Draw Up a Game Plan for Your Summer Internship

When you join your employer’s team as a summer intern, make sure you do more than just show up. Draw up a game plan for your internship to help you score the most from this experience.

Your Internship Playbook: 6 Key Plays:

First Down: Get to know people throughout the department and keep their contact information. Latha Pillai, one of our Career Services marketing interns, has worked over a year in our office. During her time here, she has made an extra effort to get to know and spend time with Career Services staff members in addition to her supervisor. These efforts have paid off where Latha has been asked to assist with duties past those of her internship, such as being the student representative on a key Career Services task force. When Latha leaves her position, she will have a wealth of Career Services contacts to add to her network.

Mary Ann Cole, former Career Services Marketing Manager (L) and Latha Pillai (R),
distribute signs promoting our Connection Job Fair in February 2013

Second Down: Volunteer to help whenever you can. Bringing a “can do” attitude to the office can make a real difference. And, your willingness to assist in lots of different ways will leave a lasting positive impression with your co-workers. For example, Khang Nguyen, a 2012-13 Career Services event planning intern, volunteered to photograph many events that were held in Career Services this year. We have a plethora of photos from our Tailgate Party, Speed Networking Event, and a co-worker’s recent retirement party, thanks to the photography skills that Khang offered to share with us.

August 2012 Career Services Tailgate Party
taken by Khang Nguyen, Career Services 2012-13 Intern

Third Down: Arrange weekly meetings with your supervisor to touch base and get feedback on how you are doing. Several years ago I advised James (name has been changed), a cooperative education student, who received a negative evaluation from his supervisor. He was so embarrassed and disappointed about his poor performance evaluation, especially since he felt he had worked very hard on his projects. Come to find out, the projects he focused on were not the critical areas on which his supervisor desired for James to concentrate. James’ supervisor was out of the office traveling for much of the semester, which didn’t allow for regular feedback. As you kick off your career in an internship, obtaining regular advice on your work is critical to how quickly you advance down your learning curve. To avoid an experience like the one James had, if your supervisor hasn’t yet established regular meeting times, ask your boss to meet with you on a weekly or at least bi-weekly basis.

Field Goal: Set goals for what you hope to learn. Why did you want this internship? What are you hoping to get out of it? As you look at your resume and think about your future career, what is missing that you plan to gain this summer? Figure out some specific skills, experience or knowledge you are hoping to obtain during your internship. Write down these goals and talk to your supervisor and co-workers about them. Need help putting them in writing? In the Career Services Co-op/Intern program, we use a learning objectives form where we have students create goals for their experiences.

Touchdown: Sign up for training programs. Be sure to take advantage of training or other professional development opportunities that may be available to you. If you can gain certifications in software programs or some other skill area, now is a great time to pursue them. Any training you receive will be valuable additions to your resume. Work on your oral and written communication skills if you have the chance. All employers want you to possess these skills when hiring for a full-time position.
 
PAT (Point after Touchdown): Ask your supervisor to serve as a positive reference. Before you leave your position, be sure to check with your supervisor to see if she/he will be a reference for you as you apply for future positions or to graduate school. Make sure you have a copy of supervisor’s and other co-workers’ business cards before you head back to campus. And, collect copies of any samples of your work if that applies and the information can be shared.

Making these key plays a part of your internship game plan will help you have a winning experience and also lead to you scoring even more positions in the future. What else is in your game plan this summer?

Preparing for Your Internship

Internships.  In the day and age where everyone is getting a degree, internships are almost a requirement to getting a big company to even consider your resume.  With this being the closest step to getting a job without being an official fulltime employee, starting your first internship can be exciting and nerve-wracking all at once.  Fear not!  Many people before you have interned, and chances are many people before you have interned with the exact company you’re about to work for.  You’re going to do great.  However, if you’re feeling nervous, here are some ways to prepare yourself for your first day:

On Your Mark: Physical Preparation

 

This is honestly half the battle right here.  Get everything prepared beforehand and your first day of your internship will run a lot smoother.  Some key points to think about are:

Living Accommodations: Have you figured out where you’ll be living for the next few months? Have you found roommates if you need them?  Do you need to pay rent or other bills? Do you know where/how to?

Wardrobe: What is the dress code at the workplace?  Do you have the appropriate clothes?

Location: Do you know where you need to show up the first day? How about when?  Do you know your starting date?

Drugs Tests and Background Checks: Some companies require these before you are officially hired.  Usually they will be written in your contract so you know about them beforehand.  Do you need to complete these?  Have you?

