Breaking into marketing and tech internships as a freshman

Finance and accounting get most of the attention in campus recruiting conversations, so students interested in marketing or tech often feel like they're figuring it out alone. The good news is that both fields reward something every student can build, starting today: proof. A marketing student with two portfolio pieces and a tech student with one real project they can explain end to end have something to talk about in every email and every interview.

This guide covers what marketing and tech internships look for in students starting recruiting, how to build proof, who to target, how the timelines differ, and the questions to practice for each. The marketing and tech question banks are free downloads.

What's different about marketing and tech

Marketing

Build two portfolio pieces

You don't need a job to have a marketing portfolio. You need two things you made that show how you think. One campaign idea and one analysis is a strong start.

• A campaign idea: pick a real local business or brand, define the goal and the audience, choose a channel, write the message, and explain how you'd measure success.
• An analysis: a brand teardown of a recent campaign (goal, audience, channel, message, result), or a look at a company's social or email marketing with three specific suggestions.
• Anything you actually ran: a club's social account, an event you promoted, an email you tested. Real numbers beat hypothetical ones every time.

The metrics that matter

You don't need jargon. You need to understand a handful of ideas well enough to explain them simply: reach (how many people saw it), engagement (how many interacted), conversion (how many did the thing you wanted), customer acquisition cost (what it cost to win a customer), and retention (how many came back). If you can explain how you'd measure whether a campaign worked, you're ahead of most applicants.

Who to target

• Small and mid-size agencies, which often need extra hands on social, content, and research.
• Startups and direct-to-consumer brands with small marketing teams.
• Local businesses that need help with social media or email.
• Campus offices and organizations that run events and communications.
• Brand teams at larger companies (A tier: build relationships early).

Tech

Build one strong project

One project you can explain end to end is worth more than five tutorials you followed. Pick something small that solves a real problem for real people, ideally people you know. Build it, ship it, and be ready to talk about every decision.

Practice the fundamentals

For software roles, practice core data structures and problem solving regularly, explaining your thinking out loud as you go. For data roles, practice SQL until joins, grouping, and filtering feel easy. For product roles, practice product questions: how would you improve an app you use every day, and how would you measure whether a new feature worked? A little every week beats a cram session before an interview.

Referral strategy

Many tech companies receive far more applications than they can read closely, and a referral can help an application get seen. Build relationships with engineers, data people, and product managers who are one to four years into their careers, the same way you would in any field: cold emails, real calls, and the referral close. Never ask for a referral directly; ask whether there's anyone else you should talk to, and let relationships develop.

Who to target

• Early- and growth-stage startups, where founders and early engineers answer emails.
• Mid-size software companies and local tech firms.
• Campus research labs that need programming help.
• Small businesses and nonprofits that need a site, a tool, or data work.
• Freshman programs at larger tech companies (check each one's dates).

Interviews in marketing and tech

Both fields use behavioral questions, just like finance and accounting, so your 8 stories and your 60-second intro matter just as much. What's different is the walkthrough: sooner or later, someone will ask you to walk them through your work.

The portfolio or project walkthrough

Prepare a two- to three-minute walkthrough of your best piece. Use the same shape every time, and practice it out loud until it's smooth.

Expect follow-ups on every decision: why this channel, why this database, why this audience, why this design. That's why it has to be your own work. If you can explain every choice, even the ones that didn't work, the walkthrough becomes the strongest part of your interview.

Emails that lead with proof

In both fields, the best cold emails mention something you've made. It gives the reader a reason to reply and something concrete to talk about on the call.

Keep the same rules as any cold email: under 120 words, one ask, a specific first line, and up to 4 follow-ups.

Timelines, in practice

Marketing and tech run on different calendars, so plan accordingly. In marketing, roles often post when a team needs someone, so keep your portfolio ready and your relationships warm; the student who can send a relevant piece the day a role posts has an edge. In tech, many internships for the following summer post in late summer and fall, often with online assessments first, so start coding practice and relationship-building months before you apply. In both, confirm real dates on each company's careers page and put deadlines in your game plan as soon as you find them.

Practice questions: marketing

1. What's a brand you think does marketing well, and why?
2. Tear down a recent campaign: goal, audience, channel, message, result.
3. How would you market our product to college students?
4. What's the difference between reach, engagement, and conversion?
5. What is customer acquisition cost, and how would you lower it?
6. How would you measure whether a campaign worked?
7. Walk me through a piece in your portfolio.
8. How would you grow a small business's Instagram from zero?
9. If our email open rate dropped, what would you test first?
10. How would you position a new product against a bigger competitor?
11. What marketing trend are you following right now?
12. Why marketing, and why this brand or agency?

Practice questions: tech

1. Walk me through your best project: the problem, your role, the tech, and what you'd change.
2. Reverse a string / find duplicates in a list. Talk through your approach first.
3. When would you use a hash map instead of a list?
4. What's the time complexity of your solution, and can you improve it?
5. Write a SQL query to find the top 5 customers by total spend.
6. What's the difference between an INNER JOIN and a LEFT JOIN?
7. How would you find duplicate rows in a table?
8. How would you improve an app you use every day?
9. How would you measure whether a new feature is successful?
10. Design a simple app for students to find study partners. What would you build first?
11. Tell me about a bug you got stuck on and how you fixed it.
12. Why this company and this team?

A freshman-year plan for either field

1. Fall: resume v1, one or two portfolio pieces or a project started, 25 self-questions answered.
2. Winter: target list of 50 with named contacts, outreach system live, first calls.
3. Spring: finish and ship your project or pieces, 8 stories recorded, apply to every open role on your list.
4. Summer: an internship, a freelance project, an externship, or a shipped project you can talk about.

The program coaches two tracks, Finance and Accounting, so this guide is a free resource, not a track we run. The outreach and interview system the program teaches in Weeks 1–4 works for marketing and tech roles too.

One last point for both fields: keep a simple public home for your work. A clean LinkedIn with your projects listed, a portfolio page, or a code profile gives anyone who reads your email a place to check your work in thirty seconds. Link it in your email signature and at the top of your resume.

Common mistakes

• Waiting until you have "real experience" to start a portfolio or project.
• Five half-finished projects instead of one finished one.
• Portfolio pieces with no goal or measurement.
• Applying only through job boards without building relationships.
• Asking for a referral before there's a relationship.
• Not being able to explain every decision in your own project.