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In this course, you are more likely to succeed if you regularly do the following things throughout your internship.
Plan to work on your internship regularly. Although it may seem like you have plenty of time to complete 70 hours of internship work in 14 weeks, in order to be successful you will need to work on your internship regularly. Plan for at least 5-6 hours of internship work per week. Work with your manager/supervisor to set up a schedule that works well for both of you. Make sure you record your work hours.
Plan to work on your internship class regularly. You will have about three hours of classwork to complete each week. Make sure you are looking at both the Calendar and the Module sections of Canvas for the upcoming week each Saturday to determine when you will work on or complete each assignment.
Over-communicate with team members (school team or work team), your manager or supervisor, and your instructor or TA Coordinator. If you are running into challenges or have questions that you can’t figure out yourself, ask for help. Admit when you have made mistakes. While this may be scary, remember that admitting you made a mistake shows confidence. Others will trust you more when you are honest about what you are struggling with. Seek to under-promise and over-deliver.
Recognize and value differences in cultures, approaches, and capabilities of those you work with. You can learn something new from everyone you work with. Don’t be afraid to share your perspective when working with others but make sure you consider their perspective and what they recommend. You will often be working with people who are experts in their field. Try and learn from their years of experience.
Work in a way that would encourage your manager to hire you. Be dependable, trustworthy, and hard-working. Show that you are a disciple of Jesus Christ in the way you interact with others. While a permanent or full-time position may not be available when you complete your internship, it will still be valuable to have people you can ask to write a reference or who can connect you with other companies for a job.
Try to do new or hard things every week to grow your personal skills. Seek to learn new approaches and try new things. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
Identify how your work throughout your internship has positively influenced your company that you can reference in a resume, CV, or portfolio.
It May Be Difficult But You Can Do It!
As part of your internship, you may encounter significant work problems that may seem scary or intimidating. Fear not. In the Book of Mormon (1 Nephi 3-4), Lehi (and the Lord) asked his son Nephi to go back to Jerusalem to obtain the brass plates from a wicked man named Laban. As a young man, Nephi likely felt overwhelmed by this task. He tried several things at first that did not work. Then, he trusted in the Lord and went forth "not knowing beforehand [what] he would do." But with the Lord's help, he was successful in an impossibly hard project. You, too, have access to the Lord's help in your internship. In addition to the Lord, your instructor and TA Coordinator are also here to help you work through the problems and challenges you will face in order to help you succeed. Just like Nephi, you will be successful as you work hard, pray, and don't give up.
Reflection Question
How are you feeling about your Internship? (You can use the annotation tool to record and save your answers.)
When you enter the workforce, your boss will only be concerned with your results, not the resources you used to complete your project - as long as it is legal, ethical, and moral. This internship is the same. Read the list of resources below and keep this in mind as you begin your internship.
Your TA Coordinator and Instructor
TA Coordinators and Instructors are there to assist you, but they won’t take over your project.
The Experiential Learning Reference Library
This reference can be found in the Student Resources section at the end of this course. This library of more than 100 topics is included in the appendix at the end of the textbook. These tools and topics can be very beneficial in professionally completing your project. Each page contains a template that includes:
A definition of the project tool (e.g., SWOT Analysis, Competitor Analysis, NPV Calculation, Social Media Marketing Plan, Inventory Analysis, etc.)
Where and why it is used
Its limitations and where not to use it
Video instructions on how to use the tool
A step-by-step outline of how to complete the process of using the tool
A Template to capture data while using the tool
A demonstration of how to present the output of the tool
Examples of completed projects utilizing the Tool
Additional resources for study
Artificial Intelligence
AI, including Chat GPT, is a great tool that many professionals are beginning to use in their work. It can be used as a starting point to generate ideas or as a way to see if your writing can be improved. You may want to reference these tools as you are compiling your reports; however, never copy and paste an AI response without reading through the content and fixing any errors. This is still your work, and you need to take ownership of it.
The internet, friends, family, or professionals
When it comes to doing your homework, cheating in the context of this course is different than it is in most college courses. Though it’s usually considered cheating to reach out to friends, previous students of this class, or even professionals to help you do your homework, none of those things are considered cheating in this class. In the real world, your boss doesn’t care who helped you do your work.
You can use anything
As long as it’s legal, ethical, and moral, you can beg, borrow, and create to complete a project. The only qualification is that you do not plagiarize. There is nothing wrong with using information generated by others - this is actually good. But use proper citations and acknowledge others for their work. Otherwise, do whatever makes sense. Find whatever resources you can because, in the real world, all tests are open book; Computers, calculators, and other resources are available to you. So ask your TA Coordinator, spouse, neighbor, or friend for help. (For those assigned teammates in the Project-Based internship, you may not add someone to your team either not registered or registered for the class.)
There are many types of projects that can be implemented in a Team-Based Internship program. While the content of the projects and the skills necessary to complete the projects can vary greatly, the process of implementing the projects are surprisingly similar. Regardless of what type of project you have, you will go through the same phases:
TEAM FORMATION: (For Team-Based Projects) Project team creation, team role assignments, and meeting & communication planning
ENGAGEMENT LETTER: Project Scope and deliverables negotiations to form an agreed-upon engagement letter
WORK PLAN: Development of a work plan to achieve the deliverables with an action register and Gantt/timeline chart
MIDTERM REPORT: Midterm report and presentation with updated deliverables negotiation
FINAL REPORT: Identifying multiple conclusions and recommendations and the creation of a final report
FINAL PRESENTATION: Creating and presenting a top-down, executive-level, commercially oriented final presentation
Within each of these phases, you have a choice of how you plan to interact with your project, your team, and your company sponsor. Outcomes will be given to you each time you begin a new phase of work based on your level of interaction. The levels of interaction we focus on are the student, pre-professional, and professional levels. The question is, what do you want to get out of this class?
Everyone in this class is a student. You will need to complete these objectives in order to receive a grade. You must ask yourself, "Are you going to be the student seeking only a grade?" All students have to take classes to get a degree. For the student who wants the grade, these classes are obstacles that are keeping you from getting to where you want to be. Passing a class, then, is a bridge or a ladder over the wall that allows you to get past what keeps you from reaching certain goals in life. If you choose to see this class as an impediment, then, ultimately, all you really want to know is how to get through the class.
You may perceive yourself as a professional-in-waiting. You are in the second level: the pre-professional level. As a pre-professional, you aspire to be a professional someday, and you want to know what it's going to take to get there. This class will help you see and learn how to accomplish that by giving you opportunities to learn elements and tools that will allow you to achieve the professional level someday.
You, as a student in the professional level, want to be a professional now. Professional level students wonder, "Why should I wait? Why do I have to act like an intermediate professional? Why can't I act like a professional today? I want to be on par with the people already working in the field." The professional level reflects the workforce. You want to be hired coming out of school not as a student, not as a pre-professional, but as an employee who already has proficiency with real-world experience and has developed contacts in your desired field.
Take some time to consider what level of interaction you want to have with this class. While you will not be graded past the student level, the more you put into this class, the better prepared you will be to enter the workforce at a professional level.
Reflection Question
Which level of interaction or outcome preference will you most likely be pursuing throughout this semester?
Most of the instructions in the textbook will relate directly to you who are participating in the Team-Based internships. The other two types of internships will apply the principles found in the textbook, but there will be certain areas where individuals will receive some specialized instructions related to the type of internship in a separate instruction. These specialized instructions will be limited as most of the internship instructions will apply to all three types of internships.
This content is provided to you freely by Ensign College.
Access it online or download it at https://ensign.edtechbooks.org/projectbased_internships/succeeding_in_an_internship.