Pre-Internship Materials: Some internships requires their interns to do some work before coming into the office, be it pre-internship training, or reading materials about the project.  Make sure you complete everything before your first day!  Nothing is worse than starting off on the wrong foot with your boss of the next few months.

Lunch: This is a little smaller than the rest of them, but still a valid point.  The first week is going to be a huge adjustment for you (unless you’ve done this internship before).  Therefore, it will be much easier for you to have a prepared lunch with you instead of relying on buying lunch and realizing you don’t have enough time.  You don’t want to go hungry your first few days!

Get Set: Mental Preparation

Starting anything new can an exciting experience, albeit an anxious one.  Are you the kind of person who can’t sleep the night before the first day of the semester, a new job, or a big move?  Well, I can’t promise to help you get more shut eye, but there are a few preparations you can go through that might make you feel better:

Brush Up: Did they hire you for specific skills or knowledge?  Brush up on that.  Make sure you’re not rusty on your first day.

Dress to Impress: I know I mentioned wardrobe already in physically preparing yourself, but I feel it fits in mental preparation as well.  Whether the dress code is casual or business, dress in a way that makes you look good and feel confident.  The way you feel about how you look will leak into your confidence about how you work.

Remember: They hired you because they were confident that you would be able to complete the tasks thrown at you. Take a deep breath! If they believe in you, you should believe in yourself.

Go!

Your first day of your internship awaits you!  Whether they put you through a training process or have you hit the ground running, remember that you’re never alone.  You will always have someone you can turn to if you have a question.  Especially with big companies who have dealt with hundred or even thousands of interns before you, they will be expecting a lot of questions.  So inquire away to your heart’s desire.  Make sure you’re confident that you know what you need to do before running off trying to solve the wrong problem, and that you know who to turn to if you run across an issue.

Companies often use their internships to decide if they would like to offer you a fulltime position.  They will be watching to see how you go about your work, if you fit in the environment, and how well you get along with others.  Of course, you should also be using this time to decide if you would want to even consider a fulltime position with this company.  Do you like the environment, the people, and the work?  Only you can decide.  So put yourself out there and do the best you can.

Good luck everyone! I hope you all have a fantastic time at your internship.

Make Your Summer To Do List!

Studying? Take Care of YOU with 4 Hints + 1 Treat!

Get 8 hours of sleep. One lesson I learned my first year as an undergraduate is that you are better off to get a good night’s rest than to stay up cramming. Your mind will function better, and you’re not going to remember those chapters you first read at 1 a.m. Close the book, turn off the computer and get some shut eye instead.

Eat breakfast. And, after you have slept well, start your day off right with a healthy breakfast. During my week of finals, I regularly got up and ate a hot breakfast before I took an exam. My mother, a physician, used to harp on me that I always needed to eat that first meal of the day. “It’s called breakfast for a reason, she said. “You are breaking your fast. You need to get your metabolism pumping.” And, while you are eating, make your choices healthy. Have some protein!

De-stress. As you allow time for studying, make sure you build time in your schedule for some stress busting. What do you do to relieve stress? When I was studying for finals, I would take a break and go play the baby grand piano that was positioned in the lobby of my residence hall. Playing Fur Elise and Moonlight Sonata along with other pieces took me to a calmer place. If I didn’t play the piano, I ran 3 miles with some of my good friends. Get outside, breathe the fresh air. Take a walk around the Duck Pond or the Drill Field. Go to McComas and work out your frustrations. Move! Which brings me to my next tip…

Exercise. Play Ultimate Frisbee or Quidditch. Attend a yoga or zumba class. Go lift weights. Bike the Huckleberry Trail. Run to campus from Hethwood. After the grind of studying those awful financial ratios or writing that huge history research paper, your mind and body will feel more refreshed with a break for a workout. Your brain and your body will perform better for your next exam or paper with some exercise added to your routine.

Treat yourself after you remembered all those ratios or finished that paper. Make an A on your first exam? Celebrate with a burger at Mike’s Grill: a mahi mahi taco from Cabo Fish Taco; a hike to the Cascades; a pedicure at Polished; or a new haircut at Inside Out Salon. Take a break to celebrate your success and pat yourself on the back.

A final piece of advice comes from my favorite undergraduate professor and mentor, Dr. Carl Stern, an economics professor: When you leave an exam, think about all the answers you got right, rather than obsessing over all the ones you didn’t know. After I heard this advice, I strived to follow it. His suggestion really helped me feel better coming out of exams. Try it! What other tips do you have? Please share!

Preparing for Finals

Overused meme is overused.

