By: Lauren Zaremba (University of Delaware)
As we head into the month of August and college students around the country prepare to return to kegs, dining halls and dorms, it’s time to reflect on the way they spent their summer. For those of us lucky enough (or unlucky, depending on how you look at it) to have spent our summer at an internship, a number of questions move to the forefront: Did we actually get the great intern experience we were hoping for? Was it worth it? Do we regret spending our limited summer days in an air-conditioned office rather than on a beach?
Despite the good fortune of the small number of students who are paid for their time at their internship, the great majority of us slave away at every kind of company under the sun, for little to no compensation. Another small fraction of interns will be graced with the highly coveted travel stipend, but most of us get nothing, zip, zero, nada. What we aren’t earning in dollars, we’re earning in the ever-important “experience” that everyone talks about. But what if, after spending three months working hour after hour as the trusty office intern, we feel we’ve wasted our time?
There’s no way to quantify experience or sum it up in a dollar amount. Employers aren’t handing it out like a flyer on the street. Interns need to be proactive, ask questions, and respectfully let their opinions be heard. More often than not, your supervisor will be pleasantly surprised by what they hear and decide you are ready for more responsibility. The downside is, most college students don’t realize this and are waiting for new challenges that won’t come their way unless they ask.
However, if you did all you could and still haven’t come out of your internship with everything you hoped you would, at the very least, you have added another line and a new talking point to your resume. Instead of focusing on the tasks you were given to do – whether it involved fetching coffee, filing or updating the company Twitter account, focus on what you were able to observe in the office environment. Did you learn more about the industry you hope to work in after college or did you learn too much and now know you want no part of a job in that industry. If you weren’t satisfied with the responsibilities you were entrusted with as an intern, maybe you developed a good working relationship with your supervisor. Even the most menial tasks were hopefully noticed by the people in charge and will go a long way towards a future reference or job recommendation.
Whether it was a positive or negative experience, hopefully you were able to take something away from your summer in the real world. If you soaked up every little piece of information you could get your hands on, strive to do the same during your next internship; if you feel you could have worked a little harder to make your internship a more rewarding experience, remember there’s always another chance to make the most of your internship. Be sure to keep your supervisor’s contact info as well as information from other interns and colleagues. These people will be vital contacts after graduation and when looking for a job.
At the end of the day, if you came away from your internship a few dollars poorer and with no great experience to make up for it, at the very least there’s always an office supply closet to be raided.