Posts Tagged ‘internship’

The Art of Proving Yourself in a New Career

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

shoes_to_fill

If you’ve found yourself in a postgrad internship or entry level job, you’ve likely run into a few transitional frustrations here and there. Maybe you feel the tasks that you’ve been given are a bit too granular, or you’re tired of working from project to project instead of being assigned to one of your own. Having been through the obligatory internship phase myself, allow me to offer a some perspective and advice on approaching this experience.

  1. No matter how great your resume looks, you still have to prove yourself. As the president of the central region of my own company said during the Gal’s Guide Summit a few short weeks ago, ”No one cares where you went to college or what your GPA was—it’s all about what you can do for them.”
  2. Attention to detail comes first. You have to prove that you can get the details right before moving on to the “bigger picture.”
  3. Be proactive. Learn to think like the client. Answer questions and solve problems before they have the chance to ask. This will make you a valuable asset to the organization.
  4. Learn basic design. No matter how great your ideas are, they won’t get you anywhere unless you can express them. Whether you’re communicating through PowerPoint, a print document or any other format, bad design is distracting.
  5. Learn how to use your desktop apps. Not just use them, but really use them. You never know when you might need to pull a crazy excel formula or PowerPoint formatting trick.
  6. Continue to network within the company. Ask to grab coffee with different employees who are higher levels than you to get to know more about what they do and learn about the various career options within the company. The more people you can get to know this way, the more you’ll have cheering for you when it comes time to make hiring or promotional decisions.
  7. Learn to prioritize. You’ll likely have different projects coming from different people, so each time you get a new project, let them know what you’re working on and ask when the project is due by.
  8. Make sure you get your review. Set up a review with your manager half-way through your internship. You need to find out where you stand in order to improve on any perceived weaknesses.

Photo: “Shoes to Fill” from my own photo collection

Tags: ,
Posted in blog | 4 Comments »

Unpaid Internship – Yay or Neigh?

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

Intern! Get me some coffee! After following a lively discussion about unpaid internships over at 20 Something Bloggers, I think it’s time that I weigh in with my own thoughts.

I used to be adamantly against unpaid internships—and I still am in certain cases. The relationship should be mutually beneficial—if you are working as an unpaid intern and all you’re doing is answering phones, that’s an abuse of the relationship. There are two factors that must be accounted for before accepting an unpaid internship.

  1. You should be receiving college credit for the experience.
  2. The role should provide you with real and valuable experience—not just look good on paper.

That said, paid versus unpaid internships often depend on the market you’re in. From what I’ve seen, if you intern in a big city for a big agency, you’re more likely to get paid, and you’ll have a better guarantee of hands-on experience. This is not to say that some smaller markets and agencies can’t offer the same, but as you plan your path through college and on into your career, it may be worth exploring a summer in another city, if that’s where you’ll find the experience that’s right for you.

Resources

What do you think? Have you, or would you, accept an unpaid internship?

Photo Source: David Boyle

Tags: ,
Posted in blog | 6 Comments »