How Teens and Students Can Make the Most of an Internship

At some point along the way, many college students supplement their classroom learning with internships. An internship is a way to gain practical, real world experience in the field you are studying, and maybe even earn a little money, college credit or both.

Summer is as ideal time to take on an internship. If you aren't taking summer courses, you can work full time and throw yourself headlong into the experience without your academics suffering. Giving up a summer at the beach or days on end of sleeping until noon can be disheartening, especially when you know you'll that soon enough you'll be finished with school, making "summers off" a thing of the past. But there are many benefits to completing a good internship, including:

- Having practical work experience to put on your resume alongside your degree.

- The ability to spend a short period of time living a life similar to the one you'll lead when you end up working full-time in your field.

- The opportunity to experience and observe different aspects of your profession to help narrow down your career choices, perhaps even in time to re-evaluate your goals and change majors if you find yourself not as enamored of your field as you thought you would be.

- The ability to make contacts who can support you in your job search down the road.

Notice I mentioned that these are some of the benefits of a "good internship." Just because an opportunity presents itself as an "internship" doesn't mean it will be a valuable learning experience. For the most part, companies and organizations that hire on interns are committed to providing a strong learning opportunity. But there are still some out there who may advertise "internship" when what they really mean is "cheap help." Others may have the best of intentions, but not have the resources, systems or knowledge in place to provide you with a solid experience.

If you're going to commit your time and energy to an internship, it is important that you know how to evaluate the opportunity that is given to you. When at all possible, you should work with your college's internship or job placement office. They're in the business of knowing which organizations provide valuable learning experiences to their students. Even if you discover an internship that interests you through your own research, talking about it with college professionals can help you make the right decision and evaluate the offer. They can also make sure you understand the administrative details of actually earning credit for your experience, if that's one of your goals.

Even with the help of your college, you should take responsibility for understanding what your internship should be doing for you. The following are some of the things you should expect (and not expect) from an internship.

1. You should have clearly defined responsibilities.

Every job has "other duties as assigned." As a manager, I often find myself covering a busy front desk or attending a meeting unrelated to my own unit in someone else's absence. Internships are no different. But to protect yourself from spending all your days in the copy room or the reception desk, you should have a job description that clearly defines your duties and tasks. Review this description to make sure that the work expected of you relates to your learning objectives.

2. You should have mentors.

Your boss or individuals you work with on a regular basis seasoned professionals in your chosen field. They should be available to you for regular meetings and to answer questions as they arise. If you're on a journalism internship but spending no time with reporters, copy editors or the editorial staff, then something is missing from your experience. Even if you're doing work related to your field, you aren't getting feedback in a timely manner.

3. You should be exposed to the overall operation.

Succeeding in any profession requires that you understand how your work fits into the overall missions and goals of the organization. Early on, you should be given a tour of the overall operation, introduced to key players in various departments, and clued in to how each area contributes to the end result.

4. You should have meaningful projects.

The work assigned to you should directly involve the skills and knowledge you're trying to cultivate. If you're studying web design, you should be working on web-related projects. While you can't walk in the door and be put in charge of a site for a major client, you should be part of a team that works on the design and delivery of web services.

5. You should be involved in meetings and planning.

Again, interns generally aren't part of the decision-making team. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't have the opportunity to sit in on discussions where important decisions are made or communicated to employees. You should have the opportunity to observe how an organization in your field makes important decisions about projects, work guidelines, clients and services.

Don't expect to be pulled in to management meetings. But when discussions involving most staff occur, you should be included.

6. You should be able to observe what you can't do yourself.

Obviously, many tasks and responsibilities are assigned only to more seasoned employees. It would be unfair to both you as an inexperienced intern and to a client to assign them to you. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't get to see how they're done.

As a human resources intern, you may not get to interview and hire people yourself. But you should be able to spend time with the seasoned recruiter who is performing these tasks, to observe how she puts her expertise to work.

7. You should receive feedback.

Having projects that are related to your field won't mean much if you aren't getting feedback on them. Part of an internship should be regular meetings with your supervisor or other experts to discuss what you've done well and what you can improve. The praise you receive should be detailed. "Good job" is nice to hear, but it doesn't help you define your strengths. Likewise, "this report is unhelpful and needs to be done over" doesn't tell you much, but "this report isn't written in a way that someone with limited technical knowledge could understand it, and it needs to be written so that an average system user could make sense of it" helps you understand what you need to work on.

8. You should make contacts.

As someone who has worked in college environments for years, I've met many students who have turned internships into job offers. While that does happen, it isn't always a realistic expectation. What you should expect, though, is the opportunity to make contacts who can serves as reference and help you along the way in your future job search.

