You got it! Now what?

 Congratulations!! You landed your internship position! By now, you are likely excited and terrified at the same time – I know I was!

It took a lot of different people around me providing helpful insights before I felt ready for that first opportunity… I learned a lot from it, and after sharing those learnings with other first-timers over the years, and also by observing what worked and what didn’t through the tens of interns under my eyes, here are a few DO’s that were common and invariably present for all those that succeeded:

• Be professional. And I don’t mean it as in being someone different than yourself. Being on time for work and for meetings, dressing in accordance to the dress code of the work environment, being respectful when treating colleagues, honing in our communication style to be clear and concise, maintaining a positive attitude, not panicking under pressure, and practicing being a team player: all of those are ways to be professional, and are important during internship and any other professional opportunities we might have late in life.

• Be curious. More important even than having and holding knowledge, is the ability to ask questions about what we don’t know. Curiosity is one of the key traits one can possess, in any field. Not being afraid of asking questions gives us a competitive advantage. We need to understand WHAT is being asked from us (our job – the one that getting completed means simply fulfilling our minimum obligation), but also the HOW it is expected to be done (to comply with any internal process and procedures), WHY that is important (understanding the connection of our little piece of responsibility to the bigger picture), WHO will use it (helps understand who our internal or external customers are and connect the dots), and by WHEN things are expected (so we can prioritize, since there will always be competing demands for our time). Take notes if needed, and learn from the answers – nobody likes to be asked the same question multiple times.

• Read between the lines. There is a lot in any work environment that is explicitly communicated. But there is an even bigger lot that is not. One of the biggest learnings during my internships was on how to make sure I was paying attention to people’s body language, and to read the room – or the environment – around me. I picked up on tensions that were not related to my work directly, I asked questions, and I even found opportunities to help, what was greatly appreciated. It also gave me a much broader understanding of people and of the business and all that goes into it. 

• Go the extra mile. Do more than what is asked from you, or do what is asked from you better than what is expected. This is a truth for everything in life, but many professionals don’t realize this even later in their careers. People will not notice those that are doing the basics. We are asked to do A, we do A, we get paid to do A. Anyone can do that – it is called fulfilling obligations. What differentiates us, what becomes our trademark,  is our ability to do things better than expected, faster than expected, or to do more than expected. It is not something obvious to achieve, because it entails deeply thinking and reflecting on what we are doing to find opportunities to excel at it, and it also means dedicating more of our energy and being really intentional about everything we do. Starting practicing that during any internship helps us create this habit that can only help as our careers evolve. And most important of all: be consistent about it, day in, day out.

• Be open to feedback. This is likely the hardest one, not only during internship but in every moment in our professional lives. It is always uncomfortable to hear that things we put our time and effort on didn’t go as planned, and it is very easy to fall into the trap of blaming someone else. The reality is: we can only control ourselves. And feedback is the most precious gift someone can give us. Because we are blind sighted to our own shortcomings – unless we are bad people, normally we don’t make mistakes or fall short because we want to; it happens because we don’t know better. Well, feedback is a great way to get to know better… It does not make it easy to listen to criticism, though. To set expectations: there are people who are great critics, there are people that suck at that, and hurt our feelings. What I learned in life is that other people will not change their style, and thus I had to adjust my hearing to focus on what the feedback meant, not on how it was being delivered. And once we pass the challenge of hearing the feedback, comes the even more important part of digesting the feedback, and acting upon it, otherwise it is useless. Not taking it personally but making it about the work delivered also helps to put the feedback in the correct perspective.

On my first internship, I was blessed with a very compassionate boss, who was extremely efficient, but also extremely human. She told me: “Only people who are working and trying make mistakes. If you were doing nothing, you wouldn’t make mistakes. There is nothing wrong with making a mistake – what is wrong is repeating it, because the second time it is a choice.”

So know from the get go: we all try, we all make mistakes, and as long as we are learning from the experience, we are moving in the right direction.

Good luck – I am sure you are going to do great! And feel free to drop questions in the post, I will be happy to answer to the best of my ability!