6 Tips for Making the Most of Your Tech Internship
A few words of wisdom for tech interns.
After years of hard work, you’ve landed a coveted internship in the tech industry. Software engineer, product manager, user interface designer, marketer — whatever your role, you want to do it justice. Here are six pieces of advice for interns trying to make the most of their internship and (hopefully) land a rock-solid return offer.
1. Imposter syndrome is real. Don’t let it get to you.
Have you ever felt as though you’re the dumbest person in the room? Like you managed to fake your way to the top? During my first internship, I felt as though I was hired completely by accident — that someone in recruiting dialed the wrong number when they called to tell me that I’d gotten an offer. Sadly, this is a difficult feeling to shake, even throughout the course of an internship. Many successful people find themselves feeling as though they’ve duped their way to their current position.
There’s something to be said for being aware of your insufficiencies, but trust me when I say that your being hired was no mistake. You were hired because you impressed interviewers with your intelligence, creativity, and experience. You’re here for a reason. Remember, you have something unique to bring to this company, and now it’s your responsibility to bring it.
2. Measure the results of your accomplishments during your internship.
At my first internship, I made the mistake of leaving it without collecting any concrete numbers to show for my accomplishments. Don’t do this.
Regardless of whether you plan to return to your company after graduation, you will eventually be moving along to another company. This means that, at some point or another, you’ll need to condense the work that you’ve done into a few bullet points on your resume to market yourself to other companies.
In order to write effective bullets, you’ll need to state the results of your accomplishments. This means that rather than writing “Developed new push notification that increased app usability,” you need to write “Developed new push notification that increased number of daily active users by 8%.” During your internship, take note of the results of your work in hard, cold numbers. Use these to quantify your accomplishments.
It’s all too easy to get swept up in the fun and stress of an internship and forget to reflect on the quantifiable effects of your work. Don’t make that mistake.
3. Don’t let your professionalism become lax.
With casual dress environments, nap rooms, snack pantries, and flexible work hours, the fun work environments of the tech industry are something of a working person’s dream.
Even so, don’t make the mistake of forgetting that you’re here as a professional. You are being paid to interact with your coworkers and finish your tasks. Even though the office environment isn’t quite as straight-laced as your parents told you it was going to be, don’t forget that you should remain a disciplined, responsible individual.
Sure, your hours are flexible, but don’t come into the office after late-morning meetings have happened. Sure, the office might keep liquor on hand, but don’t get drunk and throw up at the office. This might seem like common sense, but I saw these things happen with my own eyes. Just be smart about how you act. Behave in a way that will leave you remembered favorably by your team when you’re gone.
4. Ask lots of questions.
When you join a new team — especially if this is your first job in the tech industry — it’s only natural that you’ll be face-to-face with a plethora of things that you’ve never worked with before. Jira? Agile? Confluence? What is this madness? It is your responsibility to ask questions early and often, and remember the answers to them. Nothing frustrates the mentor of an intern like being asked the same question four times by the same person.
I’d recommend that you record questions (and their answers), to-do lists, and other material in some medium for note-taking. I prefer the good old-fashioned pen and paper, but different things work for everyone.
5. Get feedback early and often.
You’re going to screw up at some point. Your coworkers are aware of this, and they’re ready for it. To accommodate for this, ask for harsh feedback early in your internship. The earlier you receive criticism, the more time you have to iterate on your work and show your employer that you’re a worthy hire.
If this is your mentor’s first time having an intern, they may feel hesitant to give harsh criticism. Encourage them to give you feedback from the outset. If they’re being too nice and don’t give you ways to improve, your performance could be hurt as a result.
As long as it might sound at the beginning of an internship, 10, 12, or even 14 weeks is, in reality, not that long of a time. Use the time you have to show your mentor(s) that you’re adaptable and that you mean business.
6. Net-twerk.
This is something of a no-brainer, but I was shocked at the number of people that I met at my first internship that sat inside and didn’t get to know any of their teammates, mentors, or fellow interns.
Guess what? In a year’s time, many of the people with whom you interact will likely be doing cool things at other cool companies. Getting to know them will be invaluable to your future job search(es).
Grab lunch with a teammate who has a neat role. Go to your team’s social events. Get to know your fellow interns. Build connections and friendships like these now, and you’ll thank yourself for it in the future.
Conclusion
By following these simple tips and working hard, you can make the most of your time as an intern and prime yourself for an amazing career afterwords. Work hard, learn a lot, make connections, and, crucially, have fun!
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Good luck!
