How to ace your summer internship

As summer begins, many college students are getting ready to dip a toe in the sea of work by taking on an internship. These internships play a few important roles. For many interns, this is the first time that they are venturing out of the safe confines of school and into a real workplace. In addition, internships give organizations a chance to work with promising young people who may make great employees after graduation.

If you’re embarking on an internship, what can you do to maximize its value to you (and get yourself noticed to get a future job offer or recommendation)?

Learn the norms

If you’re completely new to the workplace, you want to get up to speed on how people dress, act, and engage. The general principle here is that you want to call attention to yourself for the right reasons not the wrong ones. The more you understand about what the particular organization sees as typical behavior, the more likely you are to avoid a faux pas that gets you undesirable attention.

Before your first day, ask about expectations for how people dress. If they use a term you don’t understand, lean into your naiveté about work and ask for a couple of examples. And, when in doubt, overdress for the occasion.

When you get there, watch the way people interact. No matter how funny you (think you) are, don’t start cracking jokes until you get to know everyone first. Be friendly and respectful. You’re invading their workspace. Yes, you’re there to help, but you’re going to need a lot of training to be able to contribute. You want everyone to want to help you.

Listen and ask

It is important to really pay attention to everything going on. When you first get to a new workplace, they are guaranteed to have a lot of jargon that is completely unfamiliar to you. The words may sound like those in your native language, but the meanings won’t be clear at all. Your brain is going to want to tune out the things that don’t make sense. So, you’ll have to work to focus.

When something happens you don’t understand, find a mentor in the organization who can act as your guide. Jot down unfamiliar terms and ask about them. If an interaction goes in a way that you did not predict, find out why. Think of yourself as an anthropologist exploring a new culture. Engage with interest and curiosity. By the end of the summer, you’ll be throwing around the local lingo like you were always on the team.

Asking for clarification is particularly important when someone gives you an assignment. Whatever you’re asked to do (no matter how menial), make sure you’re completely clear on what is expected of you and what it looks like to do it well. Spending a few minutes getting clarity on your task will save you a lot of time later, because you won’t have to fix as much. On top of that, you’ll make a good impression as someone who cares about the details.

Keep a journal

The summer is going to fly by. (Sorry.) When it is over, you’d like to have a good sense of what you did and what you learned. When you look back on the entire experience, only a little of it is going to stick in your memory.

Instead, keep a running document on your computer (or even go old-school and get a little notebook). Write a paragraph or two at the end of each day reflecting on how the day went. Record what you did, but also how you were feeling. You want to remember that you were nervous and uncertain at first, but gradually came to have more confidence. Reflecting on that journey later will help you take on new challenges in the future.

Seek opportunities

If you want to impress the folks you’re working with, look for places where you can bring some of your own expertise to bear on helping the organization with something that it hasn’t done on its own. Perhaps you know some web design and can help them to fix up their online presence. Maybe the organization has never engaged with social media effectively; get them started with an Instagram page or a snarky Threads account. (Only do the latter if you think the team has a sense of humor . . .)

Often, organizations are not completely sure what they’re going to get out of having an intern. Continuing with the anthropologist metaphor, you’re going to see things in the workplace that many of the long-term employees aren’t seeing for themselves, because things have always been that way. The people you’re working with may not realize what they’re not noticing. Bringing those hidden issues to the surface—and perhaps asking/suggesting how you might address the gaps—is a great way to demonstrate the value of having you around. It might also get them thinking about what it would be like to bring you onto the team permanently.