Tag Archives: internship

Life Lessons from the Theatre

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Moving to a new city and working full time, while only for the summer, was a challenge.  And while many things changed I found that a few lessons that I learned outside of the workplace have been surprisingly applicable in it, especially in the intern role.  Here are a few life lessons that I learned from Theatre that have served me well in the workplace…

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People want results, not excuses.

When something goes wrong, excuses are many people’s first response.  It’s a way to defend ourselves from personal attack when things don’t go according to plan.  By placing the blame for a mistake on outside forces, we make our egos feel better.  But blaming things outside of our control doesn’t help with our personal growth or increase other’s trust in our abilities.  Mistakes happen.  Everyone understands that and everyone has made stupid mistakes.  In my experience, you earn far more respect by owning your mistakes and following through on promises to make amends.  If you can follow up a mistake by doing better next time, people remember and respect that.  They don’t want to sit around listening to excuses all day, they want to know what you’re going to do about it going forward.  Like in theater, you can say “I missed my cue because I was grabbing a prop” or you can say “I’ll be there on time next run through”.  With the second response you acknowledge the mistake and show how you’re going to improve going forward.  I find it’s the same in the workplace.  As an intern because you’re often asked to do new projects at the drop of a hat.  As you are still learning, mistakes happen, and by following them up with an appropriate response, you can show your employers your maturity and ingenuity.

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Prepare what you think is going to be helpful, not what’s going to boost your ego.

With a natural desire to impress your superiors or stand out in some way, it can be tempting to try and work on the coolest and most innovative project aside from your daily tasks.  Something where they will praise your innovation.  And while creating something amazing can be really impactful, I’ve discovered the best way to make a positive impression on your employer is to spend your time on projects that will serve a need in the company and not on projects that are flashy or cool.  People are very appreciative when you find a way to make their lives easier.  Like in Theater, simple things like coming on time and being prepared, learning your lines ahead of time, and solving small problems before your superior has to will earn you respect.  So you don’t have to be a genius innovator to stand out in the workplace as an intern but if you pay attention and can find simple ways to leave the company better than when you found it, people will remember you.

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Six Savvy Things To-Do After Your Summer Internship Ends

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So you nailed the interview and got the internship. Now that the summer is over and the internship is completed, what’s next?

1. Write your employer a thank-you note.

It seems to go without saying that you should thank your employer or internship coordinator for the opportunity. Whether or not you ended up enjoying the field you were in that summer, it is important to acknowledge the time and effort put forth by those who trained and assisted you. This note should be handwritten and personal.

2. Ask your employer for constructive feedback about your work from the summer.

Although it can be uncomfortable to receive constructive criticism, this step is essential. Not only will it help you grow as a person, but it will additionally demonstrate your dedication to the company. Showing interest in developing your work-ethic is a lifelong skill that should be mastered early.

3. Update your resume and LinkedIn profile.

You just spent your summer working—give yourself a pat on the back! Update your credentials while the details of what you did are still fresh in your mind. As always on a resume, show and don’t tell! Avoid generic descriptions and be honest about your achievements.

4. Update and maintain your social networking.

Establishing and maintaining these relationships may lead to new opportunities or simply allow you to pick the brains of professionals in the field. You just expanded your professional network! Do not let these connections go to waste. Add them on LinkedIn and grab their business cards. Send an email if you do any work related to the field during the school year. Often, your employers like to see the impact that they have had on your career and will appreciate that you are still thinking about them.

5. Maintain professionalism.

Although your time at the internship may be over, you should not change your professional relationship with the individuals inside of the company. This goes hand-in-hand with maintaining media-platforms that are professionally sound. The “would my grandmother be appalled at this” rule-of-thumb generally works well here. In addition, filter your opinions about your experience. Even if you do not intend to return to work for the company, you should try to avoid bad-mouthing your employer or their practice. If what you say gets back to them, you may threaten the potential for a letter of recommendation or future employment with the company or those they know.

6. Ask for the job!

If you loved your work this summer, don’t be afraid to inquire about the opportunity for paid-positions in the future. These conversations must be direct, but graceful. There is a time and a place to talk to your employer and it is not in the middle of their workday. If it does not work out, then thank them for their time and move on! You will approach your next experience with a breadth of new knowledge, a firmer handshake, and a bigger smile.

