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 yo