You could have a degree from the best MBA degree school in the world, but, if you’re leaving college with no work experience under your belt, your degree is probably going to be meaningless in the job field. Besides being a good means of gaining work experience, working an internship is also a great way to network and get your foot in the door somewhere. MBAMap.com offers the following advice on finding an MBA internship:

You can’t start too soon.
It is never too soon to start thinking about where you want to apply for MBA internships. It is smart to begin thinking about it even before school begins. When school starts your hectic schedule may leave little time to reflect.

Network, network, network.
As you start clarifying your goals, be sure to make the best use of your network to help locate an internship. MBA programs expose you to a number of different groups of people who can help with your internship search from professors to students to speakers to alumni.

Begin with the end in mind.
Sage advice from Steven Covey that you should particularly heed during your internship search. Since most internships are designed to end with a job offer for full-time employment, don’t apply to internships that don’t fit in with your future plans both from a career basis and a geographic basis. If you don’t want to live in a certain area, it is not a good idea to apply for an internship there.

MBA Map.com also suggests that if you can’t find your dream internship, then you should just try to create it. Talk to companies that hire MBA interns and tell them your career goals. You never know when your ideas will create a solution for a business you’re interested in.