writingexperience.org

This article falls at an interesting time in my internship. I just returned from a week-long trip to Las Vegas, where I helped run the educational side of a convention for over 5,000 people. Choice Hotels sent hundreds of corporate employees, (including the executive team and its CEO, Steve Joyce), educational speakers, and a New York audio/visual company in addition to the thousands of licensees in attendance.

The first slide in "Top 10 Goofs Interns Make" mentioned the idea of staying late and how that might make them wonder why you can’t get your work done on time. I never thought of it that way, making me second guess doing that in the future. They give me plenty of work at my internship, so I don't have a problem with not having enough work. Staying late has been a possible option for me for a few weeks, but now I don't think I'll be doing that. This was the only section I was surprised to read about.

While reading the article on the top ten mistakes that interns make, I found that most of the mistakes were ones that I would consider to be common sense. It, of course, depends on where you are interning. Every place is different. To me, though, the most helpful piece of information that I read in the article was probably the first tip: The Entitlement Syndrome.

As I read through BusinessWeek's Internship Mistakes slideshow, I kept thinking that most of the advice was common sense. Then again, I'm 43 years old and have worked in professional office environments for nearly 25 years. I think the best advice for any intern is to treat your entire internship like one big, long interview. That was not one of the slides, but it was implied throughout. Interns, as well as new employees, are being watched and judged all the time so being on your best behavior is critical. And don’t forget to use common sense!

When it comes to the business world, I don’t know a whole lot. Sure, I know the basics and whatever random stuff movies teach you over the years. People sometimes forget that business world does not mean finance and Wall Street; it includes pretty much every place of business, anywhere you might have a job, or in our case an internship.

I would say the best piece of advice that the article offered was Number 4: “Being a Wallflower” and Number 5: “Ducking the Extracurriculars” which basically say the same thing: don’t avoid your co-workers; instead, try to learn about them outside the workplace. It encourages talking to them and attending parties and get-togethers whenever possible in order to foster closer bonds. I think this is something a lot of people would take for granted, even me.

Reading through the slide show, I was glad to see that most of the “errors” were things I already knew about, or were keeping in check. Trying to be talkative, but not cocky...not wasting time or blocking yourself out through phone use or listening to music...all of these “no-nos” are things I've considered during my time at the radio station. I was a little “worried” about the headphone use, as I have used music to help me zone into work before, but the circumstances were different than a 'normal' event.

In answering which goof I think is the most important, it's necessary to look at each one individually so they can be compared. I'll be looking at these goofs through the lens of my own internship, which is primarily online based. Because most of my work is done through the computer, many of these goofs become somewhat irrelevant. There are the personal meetings with my senior editor, but still...

1. THE ENTITLEMENT SYNDROME

I think the best pieces of advice in the slideshow were not being a wallflower and to not avoid extracurricular activities that you are lucky enough to get invited to. Though this was sort of the whole message of the slideshow, I think these two tips really drove the point home about taking full advantage of an internship in every way possible to help both the image of the company you're working with, as well as your own professional image and contacts.

After reading “10 Top Goofs Interns Make” I am much more aware of things I have to pay attention to while at my internship. While the atmosphere I am working in is for the most part casual and relaxed (my boss wears a hooded sweatshirt most days) I need to remember that I am making an impression and that I should make the most of it.