Congratulations on getting a summer internship! Now that you’ve received your offer, you may want to think about how you can get the most out of the experience.
Clarify your expectations
No matter whether it’s a structured or a relatively informal internship, it’s important to be proactive. At the beginning of your internship it’s crucial to set expectations. You may already be clear about your goals and you may even have made a checklist of what you hope to gain from your experience, for example developing certain skills, getting involved in certain types of projects or meeting certain people. However, you should also consider the organisation’s needs, particularly your manager’s needs and priorities. Communicate with your manager to confirm the organisation’s expectations and lay out your and their objectives. In this way you can match your goals to the organisation’s needs and ensure you get an experience that both you and the employer value. Being proactive is particularly important for less formal internships. To get the best experience, consider proposing your own meaningful assignment that would be beneficial for the organisation. Examples include performing market research / consumer surveys, evaluation projects or assessment analysis with recommendations.
Deliver the work to the best of your ability
An intern’s work can vary significantly between different organisations. Work can be as easy as making the coffee to being as complex as developing a new system from scratch. No matter what you’re assigned, take your responsibilities seriously by completing work on time and to a high standard. Also, don’t forget to be punctual and professional as well as being polite and respectful along the way. One great piece of advice that made the rounds in the early years of my career was “come to me with solutions not problems!” This means try to think of answers to your own questions or suggestions about resolving issues before asking your manager. However, as an intern, you will also earn a lot of points for simply showing eagerness to learn and being willing to do what’s needed at the time – you’re not expected to know everything up front! Ultimately, if you’re ever unsure about how to do something, don’t assume. Your manager will almost certainly prefer taking five minutes to answer some thoughtful questions up front to get you on the right track, than for you to guess wrong and spend hours fixing it later.
Another thing you may want to try is to have regular catch-ups with your manager to review and understand your progress, share your concerns and receive advice and feedback. These meetings can help you understand what you are good at and what you need to develop. This may even allow you to shape your own internship by telling your manager what you enjoy and the areas in which you’d like to get more experience.
Finally, given that summer internships can provide you with opportunities to learn new ways of doing things and opportunities to work on different projects, it’s a great idea to step outside of your comfort zone and volunteer for extra assignments when possible. For example, offer to help another department or group that’s of interest to you. It could really open doors for your career and provide useful insight years down the line.
Scrub up that handshake and get networking!
An internship is a great chance to build relationships with people at all levels. So get out from behind your desk and get to know people. You never know what you might learn from different people and how useful these people will be for your career. Spend time getting to know your managers and colleagues in your immediate team, often these will be your strongest and longest-lasting connections. Ask how your colleagues got to their current jobs. Some may have more colourful histories than you expect! This can help you understand the skills you are likely to need to get to a similar place in future and the different paths available. If you’re drawn to certain people or are inspired by them, seek opportunities to work with them and understand what they do.
If possible, get involved with out-of-work activities like social events, charity volunteering days and so forth. This is a great way to get to know your colleagues on a personal level without the hassle of work formalities. And don’t forget to join professional networking sites such as LinkedIn and add your colleagues. Finally, get to know your fellow interns (if you have any!) They are a great resource and will be good people to know for the future, as they will grow and progress with you. By going through a similar situation, you can relate to each other, share ideas and ask those silly questions!
In summary, summer internships are a great way to meet new people, learn new skills, learn about the industry you have chosen and discover what working full time is really like. I hope you have a great experience and create some lasting connections! Good luck!
–Xiujuan Wang