Making the Most of Your Internship

BEFORE YOU START

Communicate with your supervisor before starting your internship.

• Offer to do background reading or other preliminary work in order to increase your understanding of the company's current projects.
• Establish and articulate realistic goals.
• Identify potential projects on which you may work during your internship.
• Set dates, hours, pay, and any other pertinent logistical components of your position.

DURING YOUR INTERNSHIP

Make a Good First Impression
Be prompt, dress appropriately, and be dependable. Learn the organization's rules, both formal and informal, and follow them. Approach your work with a positive attitude. Consider your supervisor's and other staff members' time when seeking help on assignments.

Learn Everything You Can
Acclimating to an organization and its operations is not always easy. As an intern, you will have access to information from which and people from whom you can learn. Take advantage of these opportunities: volunteer for projects; develop new relationships; discover new ways to get work done.

Define Your Position
After the first two weeks of your internship, we recommend that you meet with your supervisor to outline both your supervisor's and your goals for the internship. Complete a learning contract designed to help you and your supervisor articulate concrete projects and goals for the internship. While this document is only required for students on Wellesley supported internship programs, we strongly encourage all students undertaking internships to use this document in order to establish their roles as interns.

Professional Development

• Keep list of duties.
• Record names and contact information of people in your field (i.e., in your organization and partner, competitor, and other firms with which you work).
• Make notes of likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses.
• Draft a bibliography of books, reports, and other materials read or referenced.
• List courses that you have taken that apply to the field, classes that you could take to strengthen your knowledge of the industry, and ideas for paper topics, independent studies, or theses.
• Note suggestions from co-workers about extracurricular activities, graduate school, and coursework.

Common Situations and Problems
For any job or internship, expect to encounter one or more of the following:

• boring work
• projects you are able to finish quickly
• slow beginning, fast end
• feeling ignored by supervisor and/or co-workers
• realiziation that you dislike the industry
• sickness, family emergency (have to leave)
• problems with co-workers


• overall internship does not meet your expectations

Solutions
First, take a step back, critically reflect upon the issue, and see if there is any way that you can change your actions to alleviate the situation.

• Don't be hesitant. If you finish a project, tell your supervisor. If there is still little work for you, use the time to learn from co-workers, ask to sit in on meetings, observe the interactions of those around you, and read work-related materials.
• If you find that the industry is not for you, make note of what you don't like about it. Discover what you do like and how you best work. Document it.
• If any problems arise with family emergencies or with co-workers, be sure to communicate with your supervisor and Human Resources. Also feel free to contact the CWS for additional support.
• Remember that projects that appear boring may be critical to the company and an important learning opportunity for you.

AFTER YOUR INTERNSHIP

Follow-Up
Thank your supervisor and any other mentors in the company for hosting you this summer. Continue to update the company on how the internship has influenced your studies and future plans. Monitor the organization's progress through its Web site, the news, and other public forums and send a congratulations note or other appropriate communique.

Tanner Conference
Consider presenting at the Tanner Conference, a one-day conference held each fall that celebrates the incorporation of students' off-campus learning experiences into their education. The conference will provide a venue for you to reflect critically upon, analyze, and share your experience with others in the college community.