12 Tips On How To Do Well In An Internship

Congratulations, you landed that internship in college, and now you want to know how to do well in an internship.

All your hard work has paid off up until this point. Now that you know how to find an internship, the next step is performing well and setting yourself up so you can get that entry level job out of college.

Here are 12 tips on how to do well in an internship.

March 2, 2024 by Kazu Fujimoto

Ask Tons of Questions

Whenever you don’t know the answer to something, you need to ask questions as an intern! Otherwise, how are you expected to learn?

Your mentors also won’t have an idea of how much you know unless you ask questions. When you ask questions, this shows your team what you have an idea of and what you don’t know. This is crucial for your growth and development in doing well in your internship.

Get good at googling

Before you have the opportunity to ask any question about something you’re not sure about, you need to google it. There is nothing worse than asking something that is easily looked up on google. This shows lack of initiative, time wasting, and lack of using proper resources.

Learn how to use good resources

In your line of industry, there are going to be standards, documentation, processes, and procedures to follow. These will have a rough guideline of what you need to know.

Ultimately, if you get good at looking things up and using the right resources, you will be unstoppable as an intern.

If you have the free time, read through all the resources that you know of. You might make some connections in your knowledge and might be able to contribute value in a critical moment or meeting.

Speak up in meetings

As an intern, although it may not be expected of you to do much, speak up in meetings whenever you can.

This helps establish you as a team player, builds your reputation as someone who delivers value, and gets you ready for the real corporate world.

The ones who succeed in the corporate world are the ones who put themselves out there, constantly deliver value, and build great relationships with peers/mentors/leadership.

Build good relationships

Learn how to build good relationships at work. When you build good relationships, you will likely have a good impact and this will be brought up in meetings with managers and executives.

You will be less likely to get laid off and more likely to get promoted when you build better relationships at work.

Having strong relationships with decision makers is more critical than providing high quality work. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be delivering high quality work, but also focus on building good relationships. Do this by engaging in small talk, actively talking to your coworkers whenever possible, and be involved in meetings.

Go To Work Events

Whenever you are presented with the opportunity to go out with your coworkers, you should go. Go to events such as lunches, after work outings, conventions, or company parties whenever possible.

Although these types of events may be uncomfortable, you will build better relationships among your coworkers by doing this.

This is also a great means to network with other people in your industry.

Perform Well

Make sure you deliver high quality work and are on time with your deliverables. Do not neglect building relationships with your coworkers just to get your work done. Prioritize relationship building, but at the same time, you need to perform well.

Do not be the person who delivers low quality work and is late. You need to establish yourself as a reliable intern – this will help you getting your first entry level job out of college.

Be On Time With Your Work

There are very few people out there that deliver high quality work on time. In the corporate world, it’s very common for deadlines to get slipped or workers not reading important emails. As a result, deadlines get missed all the time.

Be known as someone that is reliable and consistently delivers work on time.

Whenever you’re working on a project and you don’t have what you need, be sure to go out and ask for it.

You may need to follow up on items on multiple occasions throughout being a corporate worker, but you need to get things done.

Don’t be afraid to bug people when they’re not giving you what you need to get things done.

Take Initiative

Always be proactive and take initiative when you are working as an intern.

If you’re assigned a project as an intern, make sure you have everything you need so that you can deliver.

If you are missing something, be proactive in going out and getting missing information.

Don’t be the type of person that when asked about something, you weren’t able to get it because you didn’t have the information you need. Don’t make excuses about not getting this done or not having what you need by taking the initiative.

Take Notes

Make sure to take notes in the office as an intern. It’s very easy to forget things and taking notes helps you retain information in the long term. You will do a more efficient job at building your skillset by taking clear and concise notes and reviewing them.

Don’t just rely solely on your memory to remember things.

Set the right frameworks in place so that you can learn how to do well in an internship.

Keep A Daily Task Log

I have been recommending this for a long time now – make sure to keep a daily task log.

When you do so, this gives you so much ammo you can use to not only write a resume, but to bring up with your manager regarding your performance.

Do this by using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, and keeping tasks of what you did day by day. Keep track of the specific value you provided and understand the dollar value impacts of the work you are doing.

Deliver Value

Ultimately, you need to deliver value as an intern.

Understand the dollar value impact that you do day by day. Companies love it when you make them money.

Start understanding the specific metrics that your work has to the company – revenue, budget, cost, efficiency. Work to bring those metrics up and start thinking of ideas and projects that align with those goals.

This is how you will ultimately climb the corporate ladder.

Get started by developing these good habits and adopting these frameworks.