Whether your internship or job is a good experience or a bad one, you’ll learn something about yourself and about the world. And that’s the ultimate goal. Consider the following factors when you reflect on the experiences you gain in the workplace:
- Confidence & humility: It’s important to feel confident about the leadership and success you bring to the table, but you’ll want to balance that with the recognition that this opportunity is a learning experience.
- Readiness to learn: They already know you are smart, so you don’t have to prove that at this stage. Take training seriously, ask questions, and show you want to learn and grow. Accept criticism and feedback well.
- Readiness to change: Your experience may end up being different than you expected. Prepare to be flexible and adaptable.
- Respect: The organization is the way it is and does things the way it does for some reason, and it’s important to respect those processes before you criticize them. Once you’ve played by their rules and done things as requested for a while, it may be absolutely appropriate for you to respectfully share your ideas about new ways of trying something. In fact, it may help you stand out! But if you do that too early, it will seem presumptive and you may meet resistance. On the other hand, if you feel that you are encountering harassment, discrimination or other inappropriate behavior, you have resources. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has information on what to do here.
- Work ethic: College schedules are demanding, but in a different way than being on the job for 8-9 solid hours a day. It can be exhausting. But the last thing you want is to be nodding off in a meeting, showing up late or taking long lunches. It will hurt your reputation.