Do you have any tips for following-up on summer internships? We would love to hear them! Leave a comment below and tell us about your experience.

Summer Internships: Searching, Applying, and Waiting.

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Searching for a job or internship involves a lot of unknowns. It necessitates waiting for weeks or months for an answer, second-guessing oneself, and vacillating between one’s options. This Winter break, I entered uncharted territory and began searching for my first-ever internship.

When I hear the word “internship,” I either think of fiercely bright and motivated pre-med students working long hours in high-pressure situations for no pay, or I think of an unsure student who somehow ended up in a drab, dimly lit office, monotonously filing papers and answering annoying phone calls. I don’t know where I got these preconceived notions, but I do know that I was hoping for was something a bit different. Was I expecting to land the internship of my dreams that would leave me with a new sense of wonder and awe towards the world? Definitely not. But was I hoping for something that would give me a clearer sense of what sort of career I might want to go into, while also remaining moderately interesting and informative? Absolutely.

When a few google searches didn’t look super promising, I turned to some more specific websites that focus on job and internship searches such as Idealist.org, internships.com, and handshake. Even though you can tailor the results to certain geographic areas or career types, I still found it difficult to find internships that appealed to me and that I was also somewhat qualified for.

I spent hours perusing the web, copying and pasting names of organizations into an online document, so I could have a compiled list of possible positions to apply to. Once I had a list of about 10 internships that ranged from topics I was vaguely interested in, to ones that I was very passionate about, I decided to pick one, and begin an application.

Somehow the internship that I ended up finding the most intriguing was also the one with the most extensive application process. Normally this would have discouraged me, but since it was break and I had a ton of free time, I decided to give it a shot. The application consisted of a resume, two references, a 5-6 page write-up, and a lengthy set of questions relating to personal demographics.

While there are so many other types of internships I could have applied for, I decided to seek out ones that were social-justice based. This past election and the current state of our nation has left me feeling defeated, sad, and angry all at once. Thus, I felt like the most meaningful way to spend my summer would be to work for some sort of organization that does uplifting and important work that challenges the morals and precedents set by our current government. Even though I have only applied for one internship, I feel good knowing that I sought out an internship that felt right to me. I’m lucky that I’m not pre-med, pre-vet, or anything of the sorts, so I was afforded a lot of leniency in my search.

While I am definitely nervous that all my plans will fail, and I won’t secure my top choice internship, let alone any internship, I keep trying to remind myself that I am only a Sophomore, and I have the rest of my life to worry about settling into a career path. Even if the internship I end up acquiring turns out to be completely unrelated to whatever field I end up going into, I will still inevitably gain skills that will help me in the professional world. Plus, nothing is really set in stone: I can make a decision about what I want to do this summer, and then I can always make another decision. I can have a plan A, and I can have a plan B, C, D, and E if necessary. And after three months of interning, I can have the comfort of knowing that I will return to sunny Scripps, with a new sense of direction and purpose, ready to begin working on those applications for summer 2018.

Coffee, Coffee, Coffee: Finding Warm Comfort During Finals

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Earlier this week, I found myself attempting to count sheep and invite sleep at 3:00am with no luck.  I was exhausted, but my eyes wouldn’t stay shut, and my brain simply wouldn’t turn off.  Finals and projects and papers and homework and assignment after assignment danced behind by closed eyelids.  As I continuously tried to slip into dreamland to prepare for my early morning internship, I found myself craving a good cup of coffee.  Strange, I thought, that I would be craving something to keep me awake as I was falling asleep.  After another few minutes of pondering, I realized that it wasn’t caffeine that I was craving, it was the comfort of a warm, familiar beverage at a time of stress and anxiety.  I eventually fell asleep and enjoyed my cup o’ joe in the morning.

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Continuing with this coffee theme, yesterday at my internship there were a variety of new faces and protocols coming at me from left and right.  I felt overwhelmed and stressed (likely brought on from dehydration, exhaustion, and a plethora of other factors that seem to plague me in these dark days), and I once again felt myself craving coffee, a comfy chair, and a warm blanket.  Like a ray of sun shining through my cloudy, anxious morning, I was then literally sent on an office coffee run for the first time in my intern career, and I won’t lie, my triple shot latte made me feel warm, fuzzy, and wired.

