Hi, my name is Intern

If you're further along in a career it's easy to forget the challenge of getting started with one.

I'm writing this issue for college students and upcoming grads. Recent grads may find some benefit in it as well.

My writing tends to focus on the work of senior leaders, so exploring this end of work life has been a gap. I hope readers of all kinds acquire some motivation to invest in younger talent. Trust me they need it in these trying times. It's incredibly trying for cohorts of people who've endured remote school, a hiring slowdown and limitations on their freedoms. 

It's incredibly trying times for people who've endured remote school, a hiring slowdown and limitations on their freedoms. 

First, a message of optimism for the younger crowd. It's no secret the job market for grads has slowed down, creating a backlog which makes it hard to stand out. When I speak with partners at the major consulting firms, they all indicate this is temporary. There could very well be a hiring boom around the corner.  I'll cover more good news later on, so read on.

If you're in a company with interns, make a conscious effort to connect with them outside meetings.

If you're in a company with interns, make a conscious effort to connect with them outside meetings because social interaction has shrunk during the pandemic.

Today's workplace has become a smaller social circle due to the pandemic. And employees newer to the workforce have felt it more than others. Social isolation is a real thing. In fact, the UK government recently created a Ministry of Loneliness to help with the widespread issues. In the workplace could mean less apprenticeship, and mentoring.

The question I'll focus on is how to make for a winning internship (or early career role).  

How do I define winning?  It's the scenario where the employer values your contribution a ton, and regardless of whether it turns into a full time gig, you build super concrete skills that will make the next opportunity gravitate toward you.  In other words, a real stepping stone. A winning internship is not just a role to place on a resume, it's a shortcut to communicating a strong fit for the next opportunity. 

You don't need a glamorous internship to achieve this. It works for any starting point. In fact, it works not just for internships but full time work as well. Your first full time role may not be the "ideal" but rather than plodding along, figure out how to make the next opportunity gravitate toward you. And if you master these skills they'll help throughout a career - even in the C Suite.

One thing interns realize when they start is that an organization doesn't know what it doesn't know. They want to be better at social media, customer feedback, analytics or something specific. However, they've been way too busy and under resourced to know what that means and what's involved in it. Yes they have no clue, and that's your opportunity.  

A good feature of today's job marketplace vs say the 1990's is lack of prescription. The organization may not have time to slow down and figure out what it needs done. It may give you a rough definition of the problem. Then it's your opportunity to figure out the rest. 

This is a great learning opportunity at several levels, if approached in the right way. 

Tips for a winning internship experience:

Let's explore 3 tips to make any internship a winning experience: 

1. Jump into the messy middle- It's likely the project or contribution area has been in execution mode already which means there are real deadlines and milestones to hit. The trick with "work in progress" is while you don’t want to slow it down, it’s important not to settle. The work is likely done in some less than optimal ways. You want to keep the milestones moving along, on time, while identifying these gaps and offering better methods for handling them. For example, something could be reworked every instance, when it could be made into a template. Employers love templates! So create some. If you fix things as the plane is moving, that's a huge plus. If that can't be done, make a list. Keep a running tab. Don't ask too much permission for making things better, figure them out and socialize the ideas. 
2. Develop a roadmap - With your list of improvements or enhancements to the process or operations, chart out the best sequence to address them. Not everything can get fixed or improved at the same time. Make a roadmap for what improves the process, quality, creativity or other aspect of your assignments. Anything that improves quality while cutting time should get priority.  Anything that improves quality while cutting time should get priority. 
3. Chip away at task expertise - You may get hired for social media, growth hacking, product management or content ...and all of these fields are very dynamic. New tools come around all the time. 5 years ago no one was using Canva, and 2 years ago few people were on Mural or Miro. New methods are constantly being invented and documented. So a little bit of research and on the job learning is critical to become the resident expert on a thing or area of responsibility. It takes trial and error to master tools, write content, analyze data or figure out what works for customers. You have to be deeply committed to iteration. It may take 5 attempts to learn a thing, debug something or make content hit the mark. Once you do it’s likely the task becomes 10x easier which is a huge payoff. So don’t stop chipping away and be patient. 

It may take 5 attempts to learn a thing, debug something or make content hit the mark.

A final tip shared by Irum Rafiq (a real internship pro) is to self advocate when you see an exciting opportunity and don’t be afraid to ask for new responsibilities. If it's outside your internship scope, ask if you can shadow others and work on a mini project so you can explore your interest. This can also build confidence to voice yourself.

When you apply this recipe to intern work, or any work, the development of skills and talents become a habit. You start racking them up. And you can describe them in ways that almost jump off the page of your bio or resume. 

It’s how to make opportunity gravitate toward you. This is not some elusive metaphysical concept, it's grounded in the idea of signaling that you’re a tremendous learner. Learning how to learn can make you unstoppable. 

Learning how to learn can make you unstoppable. 

Please share this with potential interns and those early in career. And love to hear if this helps you or someone you know as they approach or start internships.

Looking further out

Corporations will need the help to plan their futures as the pandemic has re-shaped so much. After the job market opens up there is more good news. Younger talent may not realize there will be a shortage of managers at some point in the next 3-5 years because so many boomers are stepping aside. The normal cycling out of a generation has been accelerated as well.  Long timers in companies are making "life is too short" decisions as elaborated in this NY Times piece. Take those things together and the message is simple: you will be in demand for long periods of time even if it's hard getting out the gate. On top of that, the workplace is going to suck less. As old school leaders cycle out, the workplace will be led by progressives who care about the whole employee experience from productivity and results to mental health and less tolerance for bad behavior.

Any other business

Leave a comment if you have a perspective on internships.

And if you've enjoyed this issue, please share it :)

Finally, thanks to your help, Rewire is now one of the top newsletters on LinkedIn. Appreciate the supportive community.