Summer Internships - Making the Most
Thursday, June 19, 2008 by Kelly Sutton Summer is officially here for all students not in year-round institutions. My buddies at Santa Clara and University of Washington finished up their finals last week. Any self-respecting person probably is not resting for long, because those internships or jobs. This post is for those of us who have scored internships and are maybe getting a little run down. Here's how to stay at the top of your game and be remembered long after you've left. After all, not many people want to stay in academia for the rest of their life...
Do Everything
As an intern, you should never have dull time. Ever.
If you find yourself watching an inordinate number of YouTube videos (perhaps a college podcast that we all know and love), you're doing something wrong. Maybe your boss(es) is too, but you're the only one who can solve the problem.
Start reporting to people who are not your superior, but people who are peers with your superior. Get your hands involved in as much as possible.
I try to practice what I preach. Here's an example: My job title at Revision3 is "modern culture intern." That means I get to work on awesome shows like popSiren and Scam School. When I'm not busting balls on those shows, I'm writing software to help the company, brainstorming new shows, helping other people edit, contributing to the intern blog and appearing on other shows, like Internet Superstar. I am so self-righteous.
Work 60 Hour Weeks, Log 40
This is especially true if you're at a startup. As long as you're eating, paying rent and putting some away for repaying student loans, don't get greedy with the overtime you'll be working.
Get to Know Your Fellow Interns
After all, they could become your coworkers after you graduate.
Start coordinating and brainstorming specifically with them, if the situation allows it. You might come up with some crazy ideas that only other interns will want to try.
Don't Get Burned Out
You'll be stretching yourself thin if you're working your internship properly. As always with stretching yourself thin, you run the risk of meltdown. Even if you're working at the best internship in the world (Revision3), meltdowns still can occur.
I approached a meltdown earlier this week, but fended it off by doing something "normal": I sat down and saw The Incredible Hulk. Lame--I know--but it helped me get my mind off of things. Get outside every once in a while and do something dumb.
How do you make the most out of your summer internship? Let us know in some comments!
Reader Comments (11)
Absolutely--you have to stay productive. Even if you somehow manage to end up in a non-busy, unsupervised internship (which I can't imagine would ever happen) where your boss asks nothing of you and never seems to notice that you're sitting around with your hand in your pants, YOU will still feel like a big dumb loser for wasting your internship. Best to learn as much as you can, even if you're having to teach yourself.
And I think you can usually get away with being self-righteous if you can make people laugh while doing so.
Even the most boring internships can be a learning experience; interaction with my coworkers taught me more in one afternoon than the majority of my 6 months working in 2 different placements.
Hmmm... I disagree with "Do Everything." If you were interning with an NBC exec., I don't think "brainstorming a new show" would go over well. Also, I don't think your boss would appreciate you sidestepping them and getting cozy with their peers.
This can be delicate stuff, even at a small company.
[...] Summer Internships - Making the Most [via HackCollege] [...]
Damn Chris, always making me look bad ;). I guess I should qualify that a little bit. In a startup media company, helping everyone out can pay off.
If you somehow land an internship at a company like NBC, sidestepping your boss probably wouldn't be the best thing. However, you may never have the possibility to sidestep your boss, since you'll be out getting coffee for him/her all the time anyway :).
There's nothing wrong with multi-tasking. As long as you keep the tasks you have from your boss as a top priority, then you can help out other people in the company at the same time. Socializing with your boss and his office friends isn't a bad idea either. You might be a great worker, but if they don't have any reason to like you, why would they ever help you out down the road?
[...] 10 Tips for Interns Tips to Make the Most of Summer Internships Summer Internships—Making the Most Internships Are More Important Than Ever Inside an Ad Agency Summer [...]
I've been at my summer internship for almost a month now and I am still always bored. It was boring the first day and is still boring after almost a month. I barely have any supervision and I'm interning at one of the biggest banks in the world in assets. I barely have any tasks and they do not challenge me. I have been given a ton of information and access to a load of information I am supposed to use. However, I find myself being my own teacher as I sit in this dungeon of a cubicle where my supervisor literally said, "You cubicle makes me yawn." How am I supposed to seek help when people are always working and don't seem to have time for me? I'm a real introvert too so it's hard to just start walking around the place and meeting new people without feeling like I'm stepping on stones. So far, the company seems like a real good one to work for, but I am not so sure about the actual work it self. Maybe I just have internship syndrome-dieing from a boring internship makes me not ever want to work!
If your internship is not living up to your expectations you really need to confront your supervisor/manager about it. Tell him or her if there are any more projects you can work on. Ask your coworkers if they need your help with anything. Not to sound cliche, but whatever you put into internship is what you get out. I would consider myself an introvert also and my internship is quite unsupervised. So,I find it necessary to talk to my coworkers to see if they need help with anything otherwise i will be in my cube staring at yahoo news all day and feeling like Wally from Dilbert. ;)It is also really important to have a mentor may it be a cubicle mate that next to you (like mine) or someone else. happy interning!
Wow! You guys look like the cast from a hit USA teen drama show! ..Internships are always worth it. They give you experience, understanding, insight, are great to talk about during interviews and allow you make friends and make contacts. Internships are fantastic.
Like much of the posts already seen, I absolutely agree you have dive into an internship head first and stay busy. You will be thankful when its over and you learned a ton, then when you next job asks about it on your resume you won't have to recite some memorized generic blurb. If any interns want to review their experiences and let others know all about it, they can do so at UltimateIntern.com