THE 2020 INTERN COHORT
Some kick-ass advice for our prospective interns!
Life at university should ideally be a time where you go beyond the realm of your textbooks and look for meaningful opportunities to groom yourself. One way of grooming and preparing yourself for the world outside of college is by doing internships. The very essence of an internship is that it is an opportunity to learn real-life skills that you can’t get from books. Today, almost every student does at least 2 internships before graduating. But, for most of them, the chapter closes on the 30th after receiving the internship certificate. But, the important question here is- whether just finishing your work and signing off would be enough to make the most out of your internship? Or is there a way to have your internship make a long-lasting impact on your professional life.
Like every year, this year again McKinley & Rice is planning to onboard interns from multiple domains like Marketing, QA Testing, Web and Mobile Development, and more. Even though the work that these interns do would vary based on their profile, there are some common tips that each of them could take away.
I am a fresher at McKinley and Rice and have also interned in the past with other organizations. So, if there’s one thing that I can sympathize with you on is the abundance of generic advice that is thrown on interns. I am sure you’ve all gotten the usual, “Learn practical skills at your internship” or “Do your job well and don’t hesitate to seek help”. There’s no denying that these advices are important. However, I’m sure that you’re all looking for something a little more real, genuine, and personalized. So, here’s a little something from a fellow former intern to our new/prospective/existing interns!
1. Build Meaningful Relationships: When you start interning with McKinley and Rice, make it a point to build a fruitful relationship with your manager and colleagues. Even if the internship is meant for a period of say 2 months, do consider it at least as an opportunity to network and build relationships. Networking goes a long way. We have one such example in our organization itself. Last summer, we had an intern, Anandita, who emailed us again a few months ago telling us that she’s graduating now and would like to work with us full-time. Today, it’s been 2 months since we hired her as a Junior Web Developer! Another intern, Upasna Deka interned with us in her second year of college and she is coming back for a summer internship in her third year. These stories just go to prove that if you genuinely strive to maintain a good working relationship with us, we’d be more than happy to extend you a helping hand whenever we can. Asking for favors is absolutely rational, but also make sure that you give favors too. Thus, when you are interning, ask your manager if they would be interested in more interns. And there are high chances that if they liked working with you, they would trust you to connect them with resourceful interns. Use this as an opportunity to land your college juniors a meaningful internship. If everyone does this, it would create a cycle and there would be opportunities for everyone, including you. This is a very useful tip to create a network of meaningful relationships.
2. Take Notes: When I was doing my 2-month internship last year with an MNC, halfway through I realized that I had already done quite a lot of work but I could only recall half of it. Unless you are Mike Ross from the show Suits who remembers every minute detail, you’re sure to forget some tasks you did. At McKinley and Rice, we have an intern manual that encourages and gives our interns the space to write their daily reports, take appreciative notes from peers and colleagues, add photos to make it a personal memoir, and use it as a slam book. This way, when your internship will end, you’ll have a log of your entire experience at McKinley and Rice. You won’t find yourself scratching your head years later during an interview when someone asks you what exactly you did at this internship.
3. Document it on Social Media: One thing I can promise you is that you’ll have many ‘I-haven’t-experienced-this-before’ moments while interning at McKinley and Rice. You should document these experiences on your social media like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, etc. What this does is that it gives a tangible element to your internship experience. So if and when someone looks at your Facebook profile, they’ll see that you are a curious person who actually cares about their work. For example, if you’re working on a project that’s new to you, you can always write a blog about how you made a place for yourself in the project team, any achievements that you made with the project. Such posts add character to your profile and portray you better than just an average Facebook user.
4. Ask for Recommendations: Many a time, your internship managers send you an appreciative text on WhatsApp about your good work performance. But, that’s as far as it gets. Why not get that feedback put on your LinkedIn profile? Don’t feel shy to approach your manager at McKinley and Rice for a recommendation on LinkedIn. We at McKinley and Rice love to appreciate feats achieved by our team. Your LinkedIn profile seems more impressive when you have recommendations from people in senior positions instead of getting one from your friend. This also sets the course for your professional career as you’ll start your first job with one or two solid recommendations backing you. Having said that, don’t get tempted or go overboard to influence your connections for unrealistic recommendation messages. A fake social media presence that portrays differently than you are can do more harm than good.
These are just some things I learned from my internships. I hope these suggestions can be of some use to you as well. The company is super excited to have you as the new interns this year. And, I can promise you that it’s going to be one hell of a ride!