These types of comfort cravings have been happening a lot lately. I find myself thinking about warm places, blankets, and other aspects of comfort constantly. With finals just around the corner, and final projects and papers and everything in between popping up every hour, a little bit of comfort is all my body seems to want, need, and crave.  Because instilling in myself a sense of comfort can often come from something as simple as a cup of coffee or tea or a blanket, I’ve been really trying this finals season to give myself the security that I’ve been craving.

And with that, I reach my big point of this post. We spend so much of the semester and our academic year being uncomfortable.  Our ideas are constantly challenged, we are academically pushed, and we can even be socially strained at times. I do believe that we are all the stronger because of these things, but it doesn’t mean that we are invincible.  In a space where we are so stressed and overwhelmed, the small moments of undeluded comfort are things that we should take, cherish, and enjoy.  Self-care and mental and emotional health are so important always, but finals week is typically when they start to go down the drain.  As the lack of sleep and the heightened feelings of anxiety and stress kick in, we tend to go into survival mode, but survival mode needn’t be wholly terrible.  This finals week, I know that you’re already being challenged so much, but still I challenge you to find comfort in the little things. Find comfort in the things that make you happy, find comfort in the things that bring you joy, and take that comfort and turn it in to hard work and passion, and finish the semester on a high note.

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Here’s to a productive and proactive finals season, and I wish you all the best of luck.  Have a good cup of coffee under a blanket for me!

Tales from the Trenches: Interview Stories

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It’s that time of the week again: story time with Emily! This week I want to share a couple of tales of the infamous interview processes that plague young adults today. Let’s just start this off by saying that I actually really enjoy interviews. I like meeting new people, I would like to believe that I’m fairly in tune with my workplace habits, and I can think pretty quickly on the fly. But just because I like interviewing, does not mean that I’ve consistently had an easy go of it. The following are a few of my favorite interview moments. I learned a lot from them, and I hope that you can too!

The Interview that Never Was
One of my first jobs was at a creative center that I had no previous experience working in. I was interviewing for an administrative position, but at the last minute, the job changed. I received an email saying that the position that I was originally applying for had been filled, but I was welcome to come in and “have a chat” about a secondary opening that they had. I needed a job, and wasn’t going to be picky, so I proceeded to schedule a time to “have a chat” with the director of the center. I arrived early at the office in interview attire, ready to sell myself and my work ethic, only to discover that the director had already offered me the job and wanted to meet to set up my schedule. I was relieved and excited, but the experience taught me to always clarify what meetings are for and what is expected of you. I could have saved myself a whole lot of time, energy, and worry but just sending a simple email.

When Personalities Collide
This experience is fairly unavoidable unless you can be friends with everyone, but it is still absolutely worth talking about. I was applying for a position in a gym, and I had experience up the wazoo. I’d worked in my dance studio, assisted in fitness classes, been a dancer and a runner for years, and had a personal interest in wellness, just to name a few of my talking points. However, I knew almost immediately that I wouldn’t be getting the job. The interviewer and I had very different personality types, and she seemed thoroughly unimpressed with every answer that I provided. I kept smiling throughout the interview, but I never received a phone call regarding the job, even after I followed up. Interview and application experiences such as these are (unfortunately) not few and far between. In this situation, I still encourage you to be yourself. If nothing else, a bad interview is just good practice for the next one!

Family Business 
My first job was the summer after high school. I was working as a camp counselor, and the camp was held in the park that I’d grown up playing sports in. My dad was then the head of the youth soccer organization and knew a lot of the people that I worked with. This didn’t even up effecting my work environment that much, but it makes things considerably strange during the interview for this job. On a couple of questions, the interviewers made comments about the nice things my dad had mentioned about me, how great my dad was, and how if I was anything like him, they knew that I would be a great addition to the team. This whole thing made me feel pretty weird, and I was honestly quite disappointed. I’d applied for the job all on my own, and it was really disheartening to feel like my merits and achievements were being looked over. Now, of course, I understand the importance of networking and using your contacts, but it’s equally as important to make sure that your work is being appreciated for you, not for your relationship with another person.

Those are just a few vignettes from my job experiences. Interviews are crucial learning opportunities, and I hope that these have provided some insight into the odd things that can happen during a job search. Do you have any funny interview stories? I’d love to hear them, so please share in the comments below!!