The Best U.S. Cities to Find Internship Experience

It’s no secret that having an internship on your resume can give you a competitive advantage. From real-world experience to networking, there are so many benefits to landing a paid or unpaid gig. Not to mention the fact that your employer gets an extra set of hands to finish projects — a win-win situation.

With over 70% of employers saying they offer interns full-time employment after their internship ends, according to data from the National Association of College Employers, we set out to discover the best U.S. cities to find internship experience. If you’re looking to land the internship of your dreams, keep reading!

The Cities With the Most Internship Opportunities

Looking for internships can be a job in and of itself. You can spend hours searching job-posting sites and still get nowhere. To simplify the internship-hunting madness, we found the top 20 cities where you’re most likely to launch your career. From landing an internship in finance to the arts, the opportunities are endless in the Big Apple.

• Boston, MA, placed second with 1,327 on-site and hybrid internships. Boston is home to 1,159 on-site and 730 hybrid internship opportunities.
• Washington, DC followed closely behind with 1,312 internship postings. While this is an obvious choice for those interested in government or politics, there are plenty of other internships available for those interested in our nation’s capital.
• Chicago, IL, and Los Angeles, CA, place fourth and fifth place on our list with 1,120 and 885 internships, respectively.

The Cities Where It Pays to Be an Intern

If you’re lucky enough to land an internship, then you’ll most likely want one that can cover your living expenses and other costs. When it comes to putting their internship money where their mouth is, certain cities pulled through more than others:

• Omaha, NE, and Madison, WI, tie for first with an average hourly salary of $41.38 per hour. Interestingly, those with Bachelor's degrees are leaving Nebraska the most to pursue other job opportunities. High internship wages could be beneficial in keeping and attracting new graduates.

• San Jose, CA, follows in second place with an average hourly rate of $23.67 for interns. The City of San José Internship Program hosts 150 student interns annually and helps students gain experience in a wide array of fields.

• On the flip side, certain cities don’t pay their interns as much. Harrisburg, PA, ranked 98th on our list with an average hourly intern rate of $10.51 while places like Daytona Beach, FL, placed 100th and pay even less — $8.78 per hour.

Finding an Internship That’s Right for You

While internship experience is nice, it’s only as valuable as the career field you wish to enter. Depending on the major or field you want to pursue, certain cities have a larger pool of internships for specific career fields than others:

• 22.27% of New York City’s internships are in the sales sector. Landing a summer internship on Wall Street is one way to attain the sales job of your dreams.

• Boston, MA (17.92%), Allentown, PA (17.50%), and Dayton, OH (17.29%), all boast a decent share of internship opportunities in the educational sector. PA high schools in Allentown are now implementing new programs for students to become teachers, offering education internships and classroom observation as part of their degree packages amid an ongoing teacher shortage.
  
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• Cities like Little Rock, AR (14.82%), and Milwaukee, WI (9.88%), have a high share of finance internships. Roughly 7% of Milwaukee’s workforce is employed in the financial services industry, making it the perfect place to apply for finance internships.
• If you have hopes of becoming a COO someday, then you’ll want to check out cities like Grand Rapids, MI (10.11%), Dallas, TX (10.10%), and New York, NY (10.09%) and apply to their internship programs in the management field.

Closing Thoughts

Internship experience helps you to prepare for the future and get a leg up on the other candidates. Certain cities have an abundance of internship opportunities compared to others.

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Methodology

To calculate which cities are best for those looking for internships, we sourced internship data from LinkedIn and wage data from Indeed. Next, we looked at the following factors, including the number of internships available as of February 2023:

• No. of on-site, remote, hybrid positions
• No. of full-time and part-time positions
• No. of positions available by industry

To calculate the percentage of internships within each industry (sales, finance, education, and management), we looked at the number of available positions in each job function and divided that value by the overall number of internships available in each city.