Undergraduate Internships – Top 5 Tips For Interns
If you’ve landed your perfect student internship, you’re no doubt looking for some solid advice about how to keep it and be successful. If this is your first job, the office can seem like a scary place, and you may not know where to begin or who to talk to. If you follow these five tips, you’ll be sure to fit right it and get the most out of your placement.
1. Shake hands
One of the best ways to make a great first impression is always to introduce yourself having a firm handshake. It’s easy to get caught up in an awkward “should I or shouldn’t I battle” with yourself, especially when meeting a large volume of people for the first time. As long as you remain consistent with your greetings, you will minimize awkwardness. It is also best etiquette to stand when being brought to someone new who has enter into your office or over to your desk. It’s also important to do your very best to learn names. You may no be able to remember everyone’s names for the first day, but repeating their names once they are introduced is really a surefire method to commit it to memory.
2. Take initiative and take risk
You will see many tasks and assignments that you are given that might not seem important, and some that are downright boring. This kind of work may also be simple for you, or at the very least not challenging. Too many interns understand that they are able to probably get by doing the bare minimum and therefore are encouraged through the “grunt work” they’re given. Keep in mind that within your first couple of weeks, no one knows exactly what you’re able to, and you’ll need to prove yourself. If after a couple of weeks you will still are not trusted with anything challenging, request different things; talk to other staff members about what they’re doing and think about ways that you could help them. Supervisors will appear favorably in your initiative and willingness to take risks being an intern.
3. Remember that you’re learning
It’s important to keep thinking of yourself as a student (even if you are well out of college) during your internship. This will keep you in the constant frame of mind that you are learning a new challenge, even if it seems like you simply can’t possibly be learning everything from a copy machine or a coffee maker. Perhaps you have stopped to read the document that you’re copying? Or stopped to listen to what you’re boss is referring to in his big meeting? If people trust you to be around information, you should you can ask about it. Unless you make an effort to ask questions, people will assume that you are bored and uninterested, and you will most likely not be asked back.
4. Have fun
Even just in the stuffiest of offices, it is important to be positive enjoy yourself at the internship. The chances are you will find others at the office who take some time throughout the day to unwind a little by gossiping about celebrities within the break room or making jokes. Spend your first few weeks feeling out what exactly is appropriate and what isn’t, and make some friends that you could joke with. For those who have a positive attitude, the file room doesn’t have to be so bad.
5. Network
It’s possible that your current internship may not be for you, but there is still potential for you to find a job after it is over. As long as you keep working hard, stick to deadlines and stay positive you will attract positive attention from some higher ups. Let them know that you don’t “not like” the position, but that it isn’t necessarily the right fit. Hopefully which will lead to some discussion by what you are going to do next, and if you have done a good job most supervisors is going to be happy to pass your name on to another company or organization to which you may be better suited.
Intership Placement UK recommends contacting a respected and experienced company for your UK Internship and to avoid the college internship scams type companies out there. Go with professional and established.
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