Hey again!
I've found this interesting article about internships, and wanted to share it with you. It actually tells how to make internships interesting and beneficial for the intern from the management perspective. And as we all have completed an internship, I would be curious if anybody has had such "perfect" internship conditions or at least some of the mentioned points have been fullfilled during the pts.
My personal experience during the the PTS was unfortunately not that awesome, as I was lacking a lot of feedback and did not face a lot of challenges during the internship. So I would be happy do see how you were doing and what you think about the points mentioned in the article.
Link to article:
http://experts.allbusiness.com/guest_posts/transform-your-interns-from-average-to-awesome/2/#.UsbNl5iA3IU
Dear Anja, thank for you this nice article which sounds like the perfect guideline to upgrade any internship! I think that still way too many internships end up in the complete contrary to what the article says and suggests. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the chance to enjoy a lot of those nice conditions either, since I worked for the same company as you.
AntwortenLöschenRather than pointing out the more negative aspects of my PTS, I would like to tell a bit about another internship that I completed in Paris where I was by and by given more tasks and responsibilities which allowed me to grow and learn – even over only a very short period of time. Moreover, even though I was given clear guidelines on how to handle certain things – which were quite essential – I had to figure out certain parts on my own which was crucial to make me leave my comfort zone.
Thank you Anja for this article. Sounds like an intern fairy tale :-)
AntwortenLöschenI was the first intern ever to be accepted in the company I was working for. Up front they were really excited to have me and my boss came up with a huge and tight schedule for those 6 months and everything sounded really interesting for me. I was supposed to work in different departments and get to know the company's various ERP systems.
Well, I got a general introduction and when it came to working on specific projects and tasks, suddenly the responsible people either just dumped a huge amount of work on my head, or didn't show any interest in working with me (they said, that their tight schedule didn't allow for anything else at the moment).
I did what I was told to do and asked for help, advice or more work, but I didn't really get any feedback, praise or antyhing other than: "Great work! You are such a big help." (well, putting 100 letters into envelopes is not that hard and exciting and it added nothing to my learning experience.)
I would have appreciated a lot more and interesting work, rather than doing all these small and insignificant tasks. Of course I could help them out in many ways, but since somebody had taken the time and worked out a schedule for my internship, there would have been the chance to complete all these tasks. So it is a pity, that it didn't work out...
Thanks Anja, this is a neat little article, which includes the little things that can make an internship better.
AntwortenLöschenHowever, the foremost important thing to consider, to make the experience worth-while to beneficial for both intern and employee, is to find out what he/ she wants to learn and line it up with business goals.
For instance, in my internship, I wanted to gain first hand experience in project managing in all its aspects (setting up proposals, presentations, meet clients, set up schedules, etc.) and during the interview I was told that I will be able to do so, which was awsome. To me, learning something I can make good use of during my (working) life was the main goal of the PTS.
Nonetheless, the second day of work my boss literally asked me "what are you going to do?". I was startled and said that I would assist in anything they would need me to.
My main tasks ended up being proof-reading documents and adjusting colour schemes. Every now and than I participated in meetings where I would put in some ideas, take notes and prepare meeting minutes, but only one of them concerned PM and I could actually grasp some experience.
So even though my input was asked a few times, I wasn't too happy with the overall experience as I did not learn anything in the field I came for.
Asking my opinion on other matters sometimes was nice, but it did not enhance my overall experience.
Although I got an insight into how business works, I don't feel like I acquired any knowledge, that would help me, if I started working in Project Management. I'd rather have been sat down with a book and the words "this is what you need to know - read it and then you can help us on the projects", meaning I will be included in a meaningful way, rather than be asked for participating in meetings that did not give me any purpose besides writing down notes and giving a some ideas.
What do others think?
Is it better to be included in everything by the means described in the article or gain experience in the field you are curious about, even if it means e.g. plain reading or analysing cases?