What do you look for in an intern?
 

Most people I know who work in the "real world" spend a lot of time complaining about how annoying their office interns are. I'm interning this summer and I would like to avoid being annoying.

So, for you GCers who have dealt with interns before, what kind of qualities (personal or professional) do you look for in interns?

This is timely, because I'm interviewing for a summer office assistant later today. Basically, the qualities we're looking for are:

Pleasant personality
Cool under pressure
Able to prioritize tasks
Ok with being held to a high standard of accuracy
Master tasks quickly

Our office assistant last year was a dream. She was pleasant, handled everything quickly, efficiently, and accurately. She even caught some of our mistakes and politely brought them to our attention. Plus, her attendance was flawless - she was on time every day and never took a day off. Basically, she was perfect! Good luck with your internship!

What you're asking for is the minimum for anyone who has a job isn't it? Who would hire someone with bad attendance?

We hire from a pretty impressive pool of candidates. Of those candidates, I expect them to do everything I say and to stay out of my way otherwise.

-Rudey

I didn't say that was a qualification. Obviously, you wouldn't know a candidate's attendance record with you until they started.

ADqtPiMel is looking for what makes an intern non-annoying. Being late or not showing up is annoying.

The 10 Commandments of Interning

I. Don’t come into your internship hung over. Ever.

II. Listen and take notes. Ask lots of questions, and when you are asked to do something, listen and then paraphrase the request back to the person who initiated it to make sure you are on the same page. Keep her updated on your progress and cover your butt with a paper/email trail. Ask lots of questions and keep good records.

III. Use your “indoor voice,” especially when on the phone and never, ever put your phone on “speaker” when you are in a cubicle setting.

IV. Spend the day working and asking for work to do, not on the phone with your friends. Your cell phone should be on silent, and friends and family members notified to not call you at work unless it is an emergency.

V. The biggest complaint I hear is about "know-it-all" type college interns. Don’t come into your internship offering up ideas to reinvent the wheel. You are an intern, not a consultant. It is taken as obnoxious. If you’re asked for feedback, give your ideas then. Ask your intern supervisor about when it is appropriate and know your role before going into staff meetings.

VI. Meet regularly with your intern supervisor to plot out your time and make the most of the experience. It doesn’t help the company if you’re bored, and it doesn’t help you to pass the time or give you the learning experience you came in for if you’re sitting around doing nothing.

VII. Request time “shadowing” other employees and ask them about their careers so you can get some insight into how the company works and evaluation of your own goals. Ask for help with drafting a good resume. Write thank you notes to these people following these informational meetings. You are building a network and getting career advice.

VIII. Accept intern assignments with grace, and expect a lot of busy work-- faxing and excel chart work. You're here to help the company, and this helps move the work flow process.

IX. Keep emails brief. If they get longer than a few sentences, pick up a phone. Don’t use smiley faces in your emails.

X. Be polite, dress appropriately and have fun.

My only tip for not acting annoying is don't flake when you get bored. Ask for more work. Run errands for people. If it is okay with them, surf the net. Just don't shoot other interns with those air dusters and staples and get caught by employees. Fun times. ;)

This tip isn't related to your topic, but I think it will be helpful....don't hesitate on doing a task because you're afraid of making mistakes. It's better to make tons of mistakes while you're an intern than on the real job.

No, it's not.

-Rudey
--And if you do, blame it on the guy in research that can't speak English.

I've only ever had/trained two interns. Both times, we sat down on the first day and discussed what I needed and expected, and what the intern needs and expects to learn. If an intern is just there for basic office procedures, it's an entirely different story than if they're there to learn a particular skill (ie: a specific type of research, etc). I also asked that they would be cooperative, and if they make a mistake, to tell me so that we could work it out together as a learning experience.

I personally feel that the mentor/intern relationship is very important, and the intern should never be considered a "slave". A go-for at times, yes; a slave, no.

Beyond that, I would think that adpiucf has most of the angles covered!

ETA: Each time I was an intern, I always sent whomever was responsible for helping me get the position a thank you gift, even if it's something small (a box of candy, home made cookies, etc) along with a heartfelt thank you note. It keeps the door open for the next year, or for the "real job"!

I'm interviewing summer interns right now, and it amazes me how ill prepared many of them are. I also am flabbergasted at the unreal expectations so many have. I work in broadcasting, and you have no idea how many interns expect that they'll be put on air because they have a college demo tape! You will have to pay your dues-- I did, and so did everyone before you.

An internship is a marvelous opportunity to get your feet wet in an industry, make some contacts, and learn by doing. College is not real-- the workplace is.