However, the meaning stands true.  That part of the semester has finally arrived.  Professors are handing out last minute projects and papers like candy on Halloween and you're hoping you just make it out alive without drowning in a pool of deadlines.

If you're finding yourself too anxious to know where to begin with your finals studying, here are some tips on how to survive the next few weeks:


Getting Started: Guiding Your Studying

Often times, getting started is the hardest aspect of studying.  Where do you even begin?

I suggest starting with your past midterms.  Chances are, your final is going to be written by the same person who wrote your midterms.  Studying the midterms is not only helpful in helping you review past material for cumulative finals, but helps you re-familiarize yourself with the set-up of how your professor writes and grades tests.  Does the test have a lot of short answer questions, or fewer essay questions?  Do you get more points for a right answer or for showing your work?  Even if your final is a common time, you can study what kind of mistakes you made and how to learn from them.

If you're still a little lost at where to go after looking at your midterms, try taking a look at your professor's slides if they post them online.  These are already organized for you in that they cover the information your professor found the most important and challenging.  If the slides cover examples, step through the examples yourself instead of just looking over them to make sure you can solve everything on your own.

That being said, make sure the slides are not your only source of studying material.  More often than not, your class is supposed to cover more material than your professor can cover.  If this is the case, chances are that you're responsible to know more than what you will find on the slides.  Make sure you at least touch on everything you're supposed to go over!

Also, if you're taking a final that allows a cheat sheet, creating your sheet is a great way to guide your studying.  Don't just borrow a copy of your friend's sheet- make your own, so that you're stepping through the material as you're making the sheet.  When you do this, you just might find that you don't even need to look at your sheet during the actual test!

Making It Through Your Studying

First off: Get. Off. The. Internet.  I know this is easier said than done.  However, nothing is going to get done so long as you have that Facebook tab open, calling your name and begging you to click on it.  I promise Facebook will still be there after finals.  Reddit, Tumblr, and Pinterest are not going anywhere.

If you're looking at slides your professor has posted on Scholar, download all of them, unplug the Ethernet chord, and turn off your wireless.  Toss your phone to the other side of the room where you'll be too lazy to grab it.  You don't have to become a recluse until the end of finals, but the last thing you want is to walk out of the final regretting how much time you spent looking at pictures of cats when you could have been looking over that one topic you didn't study that takes up that entire third page of the test.

Now that I'm done being your mom, I'm going to step into the shoes of your professor for a bit: if you haven't read the textbook all semester, it's too late to read it now.  Maybe you skimmed the book at one point, maybe you never even bothered to take the saran wrap off the textbook after you bought it.  Now is not the time to start reading from page one.  However, your textbook is not completely useless.  Skimming is still incredibly useful, especially through sections you might have had trouble with over the semester.  If your textbook has any review questions at the end of the chapter, now would be a good time to go over them.  Make note of what you're having trouble with and go back to it after you've skimmed the whole book so you can focus on the sections you need the most help with.

Lastly, office hours are your friend.  Most (if not all) professors hold some sort of office hours during Reading Day and during finals.  They're not just sitting in their office for the fun of it.  Use this time wisely, and ask all of the stupid questions you were too embarrassed to ask during class or go over homework questions you got wrong and still don't understand.  The professors aren't out to fail you- but they can only help you if you let them.

Crossing the Finish Line

Alright, so you've gone through the bulk of your studying.  Hopefully you didn't leave this off to the last minute, and you still have some time before you need to head off to the testing room.  What now?

Well first off, it's a good idea to know when and where you need to go.  The last thing you need is the panic of realizing that your test started a half hour ago.  Hopefully you already had your schedule figured out to make sure none of them conflicted so you could file for a new testing time.  If not, I would suggest looking your test times and places as soon as possible.

Once that is figured out, and this might sound contrary to what you're thinking, give yourself some time to relax before the test.  Again, this is assuming your test doesn't start in twenty minutes.  Give your mind a chance to unwind and soak in all the information you just crammed in.  You can finally turn the internet on and check your Facebook.  Treat yourself to a nice meal.  Although your nerves might catch back up with you as soon as you walk into the testing room, at least your headache will be a little smaller.

Finally, make sure you show up to the room with plenty of time.  I cannot tell you how many times I have been saved from comparing cheat sheets with classmates and adding something to my sheet five minutes before the final starts.  If cheat sheets are not allowed, a quick review over some topic you had trouble with can be helpful.  More importantly, showing up a little early gives you a chance to take a deep breath.  Remember to breathe!

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So hopefully by using these tips as a guide, you'll get through your final weeks here without collapsing.  Just in time to rush off to your summer job or internship!

Good luck with finals, everyone.  And work smart.