“I have no idea what I’m doing” — The story of a student mastering his summer internship in Boston.

By Derek Fieldhouse, Summer Intern at LearnLux

What does a summer internship with a startup consist of you ask? At the beginning, a lot of this.

And that is exactly why you should work at a startup for the summer.

Startups are radically different from anything you’ve ever experienced. They’ll also give you the opportunity to learn, more than if you were just to get coffee for a boss or spend all day stapling papers.

In fact, you might have a preconception of what your boss will be like, or should be like.

But working at a startup, you will probably quickly realize that your boss isn’t at all what you thought. You’ll find that they’re incredibly driven, they’ll push you to think differently, and by the end you will (hopefully) have made a friend for life — at least that’s what I found.

You will also meet other interns which might be a little frightening. But you’ll quickly realize they are just as confused and excited as you are. The excitement doesn’t stop there, however.

After being horribly confused for a week or two at what is going on in the startup, and figuring out what you really enjoy doing, you will quickly be onboarded and thrown into the thick of things. You could be in a meeting with the boss to set goals and told to take notes. Or maybe your boss might tell you to do something and you’re completely lost. You might be thinking up a strategy to tackle user acquisition, or you might be bootlegging the scrappiest marketing strategy, which could leave you doing something ridiculous.

And guess what? That’s probably all happening in one day! That’s what working at a startup is like. You’ll be bouncing from one thing to the next, but once you get the hang of the spontaneity of everything you’ll suddenly find yourself looking forward to going to work, and not wanting to leave. Plus you’ll have great benefits. Like free food at the office.

That’s not to say it’s all fun and games. You’ll hit roadblocks, you’ll run into tedious work and you’ll definitely get frustrated. But it will all be worth it because you’ll be gaining experience that will benefit you for the rest of your life. You will be making connections with other people in the startup’s space and expanding your network, which some argue is the most important part of being successful in the future.

So what are you waiting for?

Go find your startup internship now, or begin thinking about one for next summer!