Once you are done with your internship/s, there are broadly five questions that you need to ask yourself. It's best you write the answers to these for more clarity in thought.
Let’s start with asking the most basic question. Why did you choose to do this internship? The answer could be any of the following or even beyond:-
- To learn new skills
- To apply your knowledge to the real world
- As a mandate of your course work, for credits
- To get a full-time role
- For making professional connections
There are different reasons why anybody chooses to intern. After the internship is done, reflect and ponder over the question- “Did I get what I wanted out of my internship experience?”
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Q1: Did I Reach My Goal?
Reflect on your experience. Internships are like trial periods which help you understand what you like and especially what you don’t like, in terms of a full-time career. Documenting your experience in your journal/diary would come in handy to answer your own questions about your experience.
Before you take the next step in your career journey, ask yourself these questions:-
- What are the things you learnt about yourself through this internship?
- What are some of the key areas in which you need to work?
- What are the strengths which you felt were undiscovered?
- What are the areas you found your interest in working and would now like to explore?
- How would you now use this experience to alter your cover letter/pitch?
- How would you accommodate your experience while answering interview questions in the future?
- What were your praised for? What were the highlights?
- Have your career goals shifted after this experience? If so, how and why?
- Would you want to work again in the same role and industry?
Some of these answers will lead you to understand your strengths and building your expertise further in the areas identified. Use these answers to make intentional career choices going forward.
Q2: Should I Re-Evaluate My Educational Goals?
As a student, your education should contribute to your career goals. The internship would in a way help you to gain more clarity about what you want to learn more about. The knowledge you gain through your degree would help you to perform in your job one day. Hence, once you complete an internship and reflect on the experience, see if you need to take more classes, take training, do certifications, or drop classes/courses. For future success, you may need to network and understand where and in which course you want to do your graduation or postgraduation.
This is also very important so that you don’t spend any more time, money or resources further continuing to take education in a course/class you don’t want to pursue in the future. Your education should be in line with your career goals so that you do not have to bear any futile costs.
As A Student, Your Education Should Contribute To Your Career Goals
Q3: Did I Make Connections?
Networking is a basic corporate skill that is beneficial across industries. If you did make connections with people in your previous place of work, now is the time to connect with them on LinkedIn, if you haven’t already. Find ways to connect with them on LinkedIn or WhatsApp at least twice a year. You need to keep in touch with people you meet as you may again cross paths with in your professional journey.
Thank Your Mentors | If you want to take an extra step to thank somebody for their time and mentorship that they provided you with in guiding you during your internship, go ahead and do it.
Prepare References | If you have build good relationships with the ones your worked with, ask them if they would be willing to become references for you for the future opportunities you apply for.
Ask For Recommendation | If you feel you performed well, you could also ask the seniors to write you a letter of recommendation that would look good for you.
Find ways to nurture and grow the relationships you have built for guidance, growth and support in the future.
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Q4: Did I Update?
Your LinkedIn, resume and cover letter will now be needing a revisit. You need to go back and update all of these with your recent internship experience. Open up your internship journal so you can document your accomplishments in quantifiable data points. The idea is to do this quickly so that you don’t forget the important points.
As you have more experience to add to it, just update your resume timely so that its ready once an opportunity arrives, and you don’t have to send in your resume in a hurry with missed points.
You need to keep your brand, LinkedIn profile in good shape and updated to attract the right opportunities.
You would require to answer these questions with honesty, tact to identify your unique value and then highlight your value for your future. In all likelihood, you have learnt a lot about yourself through the internship experience than you realise. You have also learnt about the kind of people you may have to deal with. Use what you have learned to your advantage.
Parisraja Bajpai is an Organisational Psychologist, with extensive experience in talent acquisition, talent management, employee counselling, employee engagement, training and development. She is currently heading HR department at Futopia Global Pvt. Ltd. The views presented in this article are solely of the author and do not represent those of the organisation they are associated with.