2. Be ready to contribute from day one. In your interview if they can’t layout your job and give you details on role and team expectations, be wary. For the internship to benefit you (and the company) there has to be some definition around what you’re expected to do or you’ll end up doing useless stuff. I was programming drives on my first day. (And yes, I was nervous).
3. Say yes. Never turn down an opportunity. You might feel scared and worried that you’ll mess up. That’s okay. But you have to try. Think about your hardest class and how you got through it. If you didn’t know something, you read more about it, asked teachers for help and handled the challenge.
4. Do your best – then do more. Don’t just get to the meeting on time – be early. If you’re asked to finish a task, find out what’s next and offer to tackle that. Finish before the deadline. Go deeper into the concept or the task so when you’re talking to your team you can have an educated discussion.
5. It’s okay to fail as long as you learn. I never took physics in high school so in college that class was so overwhelming, I failed. The next time around I altered my approach. I studied more. I asked questions. I didn’t repeat the same mistakes. It’s the same concept with your internship. Pick a company that values risk-taking and failure.
6. Let motivation be your goal. Whatever you are motivated towards, let that guide you. If you’re interested in industrialization, then your goal is to do anything and everything that makes you smarter and more capable around this work. Because I was so young, I felt I had a lot to prove to myself and to the people around me. I was motivated to go above and beyond in my work – that was my goal. And because I showed I could do more, I was asked to do more.
