An internship is more than just making coffee for your supervisor or running errands for senior staff. While you may run an occasional errand or make a cup of coffee occasionally, it will form a very small part of your day. For the most part, you’ll spend your internship doing almost similar tasks as the regular employees. Your exact duties on the job will depend on the type of office and nature of your role within that setting.
As an intern, you’ll be expected to put in the work. In return, you’ll get paid (in a lot of cases) and you’ll also earn college credits. In fact, during an internship, you’ll earn much more than just a paycheck or college credits. The skills, lessons, and insights you’ll gain are invaluable for your future career.
We’ve put together the top 9 skills that you’ll acquire from your experience as an intern.
1. Insight Into A Career You’re Interested In
This is probably among the most significant benefits of doing an internship. No amount of reading about a career or hearing about it from another person can prepare you for what a job is really like. That’s because everyone’s experience is shaped by their personality, perspective, and strengths. One person may absolutely love doing what they do while it may not appeal to you in the least.
Take, for example, working in the fashion industry. Being surrounded by famous designers, fabulous outfits, and celebrity models may sound like a dream job for a fashion lover. But working behind the scenes is far from glamorous. It involves a lot of discipline, late nights, and hard work to put on a successful fashion show.
An internship gives you an opportunity to pull back the curtain and understand what is really involved in any role.
2. Better Professional Communication Skills
Professional communication is one of the more important but often underappreciated skills you’ll gain in an internship.
Communicating with co-workers, bosses, and customers in a work setting is far different than communicating with friends. This is regardless of whether you’re communicating through emails, phone calls, or face-to-face meetings. How you communicate with others in the workplace has a big impact on the opinion they form of you. Are you professional, competent, and well-informed, or the opposite? Are you able to receive and convey messages correctly to and from customers and managers?
Through an internship, you’ll gain an understanding and appreciation for clear business communication through meetings, messages, and/or training. This will stand you in good stead when you start working after graduation. Good communication skills will build confidence with your superiors and earn the trust of your peers on the job.
3. Opportunity To Put Theoretical Knowledge Into Practice
Most of the knowledge you gain in college is theoretical, which in itself is an invaluable tool. But that’s all it is – a tool. You have to learn how to use that tool for practical purposes and that skill is something you can only acquire through first-hand experience. Whether you want to become a doctor, chef, or computer programmer, an internship can help bridge the gap between theory and experience.
4. Gain Working World Experience
Working in an internship is oftentimes vastly different from any previous part-time job you’ve had before. You may be working in an actual business office, and find the atmosphere a bit different than retail or customer service positions. Through an internship, you can start to understand company attitudes, policies, and inner workings through a new lens.
5. Work Independently
When you lived at home, you had your parents and maybe older siblings to help you make difficult decisions. In school and college, you had your teachers, advisors, and professors. Even if you didn’t seek their advice often, there’s a certain comfort level in just knowing that they were there.
The workplace is a completely different world. Most times, you’ll be expected to work independently and make difficult decisions on the spot. The wrong decision could possibly get you fired, a thought that can be very stressful.
An internship is somewhere in between the two. You’ll likely have several responsibilities during your internship but there will be a mentor or supervisor guiding you. Throughout your internship, you’ll learn how to prioritize your tasks by order of importance or workload. You’ll also become more adept at juggling a few different tasks at once. This is key for both life and work.
6. Get Feedback From Experienced Mentors
Professionals who agree to mentor interns take their responsibility seriously and will keep an eye on your performance. Be prepared to receive negative feedback if you do something incorrectly. Don’t take it as a personal attack.
An internship is meant to be an opportunity to learn from someone more experienced. Instead, work toward improving your weaker areas so you’ll be better prepared when you have to work independently. Remember, when you’re hired as a full-time employee after graduation, you may never get a second chance if you make a mistake.
7. Hone Problem-Solving Skills
Your internship likely won’t be smooth sailing the entire time. You’re going to come across problems—whether a question about how to do something, a computer glitch, or a novice mistake. Problem-solving is a universal skill and one you’ll learn a lot about during your internship. How do you fix a situation? How do you roll with the punches?
Your internship is an opportunity to ask questions, do research, and ask for help from others who are more experienced.
8. Widen Your Network
Ever heard the saying “It’s not about what you know, it’s about who you know?” That’s networking in a nutshell. An internship gives you contacts within your potential career field.
You can connect with your contacts on LinkedIn where they can “recommend” you and validate your skills. Those connections can also help you get your foot into the door when it comes to a full-time career, either through the contact recommending a particular company or colleague, recommendation letters, or passing your name along to a business associate.
9. Punctuality
This may go without saying, but you have to show up for work on time. Punctuality is as much about courtesy and respect as it is about timeliness. A responsibility like an internship will teach you how to fix your schedule and leave extra cushion time to allow for unexpected delays like traffic or long coffee lines.
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