How-To: Manage Your Internship and Coursework

Being located in New York City is exciting and opens up many opportunities to intern throughout the year. However, going to an academically rigorous college means balancing a full course load and your internship will not be easy. There are ways to take on both and succeed! Here are some tips to help you manage your time to complete your school work and an internship:

Read on public transportation – Not too hard! It is almost a habit to reach for your iPod to listen to music, but instead try to get some reading done. It is a great way to utilize your time more effectively. Think about it logically, if it takes 20 minutes to get to your job on the subway, you go to the office two times a week, which adds up to an hour and 20 minutes!  (Also known as, 4 episodes of “How I Met Your Mother” or the movie “Toy Story”) An hour and twenty minutes is more than enough time to complete some readings. Reading during rush hour is more difficult. Although, if you have the readings ready to go on your iPhone, Kindle, or other electronic devices, it might be easier to do some reading, rather than accidentally dropping pages of your readings in someone’s lap.

Time management – This is KEY to balancing an internship and course work. You have to plan ahead. Your courses and internship should be scheduled in a way that is manageable. An important fact to keep in mind is that your coursework includes more than just attending courses because there are problem sets, papers and exams. You have to allow yourself outside time in the classroom to complete the work. When you are setting up an internship, make sure your hours are manageable given enough time to complete schoolwork. Beyond this initial scheduling of the hours dedicated to coursework and an internship, your time must be spent more effectively because there is less of it to allocate to both. One way to do this is start projects or papers earlier, make study guides as you go through the course… in other words procrastinate less! Start the work ahead of time so if your internship work becomes hectic, you already have an outline ready for your schoolwork.  Procrastination is a habit that cannot be afforded with an internship in addition to being a full time student!

Know your priorities – It is difficult to say “no” sometimes, but when you are a full time student and interning, you have to learn this skill. In order to find a balance between coursework and an internship, you need to set limits for yourself. School should be the first priority, therefore, make sure that you have allocated enough of your time to complete your work. This will take extra effort because your schedule will be tighter with an internship. Sometimes it helps to pencil in times to study or work on certain classes so its more likely to get done and not be procrastinated. However, this becomes an issue if you are conflicted about your responsibility to your internship. If there are instances where your boss asks you to stay late, remind them that you are a full time student and you have a commitment to your school work. They should understand that school is a priority. This is an important aspect to think about when looking for an internship: Will this internship be able to accommodate my schedule as a student?

There is no reason why you should not be able to take advantage of the internship opportunities available! It is a unique college experience to intern in New York City while taking courses. Internships are a great way to gain exposure to different industries and find out what you are passionate about! If you plan your schedule well and use your time effectively, there is no reason why you cannot take advantage of these internship opportunities and excel in