dK Top 5 is a series of blogs that harvest the knowledge of digitalKnowledge employees in bite-size tips and tricks for easy reading and implementation. In the spirit on new beginnings, our first blog entry is written by our former intern and features his top five recommendations for others venturing into the world of internships. We hope you enjoy it!
5 Recommendations for New Interns
An Internship is a great way to get your foot in the door of the corporate world. You will have the opportunity to network with some great people, as well as the chance to experience the inner workings of their company. It's important to be aware that this is their chance to form an opinion about you, but don't let that scare you...
1. Be open minded. With any new job it's important to have an open mind about technology practices and people. What was taught in school might be different from what the company does. Companies vary but hopefully you'll meet a variety of people with different backgrounds. Being open minded to others is extremely important to having a good internship.
2. Be flexible. Just because you have good foundations with Java doesn't mean you'll be programming with it. Often you will be using technologies that you are unfamiliar with and will have to adjust. You will also probably have to adjust to other people's schedule.
3. Be nice. People in companies are busy. Respect is a two way street. Respect them and they will help you out. If you were an experienced employee, you would want the intern to treat you with respect. Remember - the employer is generally doing you a favor by offering the internship in the first place.
4. Pay attention. Employees are busy so when they help you out it's important to pay attention to what they're saying. They generally don't have much time to say what they need to say, let alone say it twice.
5. Absorb. Besides getting your foot in the door, the point of an internship is to actually see firsthand what a company does and how they interact. Be sure to absorb all that is happening. An internship is only what you make it to be.
By: Bart Sides, Intern 2010
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