Building Momentum Early: An Ivy League Student's Approach to Internships

How exploration, community, and consistency shape early career outcomes

By Vish Kistama

For many students, the hardest part of building a career is not the technical preparation or even the application process. It is figuring out where to start.

Some students arrive on campus with a clear plan. Others take time to explore different paths before narrowing in. What matters more than starting point is how intentionally that time is used and how quickly small actions compound into real opportunities.

To better understand what that process looks like in practice, I spoke with Jiayi Xu, a student at the University of Pennsylvania whose experience spans private equity, marketing, and social impact. Her path reflects something that is increasingly true across industries today. Degrees alone are no longer enough. Students are expected to build experience, relationships, and clarity early on, often before they fully understand what they want to do.

Early Experiences Across Industries

Jiayi's experience is not defined by a single path, but by range. She has worked in private equity at Spreckel's Capital, in marketing at SWAIR, and in social work and policy. This summer she will be at Udayan Care in New Delhi, India.

She approached early internships as a way to test different environments and understand how work actually operates across industries. As she put it, "I tried to keep an open mind early on and explore as much as possible before locking into anything."

That approach aligns with what we see more broadly. Early career exposure across different roles often helps students identify both strengths and gaps in real time, shaping more informed decisions later on. Instead of optimizing for prestige immediately, she optimized for learning.

What Actually Gets You Your First Opportunities

When asked what helped her get started, her answer was simple but important. "Honestly, it was mostly friends and community." This reflects a structural reality of recruiting that many students underestimate. A large share of opportunities are not publicly posted, and networking plays a central role in accessing them.

Jiayi's experience shows that community is foundational. Being surrounded by people who are applying, sharing opportunities, and pushing each other forward creates momentum that is difficult to replicate alone. She described it less as a strategy and more as an environment. "You just naturally hear about things, and that makes it easier to get started."

Staying Organized When Everything Is Moving at Once

One of the most overlooked parts of recruiting is not ability, but coordination. Managing applications, networking conversations, deadlines, and interviews quickly becomes overwhelming. Jiayi kept her system simple. She relied on her calendar to track everything and leaned on people around her for support. "I used my calendar for everything, and I asked friends and [Penn] career services to help me with my cover letters."

This kind of structure matters more than it seems. Students who actively use career resources, seek feedback, and track deadlines tend to navigate the process more effectively than those who approach it passively. Her approach shows that even the best students do not need a perfect system.

What Made Her Stand Out

In competitive processes, most applicants have similar coursework, similar resumes, and similar levels of preparation. Differentiation comes from smaller, harder to measure factors.

For Jiayi, two stood out. "Networking and passion," she said directly.

Networking gave her access to conversations, referrals, and insight into roles. Passion showed up in how she spoke about her experiences and what she was genuinely interested in.

This matters because employers are not just evaluating qualifications. They are evaluating signals of initiative and long-term interest. In a market where hundreds of students apply to the same roles, those signals often determine who moves forward.

Building Experience Before You Feel Ready

One of the most practical parts of her approach was how she built experience early, before she had a clear direction. "I was willing to take unpaid opportunities and just try things," she said. "And I spent a lot of time talking to professionals."

This is a critical point. Many students wait for the "right" opportunity, often defined by pay or prestige. Jiayi focused instead on access and exposure.

That decision aligns with how the internship market actually works today. Even short or unpaid experiences can create meaningful advantages by building skills, relationships, and credibility, especially when formal opportunities are limited. Over time, those smaller experiences compound. They make it easier to tell a story, demonstrate interest, and position yourself for stronger roles.

Advice for Students Trying to Build Momentum

Her advice is grounded in perspective rather than tactics. "Everyone's path is different. Some people know what they want right away, and others take time to figure it out." Instead of comparing timelines, she emphasizes understanding your own starting point and working from there.

"It's really helpful to talk to early professionals and just take small opportunities, even if they feel like a waste of time at first." Those early steps serve a larger purpose. They help answer a question that most students struggle with early on, which is whether a path actually fits. And once that clarity starts to build, everything else becomes more targeted. Applications improve, conversations become more specific, and opportunities begin to align more naturally.

Conclusion

Building a strong internship trajectory is less about following a fixed plan and more about creating momentum through consistent action. Jiayi's experience shows that progress comes from exploring early, leveraging community, staying organized, and being willing to start before you feel fully ready. In a recruiting landscape where expectations are rising and competition is increasing, this kind of approach is increasingly necessary.