First: If you are reading this and you have an internship this summer, congratulations! 🎉 You have a great opportunity ahead of you to learn, meet people, and I hope you enjoy every bit of it. If you are already in the workforce and reading this, hopefully you will find some of this helpful too. It’s generally focused around building a good work ethic and improving your communication skills. I learned a lot of this recently, so I wanted to share some tips that I learned.
This guide started out as internship advice for my younger brother. Next thing you know, I got carried away and turned this into a whole blog (oops). A lot of this may seem self explanatory, but it's surprising how easily you may forget to do some of these things. I wish I knew the importance of this stuff earlier.
Warning: This is a LOT of information. You are not expected to do/know ALL of this (I just learned a lot of this recently too). Hopefully your mentor will build some of this into your internship program, but it's good to be 1 step ahead. Don't feel bad if you can't grasp this all within 10 weeks, but aim to build these skills/habits throughout your internship and for your career in the future.
In your first week…
Introduce yourself to the team
Meet the team and spend 15-20 minutes with them one-on-one to learn about what they do. Learning about other people's roles can give you a better understanding of roles that are out there to consider for your future career. This will also help them know that there is in an intern in the office (you!).
Tip: Especially while you're new, don't feel bad about asking "Remind me your name?" because it can be embarrassing if you wait until much later.
Set goals
Your boss will probably go through this with you anyways, but it's always a good habit to have. Once you learn more about your position and expectations, you should set goals for yourself and chat about what you hope to learn/accomplish.
Ask questions. Lots.
Nobody expects you to know everything, so ask as much as you can. They want you to ask questions, and trust me, you won't be bothering anyone by asking. It's always better to ask more questions and deliver the right results than to not ask enough questions and deliver the wrong results.
Things To Do Regularly...
Meet regularly with your boss
Check in with your boss regularly to ask questions, provide status updates, etc. Your boss is there to provide you with the help you need and help you succeed in your internship. Your boss may lead these 1:1 meetings towards the beginning, but you can slowly catch on and start developing agendas and leading these meetings.
Take productive notes
Whenever you go into meetings, take notes on the important details. If there is an "action item" (aka something that needs to be done), write it down. Even if it's an action item that someone else is doing, write down who is doing what. You may not be able to complete something until your manager sends it, so you should know if anyone is holding you up.
For example: “Juhie to send training document to Rohit by 4pm” or “Rohit to review slide deck by Friday 6/7.”
Use Gmail labels
If you are using Gmail, use color coded labels to organize your inbox, and figure out which labels work best for your job. Some ideas for organization categories: campaign, project, time of year, type of resource, etc. The best part is that you can assign multiple labels to the same email, and filter your inbox by label.
For example: I have labels based on different products like "Premium Products, and Loyalty Program" and I also have labels for teams "Strategy, Social, Legal, Design"). If I want to find a thread where I was talking to the legal team about the Loyalty Program, it is easier to find.
Send recap emails
When you have a call, meeting, or even a casual conversation about something work-related, it's a good idea to send a recap email. This is a good way to hold people accountable for things they told you they would do.
Example: "Hey everyone, thanks for chatting. To recap, here is what we talked about [agenda]. Next steps: Manager needs to do XYZ by [date], I will send you this by end-of-week, etc."
Send detailed emails
When you send emails, the goal should be to get as few questions in the response as possible. If you are emailing on a thread and talking about a document, send a link to the document. If you are talking about your conversation from the day before, provide a brief summary of the convo.
Follow up
Just because you had the last word on an email thread, that doesn't mean that it's entirely up to the other person to respond. Keep an eye on things you need from people. If it has been a few days and you haven't heard back, send a follow up email.
For example: Hey [name], checking in to see when you can send me xyz.
At Your Halfway Point...
Have a "midway check in"
Recap all that you have accomplished and learned so far. Go back to the goals that you set for yourself in week 1 and evaluate your progress. Share it with your boss and/or team. Tell your boss what other resources/support you need to continue reaching your goals.
Roadmap your second half
Explain to your boss how you plan to spend the rest of your time at your internship. What is going well, what will you change, and if any of your goals have changed.
At the End of Your Internship...
Final presentation
Show your boss & team the work that you have done, how it contributes to the business & team, how it will help them going forward, and what you have learned. They want to see that it was worth investing time in you, and this is your chance to show them that their time paid off. Be proud, you worked hard!
Did you meet your goals?
Talk to your boss about your goals when you started, your goals at your halfway point, and where you are now. Evaluate what went well and what you could have improved upon.
Share what you learned
Show them that you were paying attention, you enjoyed the experience, and that their time was worth it. Your boss spends so much time making you feel welcomed and organizing a 10-week program for you to grow.
Thank your mentors
Thank the team with a farewell email and tell them that you would like to keep in touch. Provide your email address, social media links (if you feel comfortable), LinkedIn, etc. Thank specific people individually if they personally invested in make your experience a great one.
A thoughtful card for your boss
Write your boss a thank you note, or give them a small gift to thank them. They put a lot of time into your internship too! They mentored you AND did their day-to-day job.
Add your coworkers on LinkedIn
Now that your coworkers know you well enough, you can stay connected with them. Even though they already know who you are, you should still include a personalized note when you request to connect.
Miscellaneous…
Small talk
Get used to making small talk. They'll ask you what you're studying, what you want to do, what you do in your free time, and what you did over the weekend. When in doubt, ask them what they did last weekend or the upcoming weekend. It's a conversation starter that works at any point in the week, and it gives you a glimpse at what they're like outside of work.
Be social
If your coworkers ever make offsite lunch plans/dinner plans and invite you, you should definitely try to go. They want to get to know you outside of work, and these chances don't always come along that often. It's important to build relationships with people, and most of the relationship building happens outside of the office.
Good Luck!
I hope you’re excited about the great opportunity ahead of you! Be yourself and be open to learning new things. Not only will you learn about an industry and your position, but you will learn a lot about yourself too. Through the good and the bad, make the most of it and be proud of yourself. Go get ‘em. 👊