Internship Highlight: Oluwaseun Amole

Written By: Peer Career Coach Oluwaseun Amole

Major: Computer Science [BS], Masters: Finance, Class of 2022

Internship Placement: Product Manager Intern at Equinix

These last couple years have been different in terms of internship experiences. Some companies have been slowly transitioning to being in person again and others have stuck to being virtual. Here are some things I learned from my virtual internship that could be helpful to anyone that has found an internship and is unsure on how to get the best out of the position.

#1 Create a plan with your supervisor/ manager: This simply means setting goals for the internship with your supervisor and being able to be held accountable when these goals are met. These goals could span 30 days, 45 days, or whatever timeline you want it to. Setting goals also helps with communication as your manager/supervisor knows you have goals that you want to meet at the end of your experience. Send an email to your supervisor with your thoughts on the plan you want to make so the plan is discussed and documented at the beginning of your internship.

#2 Ask, Ask, Ask: Always ask questions: Never be afraid to ask questions! This is important because it shows curiosity and you generally learn more when you are inquisitive.Once I was tasked with building out graphs for some products and I had no idea on how to use the software I was tasked to use so I made sure to ask as many questions as possible to break down the problem. In the end I understood the task better and I didn’t waste time making avoidable mistakes. Also try as much as possible to ask for feedback. Sometimes, it might not be clear if you are going in the right path or not so asking for feedback always provides clarity.

?# 3 Make yourself invaluable: During your internship, it is easy to slack off or let other people carry out tasks if they are team responsibilities. Making yourself invaluable means making a task yours. It might be how you perform this task or how well your documentation is, at the end of the day making a task yours helps in making you invaluable to the team and the company.

#4 Network Often: There are different approaches to networking at companies of different sizes. At a smaller company, it is easier to network with company executives although there are less people to network with since the company is small. At a larger company, there are more people to network with and it provides an opportunity to explore more diverse experiences. Equinix was a large company with over ten thousand employees and networking at Equinix taught me to be intentional. When I was a virtual intern, I set goals for myself to network with at least 2 people per week. Some weeks were busier or quieter than others but I made sure to follow this throughout my internship. Networking allows you to understand what other people outside your team do to make the company succeed. It also lets you explore other interests? you might have little knowledge about.

#5 Document your experiences: Documenting anything always helps. It helps to reflect on things to improve as well as things you have done well. I would set out time to write down my ‘To-Do’s’ as well as what I did well for the day/week. I would also document people I have networked with as well as things I have learnt from them. I would say my documentation of events improved greatly during my internship and this was down to the culture at Equinix. Some helpful tools include OneNote, Notes and Notepad.?

In summary, my internship was a great experience and I hope everyone learned a thing or two from this article. Feel free to share as well as ask any questions you might have.?