Got an internship coming up this summer? Welcome to the beginning of adulthood! This is the summer where you can only make plans on weekends and have to hear about all the fun beach vacation stories from your friends while you’re sitting in a cubicle 40 hours a week. Long gone are the days of high school where your summer was to beach it up for three months straight. This is now the summer where you need to make a lasting impression to your manager to get that fulltime offer. And although we all wish we could be tanning outside and sipping on ice cold drinks, we also know how important and crucial this internship is for our careers. Here are five tips as we all prepare for our summer as an “official adult” to get the return offer. Trust me, your future self will thank you.
1. Be professional.
It sounds like a given, but you’d be surprised how immature interns can be at their companies. No matter what you’re doing, whether you are working on spreadsheets or getting the boss coffee, you have to stay professional. Don’t use slang, proof read your emails and dress the part.
2. Turn the phone off.
Another given? You’ll have days when you’re not given a lot of work to do, so you find yourself itching to grab your phone out of your bag. Don't. This is the perfect time to go to your manager’s office and ask if there’s anything you can do to help, or to double check the work you already completed. Even take this time to get back to all your emails. Whatever you do, don’t touch the phone and always look for something productive to be doing instead.
3. Network.
This is the most important tip for every single intern out there. It’s one thing to get your manager to like you, but it’s also just as important to get the other employers in your department to like you too. Partner up with some employers and ask them for work. This is a great opportunity to learn something new. Ask an employer to grab coffee with you during a lunch break to get to know them more. It is crucial that you network in your department. The more people you know, the better.
4. Manage your time.
More than likely, you are going to have more than one project to work on. And this isn’t school where you can ask your teachers to extend the deadline. You will receive a deadline, and that technically means “no later than." In other words, give yourself plenty of time to work on your projects. Don’t space them out in order to complete them just in time. Chances are your manager will ask you to revise something in your work. Buy an agenda and plan out every single day, marking down specifically what you will need to accomplish by the end of your work day. This will cause for less stress!
5. Take your time.
Invest in the work you are given. Don’t rush through it so you can have the rest of the day off. Do your work and put 110 percent into it. Ask your manager to double check that you’re doing it correctly. Make sure it is neat and organized. Sacrifice your lunch time to work on something, and even stay a little later at work if you have to. Obviously you don’t have to do that, but overall, it is important that you show your manager that you are dedicated to the work you are given and that you take it seriously. This is more impressive than a rushed project.
Enjoy your internship this summer. Really, you can. If you take advantage of your time in the office or whatever you’re doing, you’ll get to meet interesting workers and figure out if this is the right job for you. Your ten-week long internship can ultimately determine your career out of college, so make sure you do it the right way! Happy summer!
