What I Wish I Knew Before My Internship

So, you landed your first internship this summer, congrats!

Internships are a great way to network and get your foot in the door in the world of the corporate job market, but were you aware of the things you should be doing now? You may be thinking to yourself, “I just started, what could I possibly need to do?” Well, I am here to tell you that by starting now, you set yourself up to have a plethora of key takeaways at the end of your internship experience.

First things first, keep track of your projects! Big or small, doesn’t matter, what matters is having enough pieces to fill your portfolio and resume with, so that future employers can get the best idea for how your skills would fit with their team. The best advice I can give is to start healthy/helpful habits now. Create weekly lists of specific tasks you completed on the job. This insures that you have proof to look back on what exactly you did each week, and more detail to give future employers. Another habit to adopt is creating a personal folder and loading in each weeks projects that you completed, so that you will undoubtedly have the makings of a great portfolio to use for future applications/interviews. Your portfolio is used to tell a story, the story being the accomplishments you’ve made, along with a timeline of growth.

Secondly, utilize the resources at your disposal. You are only cheating yourself out of helpful insight by not making connections or asking questions. The best way to maximize your interning experience is by learning as much as you can in the time you are there. The best advice you can learn is by asking your coworkers how they got to where they’re at today, and the knowledge they wish they had before entering the workforce. These conversations can steer you into the direction of your lifelong career path or even pave the way to networks you would have never known.

An internship can be the best return on investment, so long as you are putting in the same energy!