Get ready for your internship! Based on intern and supervisor feedback here are some tips and pointers for how to be the best intern possible and get the most out of your internship.
Soft Skills:
- The number one criticism supervisors have for interns is that they wish the interns would show more initiative.
- Suggestion: Employers want people that can come in, see what needs improving, and take that project on. They don’t want someone who constantly asks what to do next. They want an intern or employee that can figure out answers on their own and see a task to completion. Don’t worry too much about messing something up, more than likely you aren’t working with the company’s finances or confidential files.
- It’s okay to pick up the phone, we promise!
- Ask questions. Try to figure out the answer on your own, but if you cannot, ask. Asking a quick question so that you can get back to finishing the project is definitely worth it. The balance between asking for help and working on your own can be difficult, so always try to find the answer on your own, then ask for help.
- Know the company before the first day. Do some research on what the company does and who works there
Hard Skills:
- Learn Excel, WELL. If you think you might use excel for even an hour, it is worth knowing the program and knowing more than how to enter data. Excel is used by almost every company in the world in some way and being able to do the more involved functions is either going to be necessary or quite impressive. Links:
- http://excelexposure.com/ – great for all excel abilities levels – videos
- http://www.excel-easy.com/ – great for all excel levels – no videos
- http://www.gcflearnfree.org/office – good for all Microsoft office products. Good excel walk-throughs
- Writing emails. In a professional setting, emails should be professional as well.
- Use salutations, such as, “Hi Jennifer” and “Kind Regards”
- Every email should be proofread, even if it is one sentence long.
- If you are included on an email to the entire office, “reply all” might not be the best idea. Does the head of the organization really need to see your congratulations to someone’s promotion?
- No email should, look, read, or sound like a text. Ever.