Having one or more internships before graduating is standard at Bentley. I had internships at a financial planning office, an internationally known shoe manufacturer, and an events planning company. The common thread between the three was that I was mislead before accepting all of them. Going in I was told that I would be doing one thing (i.e. something that had to do with my major) and I ended up being asked to do something totally different (i.e. grunt office work, manual labor, and needless busy work). The moral of the story here is that when you accept an internship expect to do things you never signed on for. What will decide how beneficial the internship ends up being to your professional networking and career development is how you handle those unexpected duties. If you grudgingly do the least amount of work needed to complete them you'll end up getting bitter and cynical. It's very easy to fall into that trap! You think to yourself, "I'm paying $35,000/year to get an education where they tell me I need an internship and then I get one and I'm filing all day without even getting paid for it?!" But trust me, if you find a way to turn it around you'll get a huge payoff!
Here are some tips to make the most of those undesirable tasks:
- Go above and beyond- provide more than you were asked for, and provide it sooner than expected
- Find room for improvement- make the process more efficient, more complete, or more detailed
- Do it without being asked- if you see something that needs to be done just do it
- Brainstorm- come up with ideas to supplement what you've been asked to do
I never did an unpaid internship myself, but when I first started work after college I got stuck doing a lot of administrative work that seemed like it was meant for a secretary. Everything from taking meeting minutes, to polishing the format and look of a PowerPoint.It wasn't the only stuff I had to do, but I was initially very frustrated by this and nearly made a stink about it. Ultimately though I ended up deciding to just do the the best I could and it absolutely paid off. I quickly earned a reputation for thoroughness and quality of work that carried over far beyond the scope of the task itself, not just in these tasks but others as well. By "doing my time" so to speak I was much more respected I think than if I'd resisted doing the work as beneath me.
ReplyDeleteI was asked to sign and stamp holiday cards at one of my PAID internships.
ReplyDeleteI once LICKED 200 envelopes that contained offers for clients. When I was about to throw up I asked if I could go to lunch because I needed a break and then my boss realized that she forgot to tell me that they had an envelope sealer pen thing that did that for you :-(
ReplyDelete