Internship is a great way to gain professional experience, develop your skills and learn more about the field that you are seeking a career in. Most importantly, internships pave the way for you to kick start your career as it increases your chance of landing onto a full-time job after your studies!
To help you make the most of this experience and a lasting impression (like Justin Bieber's hair flip), the Culture and Talent Team at Mad Hat Asia have gathered our top 5 tips for you to stand out and be the best intern you can be!
#1 Treat The Internship Like It Is Your Real Job
You will need to take your internship seriously and treat it as a real job because it is! Having a mind set of a full-time staff will help you treat your internship accordingly. You may just be an intern but it is important to remember that your work will have some form of an impact on the company as you are learning and working in a real-world company, so the work you do and your mistakes poses an impact at some level. At Mad Hat, our interns are more than just interns, they are our colleagues and work mates and we strive for success together!
#2 Practice Good Time Management
We can't stress this enough but it is really important for you to practice good time management as interns will usually have a lot of tasks and responsibilities at hand. With that, it is important to be organised and do a reality check and inform your superior if you are unable to complete a task by a certain deadline. The team at Mad Hat Asia uses Trello.com to manage our tasks and it has helped us manage our time wisely. You should check it out! :)
#3 Ask Questions
Don't be afraid to ask questions about everything you don't understand. As an intern, employers do not expect you to know everything about the job so ask away! The more questions you ask, the more you will learn and gain from your internship experience. In fact, your superior will be expecting it as it shows that you are motivated, willing to learn and have an interest in your job (but do filter the kind of questions you would like to ask before asking and make sure it is relevant!)
#4 Be Committed
Do whatever it takes to get your work done and get it done well. This will show your employer your commitment to doing a really good job and that way, you will be noticed. Committed employees are hard to find like diamond in a rock so interns who go the extra mile will shine bright like a diamond and stand out! Take this time to be someone they need even after your internship ends #itsyourtimetoshine
#5 Socialize
Internship isn't just all work, work and work. Interning gives you a great opportunity to meet new people and build long lasting relationships! We love it when our interns join us in our little chit chats during office hours, head out for lunch with us and actively participate in our team activities. As interns come and go, socializing will help you get to know your work mates better and vice versa which will leave a lasting memory for you and your work mates.
There you have it, our top 5 tips that will set you on track to being the best intern you can ever be.
Take these tips and go be MADly amazing!