LinkedIn and Indeed can be useful, but they shouldn't be the only places you look.
There are internship-specific boards, industry job boards, government databases, startup platforms, and research portals where you can find opportunities that are much easier to miss on the big job sites.
Here are the best places to look, organized by career field.
If you only use 5 websites
1. Intern Dock
Best for: Internships across every major and industry
Intern Dock is built specifically for internship searches. Instead of sorting through thousands of experienced and full-time positions, students can search internships across tech, finance, engineering, marketing, healthcare, business, and more.
2. USAJobs
Best for: Federal government internships
Use the Students hiring-path filter to find federal internships, including opportunities through the Pathways Internship Program.
3. Wellfound
Best for: Startups
One of the best places to search for opportunities at startups, especially in software, product, design, marketing, sales, operations, and other startup roles.
4. Built In
Best for: Tech + business internships
Strong for software engineering, data, product, cybersecurity, marketing, finance, HR, operations, and other roles at technology companies. Built In maintains a dedicated internship section.
5. Parker Dewey
Best for: Paid micro-internships
Companies post short-term paid professional projects that typically require 10–40 hours of work. They're especially useful if you need experience before applying for a traditional internship.
Tech, software, data & startups
6. Dice
Best for: Software, IT, data and cybersecurity
A technology-focused job board covering software engineering, data science, cybersecurity, IT, cloud, AI, product, and related technical fields.
7. Wellfound
Best for: Startup internships
Especially useful if you'd rather work at a smaller startup than a huge corporation. Search terms like intern, summer intern, or your target role.
8. Built In
Best for: Established tech companies and venture-backed startups
Use the internship section plus role and location filters rather than searching the entire site.
Finance, banking & business
9. eFinancialCareers
Best for: Investment banking, asset management, markets, quant, fintech and corporate finance
This is one of the strongest specialized boards for students targeting financial services. Current listings include internships and analyst programs across banking, investing, research, risk, fintech and quantitative finance.
10. SelectLeaders
Best for: Commercial real estate
Useful for students interested in commercial real estate, development, acquisitions, asset management, brokerage and real-estate finance.
11. Parker Dewey
Best for: Building business experience before a full internship
Micro-internships are available across areas including finance, sales, marketing, HR and technology.
Government, politics & public policy
12. USAJobs
Best for: Federal agencies
Search using the Students hiring path and look specifically for Pathways opportunities.
13. GovernmentJobs
Best for: State and local government
One of the largest public-sector job boards in the country. Search intern or student intern along with your city or state.
14. U.S. Senate Employment Bulletin
Best for: Capitol Hill internships
The official Senate Employment Office publishes internship opportunities from Senate personal and committee offices.
Nonprofit, social impact & public service
15. Idealist
Best for: Nonprofits, NGOs and mission-driven organizations
Search internships across policy, advocacy, communications, international relations, education, sustainability, research, legal work, fundraising, technology and more. Idealist also requires U.S. internship listings on its platform to provide some form of compensation.
Media, marketing, journalism & entertainment
16. Mediabistro
Best for: Media, journalism, writing, marketing and communications
Focused on journalism, social media, design, advertising, publishing, marketing, communications, writing and other creative fields.
17. EntertainmentCareers.Net
Best for: Film, TV, music and entertainment
A specialized entertainment job and internship board worth checking if you want to work in film, television, production, music or related entertainment fields.
18. TeamWork Online
Best for: Sports
One of the strongest niche boards for sports internships. Opportunities include partnerships, marketing, ticketing, operations, community relations, communications and other roles with teams and sports organizations.
Science, engineering & research
19. NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates
Best for: Academic STEM research
NSF-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates allow students to conduct research at universities and research institutions, particularly in STEM fields. Many programs operate during the summer.
20. Zintellect
Best for: Government-funded STEM and research opportunities
An underrated resource containing hundreds of research internships, fellowships and scholarships funded by government agencies and private-sector organizations.
21. NASA STEM Gateway
Best for: NASA internships
NASA's portal for internships and other STEM experiences. Students can filter opportunities by academic level, career area, location and program type.
Climate, sustainability & environmental careers
22. Climatebase
Best for: Climate tech, clean energy and sustainability
Climatebase allows users to specifically filter for internships at organizations working in climate, clean energy, sustainability, transportation, food, carbon removal and other climate sectors.
23. Conservation Job Board
Best for: Wildlife, conservation and environmental science
Especially useful for ecology, wildlife, forestry, fisheries, marine biology, environmental education, sustainability, outdoor recreation and conservation-related opportunities.
General internship search sites
These wouldn't be my first stop, but they're worth checking after you've searched the more specialized sites above.
24. College Recruiter
Best for: Students and recent graduates
A job board specifically oriented toward internships, entry-level positions, apprenticeships, students and recent graduates.
25. ZipRecruiter
Best for: Finding additional local internships
Worth using as a secondary search engine after you've checked the industry-specific sites.
26. Monster
Best for: Another broad source of internship listings
Not as targeted as the sites above, but it can uncover internships from employers you haven't already seen.
One more strategy most students ignore
Don't rely entirely on job boards.
Once you know the 20–30 companies you most want to intern for, go directly to each company's careers page and search:
- intern
- internship
- student
- university
- early careers
- summer analyst
- summer associate
Some internships appear on an employer's career site before they spread to larger job boards.
Best approach: Use Intern Dock and the specialized websites above for discovery, then apply through the employer's official application whenever possible.