Dear Summer Interns...

These last few weeks, I’ve been proud and excited to welcome our 2021 summer interns to SC Johnson. Due to the constraints caused by the COVID pandemic, last year many roles were home-based so we delivered a virtual internship experience for the class of 2020. This year, we are safely back in the office and able to offer an invaluable “in person” experience to interns stationed across a variety of functions including marketing, supply chain, finance, IT, Research & Design and HR.

In my almost 20 years in the Talent Acquisition environment, I have seen thousands of summer interns and based on those that were the most successful - Here are my 'Ten Tips for Summer Interns':

1. Be you. This stage of your career is foundational, and you are unique. Understand your own principles as a professional. Understand your strengths. Make them stronger.
2. Learn. Do so through observation, listening and questioning. Think beyond what you have in front of you and of consequence. Here you will develop your decision-making craft.
3. Be Professional. Some basics here, but be on time, follow company policies, treat people with respect, smile (even through a mask) and limit personal smart phone use.
4. Show your flexibility. Be willing to learn new things and broaden your network. Seek diverse viewpoints and go that extra mile to truly take away the fullest experience.
5. Find a Mentor. Seeking a buddy, mentor or leader will help you understand what you have observed. Converting experience into processed learning will help refine and prepare your future approach and perspectives.
6. Ask for feedback. Seek it, crave it and digest it. Don’t reject it. You’re at the beginning of your career… you’re thus more likely to not know stuff and make rookie errors. That’s okay. But be bold and humble enough to take feedback on board. Don’t be hard on yourself either.
7. Grow your network. Whilst in your internship, build relationships with a broader set of folk that aren’t just in your team. Link up with other interns and coworkers, lunch with different people or volunteer to be involved in an employee resource group. Also follow up with these individuals after your internship.
8. Work. Yep, the obvious but: do great work. Challenge yourself, research deeply, benchmark, send drafts and deliver results.
9. Interview your internship. This is your time to figure out if this is a place you see yourself working full-time. Are you fulfilled in this industry, role, company? Can you see yourself developing as a young professional within this role?
10. Finally… Be kind, be nice, be positive and have fun