Science of the Intern: Remember Your Experience
about the author
Jordan J. Frasier is a staff writer for NextGen Journal. He’s a senior at George Mason University studying political science and journalism. Jordan is a news editor for Connect2mason.com and is a network news intern in Washington D.C. Connect with him on twitter @jordanjfrasier and at jordanjfrasier.com.
There are several ways to view an internship. It could be a job, it could be a class, or it could be any combination of the two. Extenuating circumstances no doubt influence the degree to which any internship fits either of those categories, like whether you receive credit or a paycheck, but certain classroom principles should be applied to any internship without regard for credit award or money in the bank.
Internships should be seen as a class, just like any political theory or art history lecture you’ve sat through. Quite frankly, you’ll probably learn more during a mediocre internship than you would ever learn in the highest quality lecture class. Even more important is the way internships fit so nicely on a resume, whereas a weekly lecture only gets buried in your transcript. So if you decide to devote time to an internship, where you’ll do some substantial learning, you might as well treat that internship as a supreme lecture hour – and that means taking notes.
Recently, at my own internship, the sixteen or so interns had the chance to hold a working lunch with a network news correspondent where we picked the correspondent’s brain and heard advice on making it in television news. As the correspondent spoke, the number of people taking notes surprised me: there weren’t many.
Taking notes during your internship, whether you’re lunching with a network correspondent or shadowing an executive, is critical for getting the most out of your time. Interning rarely comes with a leisurely schedule, as we balance class, work, and friends, but taking notes carves just a few minutes from your day to reflect on what you’re doing and connect those activities with a larger educational experience.
Taking those few minutes to log observations, advice, and insights is great preparation for future situations you will certainly encounter. Instead of wracking your brain to remember that piece of sage advice, the prepared intern can just flip back through a notebook to find the quote word-for-word.
One of the easiest things to happen during an internship is for an intern to fall into a rut of boredom. Maybe you find yourself aimlessly sitting at your desk for a few hours each afternoon, or maybe every day you do the same mind-numbing task. Either way, keeping notes of what you experience during an internship will help you set goals for the rest of your tenure.
Those goals could take a number of forms. First, you might have noted something you heard mentioned by a co-worker, but you don’t have experience with what they referenced. If you note that down, you set yourself up to gain that missing experience somewhere along your internship road – making more out of your time. Second, you might have noted something you really enjoyed, but you didn’t realize just how much you enjoyed the activity until later on in the internship. Going back to see that note will encourage you to pursue more of that original experience.
The most effective intern sets these types of goals. You must remember that you’re in a professional environment, and it’s up to you to make the most of your time. The people supervising you have their own jobs to do and won’t always be able to guide your internship with micro-accuracy. Having goals puts you solidly behind the wheel of your internship.
Further, if you are interning for academic credit, you’ll most likely need to present your university with some kind of documentation of your experience at the end of the semester. That could be an oral presentation or, in my case, an essay. Keeping notes during the duration of your internship will make that final assignment a breeze. Some people land pretty plum internships, and I’ve seen them be asked to speak to a former class or with fellow students about what they learned as an intern. Notes come in handy for this.
Finally, taking notes is good for very selfish reasons, too. You never know when you will need a little career inspiration. Interns get a lot of good and often highly practical advice, but we’re busy people and those little gold nuggets are easy to forget. Write them down because you’ll need them in the future when you least expect it.
The method of keeping these notes is a varied as your imagination, but there are some things to keep in mind. You might decide to keep a notebook, like I do. Or maybe you’re more of a tech person and decide to blog your experience for everyone to read. Maybe you just stick post-it-notes on your dorm room wall. Whatever the method, make sure your notes are appropriate for the venue. That means if you decide to blog, keep your writing focused on your experience and don’t spill any company secrets. Use common sense. If you question whether or not something you experience should be put out on the Internet, err on the side of caution and don’t write about it. Those tidbits are best left to a notebook for your-eyes-only.
No matter where you keep the internship notes, don’t forget to use them. It would be pointless to take notes for the sake of taking notes. But taking notes for future guidance and for making the most of your time with a given company is not just worthwhile but critical to a successful internship experience.
