professional Pickleball Team.
Internship postings for technology and professional services, such as commercial real estate, receive about twice as many applications as the overall average, according to Handshake. Therefore, many students in these fields are applying much earlier.
“I started [applying] over Thanksgiving break,” Bland states. “I’ve probably applied to over 200 internships.”
Fundora said she urges the accounting and finance majors to apply much earlier due to their competitive nature.
Logan Tridel, a senior studying business tech, legal studies and HR management, has worked as an intern at Paramount, NBCUniversal and Peacock. She applied to around 20 or 30 internships. Instead of just filling out applications and hoping to get a call back, she focused all her attention and networking towards the ones she really cared about.
Fundora states that networking early on is a crucial step. A good first step is to workshop your LinkedIn and begin making connections, even with individuals in fields completely different than yours.
“It feels more genuine when you are looking for internships, and you’re reaching out to people, not for the first time, but you’ve already built that back and forth by doing informational interviews and getting to know what these people do in their line of work,” Fundora said.
A U.S. News & World Report study on 1,740 interns in the fall of 2025, found that 60% of them relied on LinkedIn to acquire their internship, and 42% relied on personal networking.
Bland mentions that his membership in Alpha Kappa Psi, a business fraternity on campus, has been very helpful for professional development and networking. There are many professional communities around campus that can improve students’ relations and connections.
Tridel states that one of the classes in the business school, the sophomore career class, taught by Mark Shapiro was pivotal in her search for internships.
“What was taught in that class was how to network, how to use LinkedIn as a search engine and really make the most out of the University of Miami alumni base,” Tridel said.
Most of all Tridel states that using the alumni network has been most helpful to helping her find connections and opportunities.
“I reached out to a bunch of UM alumni via LinkedIn and asked them for informational interviews and for calls,” Tridel said. “I know you always say canes care for canes, but I’ve definitely found that to be true in my internship search process.”
Bland states that to begin searching for opportunities he used resources such as Handshake, LinkedIn, and specific company websites. While there are many things students can do prior to applications, Bland emphasizes the importance of the interview process.
Bland states how before his interviews he conducts research about the firm, as well as who’s interviewing him, if it’s listed, and what their experience is like professionally on the team.
While you must do a decent amount of professional research on the company and recruiter, Tridel also mentions the importance of getting to know your recruiter personally and being a personable interviewee.
“Sometimes I’ll even go further and get a sense for who they are, not only as a professional, but as a person. Trying to find those little things here and there that can spark good conversation naturally,” Tridel said.
On the other hand, many interviews are now taking place using HireVue, an AI-powered interview process according to Bland. Bland points out that this makes the process more challenging.
“They can have an AI just sort your [application], and then just by whatever algorithm that their AI is using they can throw your application in the trash pile. You could be a totally good candidate,” Bland states.
Fundora states that even after the interviews it’s important to continue expressing your interest. She states how it’s very important to follow up afterwards to show your continued interest. According to Fundora, the more people who have heard your name, the better.
While the landscape for internships is growing more and more competitive, using your resources and being prepared can make the difference. For Bland and Tridel, using their connections wisely, strengthening their resume, and being well educated on the firms, and recruiters that were interviewing them helped them to be successful in the process.