u/Impressive_Pin_3071

I've been applying to AI/ML internships for a while now and honestly it's been exhausting. Most of what's out there falls into one of two categories:

1. Unpaid — which just isn't sustainable, especially when you're a student

2. "Internships" that don't actually teach you anything — you can tell from the JD that you'd just be doing busywork with no real ML involved

The legit ones — the kind where you're actually working on models, pipelines, or research — are either hyper-competitive or require experience you can only get from... an internship.

Is anyone else stuck in this loop? And for those who've landed something meaningful — how did you actually do it? Cold emails? Referrals? Contributing to open source? Would love to hear what worked.