3 Takeaways on How to Get the Best Experience from Your Internship

As I approach my tenth week as an intern at Conagra Brands, I have been reflecting on my summer here and how much I have learned. I have had the incredible experience to be a logistics intern in the customer supply chain division and been able to work on several different projects and initiatives for Conagra’s Customer Programs team. In this article, I wanted to highlight some takeaways of things I did and didn’t do to get the most out of my internship this summer.

1.??????Meeting With Cross-functional Members

At Conagra, I had the wonderful opportunity to spend time 1 on 1 time with members across several different teams in the logistics space. Ranging from Customer Supply Chain Directors to Transportation Managers and all the way to the Procurement side of the supply chain, I was able to learn and gain knowledge from employees with diverse responsibilities and perspectives. These meetings allowed me to see the separate sides of supply chain within the same company, and how these different departments are interlinked and work together to solve problems. The meetings also helped me gain professional connections that I was able to lean on later in the Internship, and will be able to reconnect with in the future. The meetings with cross functional members also granted me the opportunity to leverage these learning moments to gain as much beneficial knowledge as I could from each meeting. I would encourage this in any internship as it paves the way for a career in supply chain and helps strengthen decision making skills for the future.

2.??????Asking Thought-Provoking Questions

This past summer was my first professional experience within Supply Chain. I had a small knowledge of my responsibilities within my role and had very little background working within an office space. Due to this, I was constantly asking questions. I would ask simple questions such as “Is the wording in this email correct?” or “Is there anything I should have prepared before our meeting tomorrow?”. But I would also ask thought provoking questions, ones that would challenge the way my managers were thinking and brought in new and appreciated perspectives to the processes that were in front of us. This helped me learn very quickly, as I was able to decipher the motives behind what we were doing at Conagra and how I could build processes during my time here. As an Intern, asking these kinds of questions helps to gain knowledge but also helps to build relationships and connections in the company through increased conversation.

3.??????Be At Home in Discomfort

For my third and final point, I wanted to share a piece of advice that has helped me through big changes in my personal and professional life. Feeling okay with a little bit of discomfort can be beneficial in any scenario that involves change. For my internship, I found myself in discomfort often. Whether it was moving 10 hours away to Omaha, working within an unfamiliar space, or general responsibilities that I was taking on for the first time, remembering to be comfortable being uncomfortable helped me attack these different scenarios and gain different advantages from each of them. While your time as an Intern is short, being at home in discomfort can greatly benefit your experience.

Conclusion

It hurts to say that I have less than 2 weeks left in my internship at Conagra Brands, but it has been beneficial reflecting on the summer that I have had. Throughout my experience, I have learned to remember these three lessons everyday to gain the highest level of output and satisfaction from the internship. These are also takeaways that I can carry over to my personal life, and transform me into a better learner and leader.