3 Things I Learned as a Tesla Intern

It's December 17, 2021 as I'm logging off my Tesla devices and cannot believe how fast time has flown by.

?? 12 months ago...

Just 12 months ago, I started my journey at Tesla as a Project Management intern for the Service Campaigns & Compliance team. For the past year, I've had the chance to work with engineers, technicians, and product developers to create process improvement projects and expand my technical skillset!

Given my background in creative fields and interest in design, I was intimidated to jump into a new field where I'd be working with technical data and information. Nevertheless, this turned out to be one of the best decisions I've made.

Throughout my time at Tesla I've learned a lot and hit big, steep learning curves. While school teaches us that the learning process is linear, at Tesla it turns out to be exponential. Once you learn a few dozen acronyms, you will found yourself using them days later.

During the Spring and Summer internship terms, I had managed 30+ service improvement projects impacting various end-users, including our engineering org., field service teams, and most importantly, our customers. And most meaningfully, I grew several soft skills that I'm sure will help me in my future career.

As I reflected on my experience, I thought of sharing the best 3 things I learned from this internship in hopes to help those in my community advance in their careers. So hopefully you find these helpful ??

?? 3 Key Learnings

1) Choose to take initiative

'Be proactive' was one of the most common pieces of advice that I received before doing my first internship. And while it sounds great, it is way harder to execute than you would think.

Being proactive doesn't mean just coming up with new ideas or solutions on the spot, but it can also refer to identifying problems that no one else 1) is seeing, or 2) has the bandwidth to solve.

Throughout my internship, I set aside 30-45 minutes each week to go over the challenges I faced in my process improvement projects or operational tasks, and wrote down where things could be better if I had all of the resources available. This allowed me to ideate on projects and initiatives that our team could implement. And in fact, one analytical project was implemented!

All to say, don't wait for problems to come to you or use your time in your internship to find solutions. It is an invaluable asset to be able to identify areas in which things can be better and do something about it.

2) Seek feedback

Most of our lives, we have been presented with the blessing of feedback coming to us. Whether it was parent-teacher conferences, internship performance reviews, or grading comments from a teacher –?feedback has almost always been around us.

However, as I joined Tesla I realized that I didn't have to wait for feedback until my performance review. I scheduled bi-weekly 1:1 meetings with my manager where I would come prepared with a key set of questions/projects I wanted feedback on.

This exercise made our meetings so efficient and I was able to identify improvement opportunities way earlier. Additionally, I could tell my manager appreciated the fact that I was keeping tabs on different projects and had an eager attitude towards learning.

3) Create fulfillment

One of my favorite things that I got to do at Tesla (besides my job lol) was to be involved in the employee resource groups! Helping underrepresented groups advance their careers is one of my biggest passions that I got to pursue during my internship.

I was deeply involved with Women at Tesla and Latinos at Tesla. I dedicated my free time to drive conversations and host events for these groups because it fulfilled me.

A lot of the times, it's easier to blame others if we don't feel fulfilled at our career or our jobs. And while sometimes there are factors contributing to this reality that are out of our control, there are some things you can take initiative with to help you fulfill all of your career and personal desires.

I knew that my actual internship responsibilities were fulfilling my desire to learn, grow as a professional, and practice skills such as cross-collaboration and effective communication. While my involvement with community groups fulfilled my desire to make a positive impact in my community and find ways to give back to those around me.

Most of the times, you will have the opportunity to be involved in various things that fulfill different aspects of who you are – take advantage of it!

?? Final Thoughts

There is no blueprint on how to have a successful internship experience. However, over the years I have learned that it is curiosity, organization, and a growth mindset that can lead you to achieve things you thought were impossible.