<p>My daughter is about to begin a summer internship in her chosen field with a prestigious organization. I can think of lots of advice about do's and don't's for making a good impression and getting a good reference at the end. But I think this advice would have more weight for my daughter if it came (also) from other people--not just "what my mom says".</p>
<p>So... could I ask you to post a few tips here? Especially, it would be useful if you have supervised interns at your own workplace.</p>
<p>1) do not use your work email for personal - no pictures from friends, no off color jokes via email, especially do not forward any such email to other people (not guilty if you receive, guilty if you forward). Do not forward any document to personal email, even if it’s to do extra work at home. Find out about your firm’s privacy policies.</p>
<p>2) try not to use personal cell phone at work. Always remember to turn it off at meetings.</p>
<p>3) Dressing is very important for women - nothing too revealing, no low cut shirts or too short dresses, no open toe shoes (especially flip flop type of shoes).</p>
<p>4) Coming in early and stay late. Ask for extra work.</p>
<p>5) Try to avoid office dating, if possible, especially people in the same department. At the same time, don’t be afraid to speak up if there is unwanted attention. It’s not allowed. </p>
<p>6) When going out with people at work for drinks or dinner, remember this is not a school party where people would think it’s cool to be tipsy. If not a big drinker, nurse a drink. I have seen too many young people (girls mostly) behave badly at social functions. I think people drink too much when they are nervous. Do not order an alcoholic drink at lunch, even if other people do.</p>
<p>All I could think of so far. I am sure other people will have more to add.</p>
<p>S1’s unpaid internship is off-site (we are in NY, the think-tank is in DC), so everything is done via computer.</p>
<p>Oldfort’s advice is good for anyone in the workplace. I worked for Shearson a million years ago and am pretty sure that a co-worker was transferred down because she violated several of the above-- frequent personal (REALLY personal) phone calls, drinking too much at office gatherings, and finally getting loaded at the holiday party and making a heavy-duty pass at the big (married) boss. In spite of all her extra-curricular stuff, she did her job well-enough, but she just went too far. </p>
<p>One thing I might add, is to suggest to your D is that she take a few minutes at the end of the day an jot down the names of people she’s met. It’s helpful for people like me (who can’t remember names!) but also because you never know when you might run into them again later on, find them helpful as a contact or vice-versa, etc.</p>
<p>Solid advice from oldfort and given a previous post about new interns coming into his company he knows what he speaks of. As far as the drinking goes, I’ll share my tips which I recently shared with a couple of young women. You can get a club soda with a lime and no one cares or knows if you are drinking or not. If you do order alcohol, I generally order a beer because I don’t like it that much and won’t even finish one. Stay away from anything sweet or that doesn’t taste like alcohol. </p>
<p>I would add to remember that the people you work with are not your peers. You shouldn’t talk to them the way you talk to your friends. </p>
<p>When in doubt, err on the side of being too formal. </p>
<p>Having supervised a number of college interns over the years a few thoughts on what worked and didn’t.</p>
<p>What worked:</p>
<p>Student (and boss) made a deliberate effort to keep each other informed as to progress on the project. I would make a point of updating the boss, face to face if possible, twice a week on what is happening on project. </p>
<p>If the project has a targeted end date, try to beat this date by 20% - e.g. two weeks. </p>
<p>Make sure what is produced is in business language - avoid slang and also avoid using language that “shows off” your vocabulary (I once had an intern that was using words that did not even make it in the American Heritage dictionary but were in the OED)</p>
<p>What didn’t work:</p>
<p>A failure to separate work and business - be it email, texting, IM, phone calls etc. When you are at work, you are at work - a fellow manager ended up ending one interns summer early for persistent violations of this one.</p>
<p>Inappropriate dress - think back to high school dress code and then make it stricter</p>
<p>Failing to keep boss informed - I expect interns to hit obstacles and then spend some time trying to figure them out - but if you are stuck for more than a day, ask for help.</p>
<p>Research internships? Ask lots of questions. Be sure to find out WHY you’re doing what you’re doing, and your supervisor will be much more likely to give you leeway to do some of your own experiments or include you in experiment planning/discussion sessions.</p>
<p>Also, be sure everything you do is 100% correct. Doing an experiment incorrectly and not letting anyone know can cause massive problems down the line. Likewise, don’t be afraid to ask for help if you’re not sure how something works or what’s going on. Odds are most of the equipment you’re working on costs more to fix than your salary does for the whole summer, so take care of it.</p>
<p>Research internships?
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Document everything you are doing. If you are issued a notebook to document your findings, know how to correctly document your experiments/results in it. Remember that a negative result is a result, and it has to be written down. Do not fudge the data - it is the greatest sin in research (look up what happened to a company called Sequenom recently). Be nice to your labmates, do not “borrow” their stuff without asking first. Religiosly follow the safety rules (if you work in a bio or chem lab, that means no open-toe shoes, no shorts; eye and hand protection is a must) and remember the location of the nearest fire extinguisher.</p>
<p>I took my daughter shopping the other day for clothes for her internship --it was one of the most frustrating trips ever. She refused to look anywhere but the junior section, where all the tops were low cut and inappropriate. I think she has enough clothes to get her through the first few days; I told her to check out closely what everyone else is wearing and go shopping once she’s there. Maybe when she actually sees what other women wear she’ll understand what I’m talking about.</p>
<p>I’ve worked with young people, just out of college, and they often just don’t get the need to separate work from personal – cell phones, Facebook, twittering, etc. I’ll definitely be passing this advice on to her.</p>
<p>fireandrain - my daughter will not shop in the junior section any longer, but does have a difficult time finding work appropriate clothing that also looks age appropriate. We had the most luck at Banana Republic and Ann Taylor. Fortunately we have a Banana Republic outlet store close by so the prices were pretty good.</p>
<p>Arriving “on-time” is arriving late. Get to the office at least 5-10 minutes before the official start of the business day so you are settled and ready to work.</p>
<p>When determining how to dress, look at the way your supervisors and his/her peers dress. Don’t take your cues from other interns.</p>
<p>Be friendly, eager to learn, work hard, be willing to challenge yourself, consider and project yourself more as a worker/producer than a lightweight intern, and of course, follow proper workplace etiquette as stated above - especially regarding the text messages/phone calls/emails. Remind them that every email that goes through a corporate email system can and often is reviewed by other members of the company. They also need to realize that any email they send to anyone in the company might get forwarded or copied to anyone else in the company so be careful what they write. And speaking of emails, a lot of impressions can be made based on one’s writing so they should be careful regarding spelling, grammar, and punctuation in composing any emails and proof-read it before hitting send. If there’s an opportunity to make group presentations, don’t shy away from it - try to do some. This is what gets your face in front of various employees of the company, even other groups and sometimes high level people.</p>
<p>Also, speak up for yourself, don’t be a doormat. It’s okay to volunteer to do things “above and beyond” but make sure no one is taking advantage of you. If you can’t stay late on a particular night, tell them. You’re not expected to always give up your whole life for the internship no matter how prestigious it is; but if you don’t say no when you truly can’t stay late (family obligation, tickets to something) then they have no way of knowing.</p>
<p>Oh, and to the lab internship safety advice which isn’t as well known, be sure to buy clothing made of natural fibers. They take harsh solvents, acids, and burning considerably better than man-made materials.</p>
<p>My girlfriend recently started work at a very traditional engineering company with fairly formal dress, and she had the best luck shopping at a nice Salvation Army store in an upscale part of town. She’s pretty short/small, so finding business appropriate attire can be difficult, as many stores only had clothing that would be more secretary than engineer outfits.</p>