So, What About You?

These are some of the key things you should expect from the company providing you with an internship. It is also critical that you understand what is expected of you and take responsibility for building your own learning experience. Those who gain the most out of their internships generally do the following:

- Remember that although your title is "intern," you should treat the experience as an opportunity to be professional. Understand and adhere to company rules and regulations as if you were a member of the permanent staff.

- Be a team player. Be open to the occasional "other duties as assigned." It won't kill you to make copies of a presentation for a trainer or cover the front desk for an hour while the receptionist goes to lunch. Your willingness to help will connect you to key people within the organization.

- Remember that being a team player doesn't mean being used unfairly. Covering the desk for an hour a few times a week is pitching in to help the organization run smoothly. But if you find yourself stuck at the front desk for 20 hours a week instead of working in the area that is related to your field, then the company isn't holding up its end of the bargain, which is to provide you with a learning opportunity. You didn't sign on to learn to be a receptionist.

- If you feel you aren't getting feedback, ask for it. Schedule a meeting with your supervisor or an expert in your field and follow through.

- Never be afraid to ask questions. You're there to learn. At the same time, refrain from being the person who is constantly interrupting someone else's work with questions. Schedule time to meet with people who can help you understand things better, ask them to discuss things over lunch, or email a list of questions.

- Give your input when ideas or problems come to your attention. Don't expect your ideas to change the operation. Don't present them in such a way that you come off as thinking you "know everything," or you'll be pegged as a pain. But do share your thoughts and suggestions with your boss.

- Express interest in learning more about projects or areas that intrigue you. Be sure that if you are given the opportunity to be involved in them, you can still complete the tasks that have been assigned to you.

- Be graceful and appreciative towards those who go out of their way to include you or provide valuable advice and feedback.

- If your internship experience is an overall positive one and you think you'd enjoy working for the organization permanently, let your boss and others know as much. Ask about part-time opportunities for when you return to school, or keep in touch as you near graduation. Even if nothing is immediately available, if you've done well in your internship they'll be happy to keep you on the radar.

- Keep a daily log of your activities. Make notes on your projects, assignments, meetings and observations. Record your questions, what you've discovered, and notes on things you'd still like to learn. Make notes of what you've done each day. This log will serve as a prompt for discussions with your boss, a reference for you to go back to later, and, in the unfortunate situation of your internship not meeting your expectations, documentation as to what went wrong.

- Understand that you won't like everything. Are you finding some of the tasks that are part of your internship overwhelming? How about mundane, routine and boring? Welcome to the real world. Even people in their chosen professions rarely enjoy all aspects of their jobs. Your internship experience is an opportunity to discover what you won't like about your field as well as what you will enjoy. As they say, if it was fun, it wouldn't be called "work." You'll have to figure out if the negative aspects are outweighed by the parts of the job that do energize and excite you.

When It Isn't Working

In spite of your best efforts, sometimes an internship isn't all it's cracked up to be. So, what do you do if you follow all of the above guidelines and feel you still aren't learning what you should? What if your repeated requests for chances to observe and learn are ignored in favor of having you do data entry all day? What if the appointments you schedule for feedback from your boss are constantly moved to next week, only to be rescheduled again? What if you're spending most of your time at the marketing firm making copies, manning the front desk, and running mindless errands, even though you were told during your interview that you'd be writing ad copy, attending client meetings to take notes, and assisting with layout?

First, talk with your boss. Don't assume the oversight is intentional. Sometimes in hectic and busy workplaces, things that don't immediately impact customers get overlooked. Express your concerns respectfully and professionally, sharing your log if it is helpful. Redefine your expectations and express your willingness to be part of the team as long as you're also gaining valuable experience. Be clear on what changes your boss agrees to make in the situation. Come back to work with a positive attitude and a willingness to start fresh.

If nothing changes, seek assistance from your college. If you secured your internship through a placement office, they'll often have contacts that might intervene to help resolve the situation. At the very least, they'll want to know about your experience so that they can refrain from recommending the company to future internship-seekers. They can also coach you in continued discussions with your boss, help you evaluate whether it is worth your time to stay in the internship, offer suggestions for making the most of it and finding creative ways to gain from the situation in spite of the lack of support, or, in the worst case scenario, guide you in how to resign from the internship in a professional fashion.

A good internship can be an important stepping stone in your education and your career. A bad one can be a waste of time. By knowing what you have a right to expect from your employer and yourself, you can start off on the right path, build a positive internship experience, and avoid wasting your energy in an unfair situation.