I think I can honestly say that in every class I have taken for my major, my professors have encouraged me to intern somewhere. Well, I took their advice and this summer I will be doing an internship at a magazine in Savannah. I got the internship because I have a friend at UGA that interned there last summer and she highly recommended it and gave me the name of the person in charge of interns. After getting the internship, I asked my friend for advice about it. She had some really good insight, but the thing that stuck out most in my mind was that she said to talk to and connect with every person that I can. She told me that she made incredible connections during her internship because she was able to go on errands and meet people and also talk to people that came into the office. She said that she has kept in touch with these people and she hopes that they will be able to help her in her job search when she graduates this May. I also talked to one of my friends at GSU, who had done an internship last summer as well, for her advice. She, too, had good ideas, but what I received most from her insight was that it’s extremely helpful to be able to adapt to any situation. She told me that the place where she interned was very laid back, but she was often sent on errands to other businesses that were far more rigid so she had to be as professional as possible on those occasions. The more I thought about this, the more I realized that adaptability is an important skill for everyone to have, not just in the business world but in life in general.

Cornellbusiness.com has a list of the “Five Best Pieces of Job/Internship Advice You Will Ever Get.”  The list includes:

1. Know what you’re getting into and speak up from the start: Basically, know what’s expected of you and do it to the best of your ability.
2. Be proactive: You aren’t paying off those student loans for nothing! It’s time to put all of that stuff you learned in endless hours of lectures to work and proactively use what you learned.
3. Do your homework: This may seem like a no-brainer but it’s pretty important. Know what your company does! Know its products or services, its goals and objectives, the head honchos in the company, even the mission statement is important. The more you know about your company, the better you’ll be at your job.
4. It’s the little things that count: Know everyone at your company because you never know who you’ll need. Learn the receptionist’s name and say “hi” everyday. Know the custodial staff, the people in the mail room, everyone. “The little things are the big things.”
5. Network, network, network: Get to know as many people as you can. You can do a great job, but what good is it if no one knows about it? Start by getting to know everyone in your office and they can lead you to people outside of your office.

Finally, here is a YouTube video from the “Intern Queen,” Lauren Berger with quarterlife.com. The video is only about 2 and half minutes long, but it’s packed full of good advice about making the most of your internship, volunteering for any and everything you can, and using social networking in the office.

I hope this was helful. Talk to you soon!

- Allison