If you’re an intern, you’re a source of cheap if not free labor. That’s a fact (I recognize some internships are actually very well paid, but never fear, my eventual point will still apply), but it does not define one’s intern experience. Of course it’s important to consider your work a valuable contribution to your employer and to take pride in that and to stay motivated to complete the tasks at hand, but being an intern boasts much more than just learning how to work. A job teaches how to work, and provides experience, but the work is the focus because it’s backed by pay. An internship, however, puts the emphasis on experience.

Every intern has an experience, but unfortunately not every intern takes full advantage of theirs. As an intern, if you don’t attack every day head-on, determined to learn as much as you can, then you’re a part of the problem. Whether it’s taking your instructions for granted, or confining yourself to what you’re told to do, sheer obedience is a huge mistake! Of course you can’t break the rules and do what you were told not to do, and of course you shouldn’t ultimately deviate from the way you were instructed to do things. Yet, there are huge learning opportunities to be had from asking why you were instructed to do things a certain way, and from taking advantage of your surroundings to learn beyond your cubicle, computer, corner, or whatever your work space looks like.

For example, I was helping out in the Learning Lab, which was a hands-on activity for a middle school class. I was told not to ask the groups if they needed any help, but to instead approach them and ask them what record they were looking at or what connections they had made to the constitution. This wasn’t intuitive for me, as I questioned why I would approach a group and interrupt their work if they didn’t need help, and wondered how I was supposed to know who needed help if I couldn’t ask. Initially, I thought I knew best, but I was instantly humbled by the realization that my supervisor was right that more often than not, the answer to the question of needing help would be answered in the negative, regardless of if that were the case. So, I went up to my supervisor later and asked her to explain the point of her approach, having voiced my confusion about the method. That sparked a much longer conversation than the one to two sentence answer I envisioned, and knowledge and experience poured out of my supervisor’s mouth, knowledge and experience that I may not have gained in the mere 10 weeks I’m here.

Yes, I’m advising you to prioritize yourself and your learning goals in your internship, and this may seem as if I’m opposing a reason you were accepted, which is to do the work you’re told. But I don’t see these two things as mutually exclusive, and fully believe you can and should accomplish both goals at once. I’m merely saying that you shouldn’t be afraid to make your internship about you. If you have a question, ask. If you have free time, explore. If you encounter someone who does work you’re interested in, talk to them.

You might be afraid of being annoying, or getting in the way, but that’s surely an unfounded fear. When companies or groups take on interns, they are committing themselves to teaching. In my internship, this was apparent from my supervisor’s answer to my question as well as from the sheet I had to turn in stating my learning goals so that they could tailor my projects to meet my goals. Even if it’s less apparent in yours, it’s surely the case. As an intern, you don’t know everything you need to know, so you have a lot to learn, and if they didn’t want you to learn they wouldn’t bring you under their wing.

You may have sought your internship for the resume boost, and think that I’ve severely exaggerated the importance of learning. It certainly isn’t wrong to consider one’s resume in applying for an internship, but if you fail to see the importance of learning then you are severely shortsighted, failing to consider the part of a job that comes after being considered, interviewed, and hired. Your resume is a way for employers to get a sense of what you can do, which is different than just a laundry list of what you've done. If you’re hired, then your employer believes that you can do the job, and the way you’ll be able to do your new job is by applying what you’ve learned in your past experiences, internships included. Make sure that you haven’t learned nothing.