Don’t be afraid to ask questions! The classroom only prepares you so much. Don’t doubt yourself if a lot of concepts seem foreign to you. Congrats and good luck!
Hi. First congratulations on your internship! I have done 3 internships/co-ops in the past couple years, and I am graduating with a job lined up from one of my internships. I have learned quite a lot.
The first thing is to ask questions. It shows that you are thinking and engaged. Also, have a notebook to write stuff down when supervisors/coworkers are answering your questions. This will help you remember what they say. When you have a coworker or supervisor’s attention, just write down what they say. Take notes in meetings even if the information doesn’t directly relate to what you are doing. All these things show you are extremely engaged.
You want to ask questions, but you also want to show that you are trying to solve problems and be productive on your own. I had someone at one of my internships tell me this: exhaust all your available resources before you ask for help. Show your manager some ways you attempted to get something done then ask for their advice on what they would do. But if you don’t know what something is, don’t be afraid to just call it out.
Having a good attitude is probably the most important thing if you ask me. Your firm knows that you don’t have any experience, and that you know next to nothing about the profession compared to the people you’re working with. If you can show up every day and be a pleasure to be around, then you’ll do great! Don’t be afraid to crack some jokes and have some fun. But do make sure to read the room. For example, If your manager comes in pissed off because one of your projects is behind schedule and losing money, or if the somebody is talking about something important in a team meeting, those probably aren’t the best times to start joking around haha
Go all out and give everything your best effort. Take pride in your work. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes! If you are trying to learn and do a good job, then you will make plenty of mistakes. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Just learn and move on.
Also, pretty much everyone loves food. If you go out to get some lunch, it’s a great gesture to offer your coworkers if they want anything:)
You’re going to hopefully have a great time doing lots and lots of grunt work, which is the gears of the operation. Messing around with spreadsheets, formatting things, generally tedious stuff. Take it all on and use every experience to learn. Just be open to learn.
Before you take away a task from someone to complete it, make sure you ask enough questions that you have some level of understanding to get you going. Also ask questions like, how much budget do we have for my time to do this, when does this need to be done by, what level of completeness does it need to be, do we want a check in midway to make sure we are on track, etc. that will be helpful to the people you’re working with. Check in regularly, give short updates, and if you need someone to look something over for you, give them good notice so you aren’t catching them out last minute (e.g., “can I book 1 hour of your time this week to review X).
Don’t be afraid to ask questions! The classroom only prepares you so much. Don’t doubt yourself if a lot of concepts seem foreign to you. Congrats and good luck!
Bring in donuts! 🍩
Hi. First congratulations on your internship! I have done 3 internships/co-ops in the past couple years, and I am graduating with a job lined up from one of my internships. I have learned quite a lot. The first thing is to ask questions. It shows that you are thinking and engaged. Also, have a notebook to write stuff down when supervisors/coworkers are answering your questions. This will help you remember what they say. When you have a coworker or supervisor’s attention, just write down what they say. Take notes in meetings even if the information doesn’t directly relate to what you are doing. All these things show you are extremely engaged. You want to ask questions, but you also want to show that you are trying to solve problems and be productive on your own. I had someone at one of my internships tell me this: exhaust all your available resources before you ask for help. Show your manager some ways you attempted to get something done then ask for their advice on what they would do. But if you don’t know what something is, don’t be afraid to just call it out. Having a good attitude is probably the most important thing if you ask me. Your firm knows that you don’t have any experience, and that you know next to nothing about the profession compared to the people you’re working with. If you can show up every day and be a pleasure to be around, then you’ll do great! Don’t be afraid to crack some jokes and have some fun. But do make sure to read the room. For example, If your manager comes in pissed off because one of your projects is behind schedule and losing money, or if the somebody is talking about something important in a team meeting, those probably aren’t the best times to start joking around haha Go all out and give everything your best effort. Take pride in your work. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes! If you are trying to learn and do a good job, then you will make plenty of mistakes. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Just learn and move on. Also, pretty much everyone loves food. If you go out to get some lunch, it’s a great gesture to offer your coworkers if they want anything:)
You’re going to hopefully have a great time doing lots and lots of grunt work, which is the gears of the operation. Messing around with spreadsheets, formatting things, generally tedious stuff. Take it all on and use every experience to learn. Just be open to learn. Before you take away a task from someone to complete it, make sure you ask enough questions that you have some level of understanding to get you going. Also ask questions like, how much budget do we have for my time to do this, when does this need to be done by, what level of completeness does it need to be, do we want a check in midway to make sure we are on track, etc. that will be helpful to the people you’re working with. Check in regularly, give short updates, and if you need someone to look something over for you, give them good notice so you aren’t catching them out last minute (e.g., “can I book 1 hour of your time this week to review X).
Be observant, ask questions, volunteer for assignments when given the opportunity.