What Should You Takeaway From Your Internship?
Currently on an internship stint or looking to experience one? Let us tell you what you should look out for and the takeaways you should have on an internship!
Here is a summary of some of the key points you should take away from your internship stint:
Communication skills are very important, be it verbal or non-verbal. It is critical to career success, with 60% being exposure, 30% being image and 10% being performance. With good communication skills, only then you would be able to convey your talents and ideas, as well as work with your team. It also forms the first impression on others which shapes your main impression.
How do you achieve effective communication skills?
(1) Plan what you are trying to convey: Understand what you're communicating about, what to say and the actions to be taken to initiate conversation.
(2) Effectively send your message: spoken, nonverbal, written, body language. How you portray yourself plays a part in communication. Facial expressions, gestures, posture, and voice tone are all examples of nonverbal communication.
(3) Double-check that your message was received and that you have decoded the other party's message.
(4) Garner feedback on how you could improve your communication skills.
Forming connections with others is important as well. You will never know what the other party can bring you in terms of future opportunities or friendships.
Personally, I managed to form great connections with people I came across during my first internship and that opened many doors for me - many new internship opportunities which my previous boss recommended to me, major contacts of CEOs, CTOs and CFOs. Some of the bosses I met through events even asked if I would like to join their company after my current internship stint!
Although that was my first internship and me being a shy, introverted student, I told myself to make the most of my internship and embrace all opportunities. My advice would be to be proactive and do not stray away from incoming opportunities!
Other than soft skills to develop your personal self, you should take away hard skills too. Hard skills are like SEO marketing, coding ability, project management skills or analytical skills. For me, I keep an "Internship Journal" specifying the things that I learn everyday and how to carry them out. Additionally, when you are faced with an obstacle or a procedure you do not know how to carry on with, do not wait for others to spoon feed you and hold your hands through it. Instead, you can ask them to teach you and try to figure it out yourself. Do not be afraid to ask, as your colleagues would be more than willing to reach a helping hand instead of doing it for you!
Similar to group projects in school, you will need to learn to work with every single individual in your team. Although there might be clashing opinions, you have to work with them to give in or compromise in some way. One way you can better understand your teamwork within your team or company is to find out your personal DiSC working style and your colleagues', then learn how to adapt or tackle each working style's characteristics.
There are 4 different main working styles in this model namely: D - Dominance i - Influence S - Steadiness C - Conscientiousness
You can find out your own DiSC working style here and find out how to tackle other working styles here!
In the working world, you have to be adaptable. Meeting timings may change any time, clients' requests may change like the speed of lightning and there may be many issues arising which need you to solve. You have to learn to be adaptable to suit every individual's needs or every different task you take up.
With this, here are some points you can take note of while interning, keeping in mind these learnings you should take away! We wish you a fruitful internship!