Between my time in Corporate America and running my own businesses over the past 35 years I have had the opportunity to hire many interns and have some definite thoughts on the subject. It is my hope that these tips will help you be a better intern and get hired after graduation.
Make yourself available for an interview and NEVER cancel – I had an intern who cancelled on me an hour before their scheduled interview. Needless to say this person wasn’t hired! Barring an emergency, show up, be prompt and of course dress appropriately.
Always answer emails promptly – When I assign work I want to know that interns have received and understand what is being asked. I have had to call interns in the past to see if they received. You never want to hear “Sorry I didn’t check my email…”
When given an assignment, complete on time and communicate out that you are done – So you have done the work and done it well. Don’t forget to let others know, so they can check your work and hopefully praise your efforts. As strange as it seems I have had to ask interns on occasions if they had completed the task at hand. “Oh yeah, I finished that a long time ago…”
Check Your Work & Then Check It Again – One of the worst things you can do is turn in work full of typos and misused words. I had an intern last year write a blog post with 5 typos in a single sentence!! Also, as spell check doesn’t tell you that you have used the wrong version of “there”, you need to read and re-read everything. Believe it or not I have gotten resumes with misspelled words. This doesn’t leave a good impression.
Ask For More Work – Be eager, you are low person on the totem pole. People love to see interns who ask for more to do. This is a great way to get hired after graduation. Internships are many times a try out for future employment. Treat them as you would your dream job, not just a temporary position.
Be on time and alert – While this seems obvious, I have had interns show up late and even have had an intern fall asleep at their desk after coming in late after a weekend! At the time, I was working for one of the most successful companies in the world and my boss called me to say he walked by this person’s desk and she was asleep. When I asked her about it, she said, “I was just resting”.
Positive attitude only – No one likes working with someone that has a poor attitude. Remember, as I said above an internship is a lot like a tryout. For a company to hire you after graduation, they want to see how you interact with people and customers. So always show up with happy, positive outlook.
Own Up To Mistakes – You are an intern and are expected to make errors. When it happens, learn from it and move on. But always admit you made a mistake and don’t be afraid to ask for help. That is how we all learn, that is how we all get better.
Ask for feedback – Always ask your boss for feedback, especially at the end of your internships. A good boss will tell you the truth, and give you things to work on which will help you future internships and then on job interviews as well.
End on a strong note – My last batch of interns was a stellar group. This one particular intern did a good job for our company for most of his 6 months. But then towards the end he was already moving onto his next internship and started missing assignments. He would say I’ll get to it today. He would even tell me that he’s been busy with his next internship. This of course is nothing an employer wants to hear. Sadly he never did finish his last assignments and I had to reassign his work to other interns. The shame of it is I could’ve been a good reference. But now I couldn’t in good conscience as he finished so poorly. So always finish strong and work as hard on your last day as you did on the first day.
Bottom Line: Think of your internships like the NBA combines. You are trying out and showing your skills to possible future employers. So make the most of the opportunities, your future may depend on it.
When building a website one of the most important things is knowing “who” you are. Ok, not a great joke with the owl, but I think it’s a very important topic that people don’t spend enough time thinking about when planning a site.
A lot of times when people come to me to build a website, I find they are spending too much time looking at competitors. Now, doing your competitive analysis is important and it is crucial that you find a look and feel that reflects you’re brand and sensibilities. But, you need to know who you are, and what your company offers in terms of your value proposition.
This is one of the most important things your website needs to convey to potential customers/clients. There are things we all do very well. We may offer many services but we have one particular skill or a few that are our specialties and we need to make sure this is readily seen on our websites.
Using myself as an example, I design develop and manage websites and have so for over 20 years. But the thing that separates me from my competitors is my website management services which are second to none. So, I make sure that everything I put out on my website or social media also mentions that particular part of my business. I need people to know who I am and what I do, so they can know I can help them and their businesses. I realize that’s a mouthful, but I feel passionately that this is one of the most important aspects to anyone’s website.
People don’t have a great deal of time to find what they are looking for on your site. So you need to make sure they can find your value proposition within milliseconds of hitting your homepage. If you are using an image slider, one of the first slides should show your top service. Using myself as an example, my first slide is the about slide which sums up what I do, followed by my website management slide. Then as you scan the page you see my headline, Design, Develop and manage world class small business website. That is us in a nutshell, people know exactly “who” I am.
As they read on they encounter this line:
Our philosophy is much different from that of most firms. We have always felt that the management of your website is every bit as important as the design and development phases. As such we have industry best support plans which our clients utilize to add content, work on their social media, SEO, email marketing, pay per click advertising, and more!!
So as this key line shows, website management is a priority, rather than an afterthought. (which is how most firms view support)
Bottom Line: Anyone who views my homepage knows exactly “who” I am and what my company offers. This is something we work on with every client insuring that their value proposition is front and center.
When building a website one of the most important things is knowing “who” you are. Ok, not a great joke with the owl, but I think it’s a very important topic that people don’t spend enough time thinking about when planning a site.