How do I get a data science internship without experience?

We work with a lot of employers, and time and again the number one piece of feedback we get when they reject candidates is that “they didn’t seem to know, or care, much about our company.” You’d be surprised by how much employers will forgive a lack of experience, when a passion for their mission statement, product or ethos is made abundantly clear.   What does this mean in practical terms? It means more work.   It means not just firing off a generic CV and Cover Letter to anyone and everyone you think might take you on, but rather carefully considering who you are applying to, what skills they are looking for, and what kind of person you think they’ll want to work with.   It means putting a bit of time into investigating their competitors, into what makes them different, and into how you feel you’re the best possible fit for their team. It means getting interested in their industry, gleaning some knowledge, and DEMONSTRATING that knowledge on your application. You may not have the ‘experience’ of others – but if you can demonstrate research skills, ability to come up with ideas, hard work, passion and a sense of humour within your job application itself, you’re already a cut above the rest.   At the end of the day, applying for an internship with no experience can feel daunting, but by maximising the life skills you’ve already achieved, drawing focus to your academic achievements and – most importantly – demonstrating attractive skill-sets within the application itself, it should be no barrier to getting a splendid job.

Here are just a couple of things to consider when looking at all of this. Unless you are applying to the absolute top-of-the-top data science internships, don't worry about knowing how to work all the latest statistics package. Employers expect you to learn on the job. They will be far more impressed if you know the why behind the statistical methods and approaches. They will be less impressed if you say you ran it through some calculations in R like so because a TA of yours did that once. With that being said, it would probably suit you well to learn one of them just so you can start to get experience with the workflow. Minor in stats if you want the knowledge gained; not for the title or for better positioning for an internship. The statistics knowledge will do you well throughout CS. My one regret having just wrapped up my B.S. in C.S. is not pushing myself through more stats and linear algebra. However, employers won't care how you learn it so long as you get enough of a solid foundation. If you'd rather take non-stats classes for life balance, do it! However, be prepared to be upping your stats game on the side to prepare yourself. If you specifically want to make it in the Bay area, market yourself for it. If you aren't on LinkedIn already, get there. And don't just begrudgingly do it. Make SF firms see that you care, have potential and mean business. Start following start ups on there and try to network with data science professionals however you can. The beautiful part of being a C.S. student it solidifies your background. Continue focusing on how to position yourself for the internship through various means, and you should be able to find something paid out there.