Building Competencies Through Interning

Yesterday our Summer 2022 Internship ended with our final group of presentations during our week-long Intern Expo. As our interns shared their experiences and presentations this week, I felt compelled to share my own reflections on this summer and since I presented earlier this year on how we work the NACE Competencies into our intern program, what better way to do that than to reflect on the summer through the lens of the NACE Competencies.

First up, Critical Thinking skills (and problem-solving). I had to start here because this whole week has focused on our interns' abilities to critically think. The projects these students were assigned challenged them to think outside the box, identify, evaluate, and analyze potential solutions and compare options, to learn new skills, and apply what they've learned from class, life, and often times Google, to create new processes, documents, bots, and prototypes. The interns were able to save their teams' time, money, stress, and headaches while making our plants safer to work in, decreasing our footprint on earth, and improving the handprints we leave behind.

Moving on to Communication - in all the ways! Our interns focused on communication skills early on as our first Lunch and Learn session helped them to identify their preferred communication styles and challenged them to identify the preferred communication styles of their teammates to be able to more effectively communicate with them. I hope they applied this lesson throughout the summer as they wrote emails, social media posts, and articles, made phone calls, asked questions, and even led meetings. Their skills were certainly on display this week as they walked us through their projects, actively listened and answered questions, and ensured we all understood what they accomplished. I've got to hand it to several of them for simplifying some very complex systems and ideas to ensure those of us not familiar with their areas of expertise understood what they had worked on this summer and why.

Communication leads us to Equity and Inclusion and Teamwork because our interns had to communicate with teams, customers, and each other which required being inclusive and equally allowing everyone in the team to participate, share ideas, and work towards common goals. Our interns demonstrated inclusion of each other and others, diversity of thoughts and ideas, adapted to their new surroundings, and certainly experienced some personal growth throughout the summer. I think the best example of teamwork this summer came in the form of whitewater rafting! Nothing brings about teamwork faster than being thrown into a raft to go through class 3-4 rapids for a few hours as you work to paddle in sync and follow directions to make sure you don't flip or get stuck. A big part of teamwork is collaborating to achieve common goals - in this case, making it back to the bus in one piece - and they did that! These interns demonstrated their teamwork off the river too as they learned to collaborate with multiple groups across Mohawk, our customers, and the teams associated with our software platforms. They learned to hear out new ideas, offer up their own, and build connections to accomplish their goals.

Mohawk challenged our interns to practice Professionalism and Leadership each day this summer and they certainly did - bringing positive attitudes, innovative thinking, encouragement, and motivation to the company! As several staff members put it, "they livened the place up." They were role models for all around them, demonstrating work ethic, an eagerness to learn and grow, an inquisitiveness and caring attitude for those around them, the company, and the planet. They were present and involved, asking questions, volunteering, doing more, and consistently exceeding expectations. While they may have only presented on a few projects or less, I know they all completed many more than that, accomplishing more than I would have ever thought possible in such a short amount of time. I know our interns are leaders outside of the office too, leading sports teams, student organizations, and managing others in their work spaces. I have no doubt, their skills in these areas will help them and the companies they go to work for in the future.

Oh, Technology. All I have to say here is that many new software programs were utilized by our interns. Not only did they have to learn about new platforms in a short amount of time, but also be able to master them enough to write new code, create new interactive, live spreadsheets and website pages, and then create SOPs so others could continue the work after they left. This isn't even mentioning the work in Excel our interns accomplished to help their teams make informed decisions and provide leadership and customers with needed data. Talk about meeting challenges head on and demonstrating a growth mindset - "I may not know how to do that yet, but I will."

Finally, Career and Self-Development: I hope this summer helped our interns to identify and lean upon their strengths while improving upon their weaknesses. I hope this summer helped them learn more about what they like and don't like to do, challenged them to explore and consider new career paths, excited them to think about their possibilities after graduation, and taught them how to advocate for themselves in the work world. I hope they continue to seek out and embrace new opportunities and experiences, continue to step outside their comfort zone, continue volunteering for new projects or research positions, and never stop learning!

I had a conversation recently about imposter syndrome, and I want our interns to know that any time you feel like an imposter in a new space, remember what you have accomplished this summer! You are not an imposter. You belong at the table. You have thoughtful, innovative, creative, new ideas to bring to the table that will help change the world, but you can't do that unless you volunteer, step up, and take action, let your voice/ideas be heard and considered, and stay open to others' views, lived experiences, and own ideas to find the best solutions. Good luck as you head back to school, other jobs, or continue your career with Mohawk! Whatever you do, remember to #DoMore (hopefully, with Mohawk).