How to make the most of an internship

The Tips That Will Enable Complete Dominance in the Workplace, Our Collective Wisdom

- Volunteer to do things

- Think of your current internships skills transferability for future jobs

- Making personal connections as best/often as you can

- Lunch strategy-- get anyone you can to go out to lunch, try to get the upper level employee’s to go out and often they will extend a hand

- Take advantage of the specialized insider knowledge that staffers may be able to offer

- Get people to talk about themselves, that will give you insight into how things actually happen rather than how they may appear

- Making connections with the important people that you come to meet and keep in mind your first impressions

- Network within the company if desired to see about future employment

- See how much sway being an intern can have in the company, and its hiring practices

- Get in peoples face and let them know you want to help, often this is the most effective way to allow work to come your way

- Network with other interns; get to know what and whom they may know. They may be able to connect you to people outside your current office.

- Get to work on time, if not early. The late bird doesn’t even get a chance to see the worm (come on, it’s funny)

- Shadow someone for a day and see what the texture of their day is like, rather than being stuck in your day and only guessing

- Be careful about who and what you are talking about, when you are least expecting it someone is most likely watching and you can’t take back those things you said about an employee’s dandruff

- Look for the potential to take a trip to “independent study land” if possible while at your internship, as you are at your job look for potential things that you may write about and think of questions you can ask to further your topic

- Watch out for Nasty’s. An employee can normally burn your bridge, be careful to know that you cannot in turn burn theirs. Apparently they have a fire department and all we have is a bucket with a hole.

- Keep in mind that most organizations are not democracies; there is often a hierarchy. You have to be sensitive to the hierarchical nature. Pretend your in communist Russia and your not exactly important.

- Finally: If “The Office” applies to your intern life, question your intern life.