By Sophia Demetriades
People do internships for various reasons. The first thing you have to do is to establish why YOU want to do an internship and what you aim to get out of it.
If you want the Host Company and DIA to meet your expectations, you need to be clear about what you want and why, and what effort you yourself have to do in order to reach those goals. If you are unsure why you are doing an internship, then let DIA know ad we can help you set goals to reach. An internship is different from a full-time job, however the Host Company aims to treat you as a fellow employee at the same time as teaching you about industry specific practices work with you and help you make the most of it. It is however your own responsibility to make sure you get as much as possible out of the internship and also to get the most value to meet your set goals.
When working a full time job, your employer will not chase you up at all possible times to make sure you do your job. They may set deadlines, however it is your responsibility to meet those deadlines. The employer may give you a job description; however there may be responsibilities which are not mentioned on the job descriptions. It might be part of a company culture to do certain things, perform certain tasks or show a certain attitude, so it is important that you are perceptive and do your best to adapt to that culture. If you do not like that culture you need to think about whether it is yourself that need to change, whether you can deal with it for a certain amount of time, whether you can discuss improvements with your employer or whether it is time to think about how YOU can proactively do something in order to improve the company culture and environment. You can discuss this with DIA and you should also spend time preparing for and also understanding the company culture.
When working at a full-time internship, you should at times expect a certain amount of busy work. Some may see this as an unfortunate part of the process, however it is highly necessary for you to learn how to developed critical business skills such as multitasking, working under pressure, dealing with confrontation and juggling work and life challenges.
Having a full time job, doing an internship, and being a students are NOT the safe experiences, however they are interchangeable and can help you improve in all areas. It will also assist in your training of self-management skills.
That said, you should not just be handling menial tasks in your internship. If you find yourself just filing papers and sorting mail, then ask your supervisor for some responsibility. Do not sit around and complain about being bored, it is your own responsibility to make sure you learn something. If you feel like no one has time for you, it may just be that you need to take some initiative and start a project you think would be useful, tidy up something or create some workflow documents. When you show this to your supervisor, they will be very impressed and understand that you are a person who can take responsibility and add value to a workplace. They may then assign you further tasks of greater importance and trust you with more challenging work. A person who is not able to apply themselves, be resourceful or add knowledge to a workplace, is not valuable enough to be hired. A negative attitude is not likely to create a good image in other people’s eyes.
Thus, while some downtime is not surprising, there should be the expectation that you will be able to accept responsibility and make a valuable contribution to the company.
If you are an intern at a large corporation with a detailed or structured program, you should be asking to participate in company seminars and presentations. Seminars may be weekly or monthly, and will typically feature a company executive discussing a relevant industry specific topic.Seminars brings all of the employers together for building industry knowledge and collaboration and you should pay careful attention, take notes and also use this time to build relationships with other people than your supervisor – even people who you may not think to talk to. You never know when it may come in handy to meet certain people, so spend every minute you can meeting new people and asking them about what you do.
Please also keep in mind that you should spend limited time talking about yourself. Of course you should answer questions and participate in a balanced conversation, but you learn much more asking questions from peers and fellow employees then just talking about yourself all the time.
In some internships, you should also expect to have to give a presentation at the end of the internship either at your workplace, your university, through the internship agent or at events. For this reason, you should take notes throughout your internships about what you learn and do. This information will also come in handy when you need a reference letter with a job description and it helps you reflect of what you are doing. You can read more about reflexivity in
DIA also require that you have an internship journal or diary, which you are free to discuss with your supervisor at work or at your university as well as your internship coordinator at DIA.
Some large corporate internships break the interns into teams to work on specific projects, and you must give a group presentation of what your team accomplished. This is a great chance to enhance your team-working and presentation skills and you will feel great when you present your accomplishments. If you do not end up having this task in your specific internship, DIA would love to receive one from you anyway. In fact, DIA encourage the interns to make a presentation, and will reward all interns with a certificate of achievement that address your commended extra effort.
All internships are different however you should be able to expect somewhat similar things from each one. If you expect to receive a certain amount of responsibility and feel you have not contributed enough, go to your supervisor and talk to them about this. This is a great way to show that you are serious about working hard and are interested in what the company does. Showing initiative is often what makes the difference between average interns and high achieving interns and you may just be able to turn your internship into a full-time job.
Pease note that if you do not end up getting a job following your internship, that is not because you are not valuable or have not done enough. There can be many reasons interns don’t get hired after an internship and you should not be dis heartened. Instead, you should use this learning experience as a step in the right direction. You can also talk to your supervisor and internship coordinator about things you could possibly work on.
Please also note that you should not over work yourself in your internship. If you do a part time internship, make sure it is suitable to customize around your studies or a part time job. Talk to you DIA internship coordinator about ways to manage your time. We want you to have a happy and healthy life and will help you enjoy your time in Australia and overseas. If at any stage later in life you feel as if it is difficult for you to balance work and life, please get in touch so we can consult you through these difficulties. If you come up with ideas or ways to juggle studies, work, life and internships, please get in touch so other interns can learn from you and we will commend you accordingly.
ALL DIA interns are automatically affiliated with our network and receive life-long benefits such as networking opportunities, discounts on training and development programs, re-education programs through your job or learning resources. Please talk to DIA if you want to learn more about these options, or go to our membership page.
