High School Internships in Los Angeles: Working in the Home of Hollywood
When choosing internships, instead of just considering the job, it is essential also to consider the location. For instance, the sun-drenched city of Los Angeles means that interns rarely experience cold weather and get to explore one of the cities with the most vibrant entertainment cultures. Indeed, that’s what many students do (it is LA’s most popular job at 14K employed).
And the job opportunities are also great. In Los Angeles, you can find various top-notch companies distributed throughout many sectors. You can find world-famous entertainment companies like Disney, the giant in engineering SpaceX, and the fierce competition between rival game companies Blizzard and Riot Games.
In a city with such a diverse set of industries, it is easy for prospective interns to lose themselves in the search. In this blog post, we will briefly overview LA’s industrial landscape and examples of companies and internships for each sector to help you find your high school internship in Los Angeles.
Advantages and Disadvantages of a High School Internship in Los Angeles
Residence for High School Internships in Los Angeles
With the advantages of being a prominent city come the disadvantages of prohibitive housing costs. Internships in LA mean that you will need to live close to LA. There’s more space available during summer since university students who usually live on or near their campuses are going home for the summer. Here are a few options to help you find housing for your ventures:
UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) offers summer housing for interns aged 18 or older, only requesting that they see your summer internship letter.
Look online for student sublets, checking if students at nearby universities want to rent out their houses during the summer.
Housing websites (like Zillow and Redfin) can be great ways to find affordable housing.
Corporate housing companies like Equity Corporate Housing or Oakwood
School programs can also create good housing opportunities. It never hurts to ask your advisors or school counselors if there are available opportunities.
Rooming with other interns can be very helpful, allowing you to split the pricey costs of renting homes in LA.
Now that you are settled in a good residence, let’s get you a great opportunity.
Resources to help find High School Internships in Los Angeles
Most resources that usually help people find internships also work in LA. Here’s a quick refresher for some of the best websites to find opportunities:
In particular, the county of Los Angeles has also provided a helpful website for many tips. Here, they cover various programs and provide great insights into possible systems that students can enroll in. They also included a Q&A section for common questions and even their own job search system where jobs can place their requests for interns.
Of course, visiting your High School advisors for tips will also be valuable for finding these internships.
Lastly, if you have a specific company or business in mind, look for opportunities on their websites. Not only will there be many more listed internships, but they also tend to give more details on what such internships would entail.
The Possible Fields of High School Internships in Los Angeles
Los Angeles has some of the most varied industries in any city in the US, covering various fields.
(Source: Statista)
Of course, there would be little value in making a trip to LA if you were to intern in a more nationwide company. As such, we will focus on the companies based in LA, who will likely look for more interns who can work in person.
Film
The most famous industry in LA is undoubtedly the Entertainment Industry, as it is the home of Hollywood. And in fact, this city is a film major’s dream come true. Many large film companies are located in LA, the most famous being Disney, Warner Bros, and Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer.
On Indeed, for instance, you can find many internship opportunities at the giants of Disney or Paramount, often offering significant jobs like production or Storyboarding, which are great for both learning opportunities and college applications.
LA is one of the greatest cities to apply for film internships because of its vast experience and the fact that many interns end up being hired for the jobs they intern for. Sign up if you look forward to working in Hollywood someday!
Video Games
Also in the entertainment industry is the video game industry, where Los Angeles sees a lot of competition as the giants of Activision Blizzard and Riot Games compete in the same city. Due to its close proximity to its headquarters, many gaming events are held in LA’s many stadiums and convention centers.
A quick search gives a lot of great opportunities, with many essential positions from programming to art.
Technology & Engineering
As the “Silicon Beach,” LA has earned its place in the list of tech cities. Indeed, its tech companies also show a lot of variety. From mindfulness companies like Headspace to the entertainment giant of Hulu. Technology-like businesses are also booming, with many aerospace engineering companies like SpaceX.
If you are looking for easy ways to start learning some programming to eventually intern in these large LA tech companies (or are just looking for alternative opportunities), an excellent place to start is Inspirit AI. We offer live online artificial intelligence summer programs that expose high school students to fundamental AI programming skills and guide them to build a socially impactful AI project developed and taught by Stanford and MIT graduates. In this program, students can work on projects at the intersection of AI business and finance. For example, students may work on an algorithmic trading project to learn how AI can be used to predict returns on portfolios.
How to Decide if a High School Internship in Los Angeles is Good for You
Of course, no matter how good an internship is for your eventual application, it is not worth it if you suffer throughout it. Indeed, there are many other cities in the US besides Los Angeles - you can be working at home or even in a city better suited for your prospective career. We have compiled a list of reasons that might incentivize you to come to (or stay away from!) Los Angeles.
Come to LA if you:
Enjoy warm, mild (and hot!) weather, with very few cold days
Enjoy a very diverse atmosphere
Wish to be close to (or enter into) a robust entertainment industry
Want to enter in one of the many LA universities
Want to watch sports (and esports) live
Enjoy a diverse environment close to both beaches and mountains
Countless opportunities!
Stay away from LA if you:
Dislike heat
Dislike expensive rent, food, and commodities
Dislike traffic (and getting around)
Few significant landmarks
Pursuing internships before heading into regular employment has many benefits, especially in a competitive environment like LA. We are excited to see what changes you can make during your internship and how this experience will help you in the future!
