It is that time of the year for college and university students to consider a company as their source of internship. Internship is a great way to get experience and exposure to the particular field or career path they are interested in pursuing.
Internships are often times a platform for success for students. It provides and insight to the kind of work environment and responsibilities needed in order to become a full pledged professional. But not all internships provide that luxury. Realistically, there are interns that fetch coffee, and according to Fortune, that is not necessarily a bad thing.
Spredfast Global Public Relations Manager, Samantha Subar, recalled her experience as an intern. She was shown to her desk with a laptop on her first day. No one provided a brief or an orientation. She had to find out what to do on her own. And she indicates that this scenario was just three years ago. Now, she is a Global PR Manager.
Her career advice for incoming interns is not to hate the coffee run. Managers would often give interns tasks that are often called grunt work. According to Subar, it was her ambition and drive that ensured her success from being an intern to where she is right now. She advises that interns should be willing to do any job provided to them but to keep an eye open for opportunities to learn.
She also has a message to employers. She encourages companies to give them the opportunity to learn and prove their willingness. Subar says it is a good business practice to utilize talented interns that are already capable of doing the full time job. It saves companies time from hiring and on-boarding.
Subar explains that to get that internship experience, interns must follow the leader. Interns can learn about meetings and ask to sit in if they allow you. Just listen. Her second advice is to keep calm no matter what goes wrong, because people observe you through the chaos. Lastly, interns should not be above grunt work.
