Internships have become a “must” in every college student’s life. They provide you with all the knowledge that your classes do not and prepare you for your spectacular entrance in the real world environment. Regardless of whether you got the internship you were always dreaming of or one that was not even in your list, it is a great preparation for your future. But is not only about getting an internship that corresponds to your major. It is mostly about getting the best out of it while you are there.
Here are a few ways to rock your internship:
1. Be enthusiastic
Remind every day with your actions and energetic personality that your boss made the right decision to hire you. Even though interns sometimes get stuck doing work that is not as glamorous as they expect, they do provide a great help in making your coleeagues lives easier. However, no matter what they ask you to do have a great attitude and do not complain. It is you who will have to prove that you are worthy of doing more challenging stuff.
2. Earn their trust early on
Even if they give you dull stuff to do, such as photocopying, running tedious errands, and filling do not forget that you are there because they need you. It is up to you to prove that you can excel in doing the little stuff that they ask you with paying great attention to detail and caring about good quality. That will serve as the green light for you to move on to complete more interesting assignments.
3. Network inside your company
While you might be working for the communications team, it is crucial for you to network with people who work at other departments too. This will give you a much better understanding of how the organization operates, and these people might serve as a great resource for you in the future.
4. Take initiative
Ask your boss to complete assignments from early on in your internship. You can also ask for permission to join the staff meetings, as they will l provide you with further insight of how your organization conducts business. This will show your supervisor that you are ready to take on the responsibilities associated with this internship and you are eager to learn the most from it.
5. Ask for feedback
It is crucial to ask your supervisor or any other person in the office to provide their opinion on your work that you did. Tell them that you want to take their constructive criticism to improve yourself and the work you are doing. They will definitely appreciate that.
6. Do not be afraid
Most likely your boss was a former intern too, so they know how it feels to be new to a work environment. No matter how much you are worrying about whether or not this internship is the right for you, do not forget that they chose you because they had confidence that you would be a good fit in the organization. Your colleagues will be happy to help you with any questions you might have and they will want you to enjoy your time there.
7. Dress appropriately
We can all agree that wearing sweatpants and hoodies are the most comfortable thing ever, but there are not very appropriate for a work environment. See how other people in the office are dress and make the appropriate stylish choice, too. Especially, on the first day where the introduce you to the rest of the office you want to dress up extra nicely because you want to make a stunning impression from the beginning.
8. Take your work seriously
Once again as we said before, at first they might give you somewhat less interesting things to do. However, if they see that you take this internship seriously, they will give you more important things to do. In real work environments it is not about getting a good grade or not, people are expected at all times to be professional. Therefore, you are expected to do the same (aka no Facebook, Twitter, texting or anything related to that during work.)
9. Monitor job postings
The news about job openings might become available first to the organization’s employees that the general publics, so make sure to keep your eyes open for opportunities like that.
10. Make a professional exit
Employees, believe it or not are human too, so they do enjoy feeling appreciated. Therefore, make sure to thank everyone for the amazing opportunity that they granted you to be a part of this organization. Even if you did not enjoy your internship as much, do not forget that this people can serve as great references for you in the future.
Photo Credits:
Top: time4thinkers.com
Middle: bostonccg.com
Bottom: uvm.edu