Coming out of your freshman year of college, you own the world. You're infinitely smarter, wiser, and more mature than you were just a year ago—and rightfully so. You worked hard during that time, and after a whole year of learning about the real world, it is time to experience what it is like for yourself.
So you spend weeks, maybe even months, looking for the perfect internship in the field you are so sure you are going to work in. You fill out ridiculously long applications, pull from every connection your parents have, and go through countless Skype interviews, until finally it pays off and you get the email with "Congratulations" in the subject line. And yes, it feels like you did in fact win the lottery.
You spend the next two or three months buying "business" clothes, which really you already own and just need to pull down five inches, and thinking about how prepared you are, and how good at the real world you are going to be. You even joke about what you would do if they offered you a job at the end of the summer, and casually brush it off with a "you know, it would be tempting, but I'll just keep the connections for later."
And then there you are. School is over, summer has begun. You are either close to home, or you went off to some fantastical place like New York or London, where you can not wait to live even though you know the internship is not going to cover it. And you walk in on the first day bubbling with ~professional~ enthusiasm and excitement, and oh boy, are you surprised. So many things that you did not expects from your first crack at the real world. But do not be discouraged, it is not the whole real world, it is merely a college summer internship.
However, maybe these hardships: having to work your way up from literally doing nothing, dealing with everything being completely different from what you expected, and not having the slightest clue how to do anything the way your boss wants it—what if, just so slightly disappointingly maybe, that is the real world.
So maybe you did learn something. Welcome.
1 . Most days, you'll be lucky to be actually doing something 25 percent of the time.
2. You will be the best-dressed person in the office the first couple of days.
3. You will do at least some menial chores like in movies—getting coffee, walking the dog, bringing back lunch.
4. You will spend more money on lunch than you are actually making.
5. The other employees in the office will not care what you are doing or really, if you are doing anything at all.
6. One person will—this will become your mentor for the summer.
7. You will learn a lot about the business of the company you are working for, but it will not be what you expected.
8. You will not feel like your job is worth the little money you are being paid for all the menial labor you are doing. That is, if you're lucky enough to be getting paid at all.
9. You will show your boss a completed job, and he will already have done it.
10. You will probably not be offered a full-time job at the end of the summer.
