When Ed heard about the “Intern Queen,” who had a total of 15 internships during her four years of college, he knew she had to have some interesting advice to share. When you intern 15 times, you’ve clearly seen it all. Here, Lauren Berger, the self-professed “Intern Queen,” tells you her top 15 things she learned from all her internships.
1. Utilize Your Resources. Your employers most likely have tons of useful information around for you to take advantage of during your internship: trade/industry publications, portfolios, reference books/guides, subscriptions to expensive websites, etc. During your down time, ask your employer if you can check out these resources.
2. Stay in Touch With Everyone. You never know when a contact will come in handy. I stay in touch with the people from my very first internship, the people at my last internship, and everyone in between. They’ve all helped me out in one way or another throughout the years.
3. Stop Surfing the Web. Checking personal email and shopping online when you’re at work is a quick way to say that you don’t take your job seriously. And don’t go on Facebook unless you are actually doing research for work or are maintaining your company’s Facebook fan page (which a lot of interns get to do).
4. Keep it Quiet. Just because you find out confidential information doesn’t mean that you can treat it like high school gossip. Your bosses are honoring you with their trust, so keep things on the DL.
5. Always Ask For More. Do you have lots of downtime at your internship? Ask your employer for more work which will give you more opportunities.
6. Don’t Get It ? Ask it. Some of the biggest mistakes I made during my internships were because I didn’t have the guts to ask questions. If you don’t understand something, ask. It will save you lots of time and energy in the long run.
7. Keep Your Cell Phone Hidden. Your internship coordinator should never see you with your cell phone…they shouldn’t even know that you have one. Go outside to make any calls.
8. Be Great. Stay Great. Interns tend to make a great first impression on the first day and then start to get lazy. Make an amazing impression on your first day until your last day…no slacking in between!
9. Keep Other Interns Close. Become friends with your fellow interns because you never know where they will end up in the future. My closest friends are actually people I met from my internships throughout college.
10. Don’t be “The Shy One.” Even though office environments can be intimidating, speak up in meetings when people ask you questions and speak clearly. Don’t be known as “The shy one” or “the one who doesn’t speak.”
11. Set Lunches. Treat yourself like the executive you want to become. Have lunch (once a week) or dinners with your fellow interns, internship coordinator, and even your boss if you can swing it.
12. Keep a Calendar. When you start your internship, you are officially starting your career-path. Stay focused, keep a calendar, and mark down days off, work holidays and events. It’s a good habit to start early-on.
13. Always Be Early. Decide what time you are going to arrive each day and stick to it. Become someone staffers can rely on, and be consistent. Anyone can arrive early on the first day, but three weeks into an internship? That’s impressive.
14. Read Everything. Hanging out by the xerox machine? Look at what you are copying. Read office memos. Be in the loop. Know about projects. Just remember tip #4…this information is confidential, so keep it to yourself!
15. Be Proud of Yourself. If you’re confident, other people will believe in you, too.
**Lauren Berger is known as the Intern Queen after participating in 15 internships during her four years of college. She is the expert on everything internships and her work has been recognized by BusinessWeek, The New York Post, Los Angeles Business Journal, Washington Post, NBC, ABC, CW, and more. Her site http://www.internqueen.com specializes in hard-to-reach media and journalism internships. For more information, email Lauren at lauren@internqueen.com.