Some advice

1. For the women: Do not wear bar clothes to your interview or to work. EVER! Dressing seductively may get you a date, but it won't get you ahead in your career. It will make the men think of you as a sex object, rather than a potential employee. It will alienate you from the women in charge. You will not be taken seriously. That means-- no flouncy short skirts, no belly buttons, no cleavage. Dress conservatively. Nice slacks or skirt and a jacket are a good choice.

2. For the men: Leave the baseball cap at home. Don't wear jeans or sweats. Look at what everyone else is wearing, and dress appropriately. A button down shirt and a nice pair of slacks and dress shoes or loafers are fine in most offices. Sneakers are not. If in doubt, err on the side of overdressing.

3. For all-- leave the backpack at home. That's very unprofessional. Also, make sure you show you're serious. I would also leave the plastic keychains with the Tweety birds at home as well.

4. Don't complain. If you have to do some tedious work, smile, and get through it. Have a positive attitude. Be enthusiastic.

5. Ask questions. If you don't understand how to do something, that's fine. You're there to learn. I'd rather you ask then botch something up.

6. Be on time. Treat your internship like a real job... because if you impress people enough-- it may turn out to be a permanent job for you!

7. Don't get involved in office politics.

8. Watch your language. Speak professionally. You're not in a college atmosphere, so talking about how you "got wasted" last night probably isn't a good idea.

9. Follow up your internship with a hand-written thank you note. You'll make an excellent impression. You never know when someone can write you a letter of reference, or even hire you.

Ok, this thread is making me feel really good about myself. Do people actually do half the stuff I'm being warned against doing?

Yes, they do!

Also, if you make a mistake, just go to your intern supervisor and say, "I messed up on XYZ, and wanted to let you know. I fixed it, but just in case there's any backlash, here is what happened."

It's really hard to do this, but it demonstrates a lot of maturity and your intern supervisor will trust you with more responsibility.

You're not perfect and neither is your superviser. You're not expected to know it all. So ask lots of questions, keep your superviser looped in and don't try to hide a mistake or hide from your superviser if something happens! It just snowballs and adds more work for everyone!

I think tolerance for mistakes vary from place to place. I was once fired for making a minor mistake on my third day of employment...and this wasn't even a "big kid" job.

Also watch your language in e-mails, even to those outside of the company. Your computer belongs to the company, and you never know who may be monitoring what you are saying/doing.

The same goes for "surfing the web." If you are allowed to surf, be sure to visit only professional websites, or news type sites. Visiting random sites (even GC) can be viewed as very unprofessional, and in some companies can get you fired.

Not to try to make you paranoid. Just watch your communications, and make sure all e-mails are written in a professional tone, don't use slang. :-)

Oops, I've never really pay attention to my keychain! I'm so used to taking it everywhere, that I don't notice peoples reactions to them (unless they say something). I have a APhiO bottle opener on my keychain. I used to have another bottle opener that says "support wildlife - throw a party", until it like some how fell off. I'm sure I've went to interiviews with those keychains before. :o

All this is great advice for potential interns. I have a question though. What does an intern do in the situation where the person he/she is working directly under just does not give him/her work to do? The intern goes up to the 'boss' and asks if there's anything that needs to be done, and the 'boss' just says, 'no, don't worry about it, just hang out'. What should the intern do in this situation?

In that case, the intern should print a copy of her intern job duty decription, type up a list of projects she has completed and ones she is working on, and add up the number of hours she has spent with out work to do, documenting the requests for more work-- and request a formal sit down meeting her supervisor for an appointed time. She should point out her duties and tasks completed and point out that she is not doing anything and she is bored, and that she has asked for work repeatedly.

Talk with your superviser about ideas for projects-- maybe there isn't anything to do "right now" but a big job is coming up that will require the intern's help. Even with this in mind, the intern should have a job that is ongoing-- whether or not it is busy work-- to keep her occupied and focused, instead of bored and resentful.

Sample interim jobs for a marketing intern:
- Shadowing other marketing staff and getting resume evaluation
- Signing up for different marketing newsletters and writing a weekly summary of "what's news" for the marketing department
- updating mailing lists
- doing an analysis of the company's competitors
- doing an "end of the internship" report and presentation on "Challenges in the industry and recommended solutions," "What I learned at my internship," "The state of the industry today and how to remain competitive," etc.

Basically-- accept that your workload may be sporadic. You need to find work to do, just as you would at a post-college entry level job. Also offer to assist other people at the office, cover phones for the receptionist while she is at lunch, etc.

Keep in touch with your college adviser about your internship. If you're really bored, he can help by making a well-placed call. And if it is a horrible internship, your school will know to stop sending interns to that company.