Get creative to find an internship

Question: I'm 29 years old and need to complete a five-month internship in risk management in investing in order to graduate from my university. I sent 45 application letters and resumes without success. I won't get my diploma unless I do an internship and a dissertation or thesis. What should I do?

-- Vittorio, Barcelona

Answer: It might not be the easiest time to find an internship, as many companies are tightening budgets in this unstable economy.

If you've been sending letters and resumes randomly, they're most likely going to human-resource departments and are probably placed in the "circular file" with little review. As you're finding out, this approach won't deliver the results you want.

We suggest that you get more creative and daring. Identify three to five specific topics you could develop during an internship and use for your dissertation. If you don't have ideas, ask seven or eight industry professionals you know for topics that they would like researched for their companies if they could hire an intern for a five- or six-month period.

Work up each idea into a practical proposal and then begin contacting a large number of financial professionals in companies in your area. Get to the managers who work on a daily basis with the issues you want to address during an internship.

Human resources won't know or appreciate how your proposals might benefit a specific department, so you must talk with people who are "in the trenches" and will understand the value of what you're offering. It won't be an easy task, but it's likely to have greater results than the approach you're currently using.

At the least, it will help you focus on relevant issues and select a theme for your dissertation. You also should see an improvement in the way you present yourself and your ideas to others. You may even find a new path to take.

Another option is to suggest a work arrangement in which you give six hours a day to the company for tasks assigned to you and use the other two hours to work on your thesis.

You likely won't be paid well, but the experience may help you to get a foot in the door. There must be some creative and profit-oriented professionals out there who would see the value you could bring to them and who would take a chance on you.

Daniel Porot and Frances Bolles Haynes are careers advisers and writers