3 ms·

While I don't know anything about setting up an internship program, I just came out of an ideal internship, and I can tell you what made it incredibly interesti

by Wilduck 16y ago

While I don't know anything about setting up an internship program, I just came out of an ideal internship, and I can tell you what made it incredibly interesting for me. 1) The company didn't have my project set in stone before I got there, so I got to play a significant role on determining what my job was. 2) I was given a large amount of independence. When I got stuck and asked for help, instead of taking over, my supervisor gave me some resources to look at, or people to talk to, and told me that he wanted my perspective on how to solve the problem. 3) My supervisor had me give a number of presentations on my work (3), which both gave me confidence that what I was doing was important, and gave me valuable feedback on how my project could be improved. Two of these presentations were internal, and one was to customers. 4) While my day to day tasks didn't involve working with the other interns that were there that summer (this was a good thing for me, I preferred working with experienced employees), there was a program set up that had the interns create an event for the other employees to attend. So, I got to make friends, and get to know some people outside my department. These things came together to make a great internship. I think you're on the right track, though, because the most important thing that made my internship a success was my autonomy and the feeling that my work mattered.

Zev 16y ago
Wilduck's post pretty much hits the nail on the head. Especially the first two points and the last paragraph. While the third point is important, it doesn't have to be a full presentation. Just have the person talk to everyone on the team for a moment or two[1] about what (s)he did in the previous week, and how (s)he thinks the next week will come along[2]. Maybe a quick demo, if anything big was done. For the fourth point, I can't really say. I was the only intern at the company this summer. I was told about a few programs to get interns from various startups together, but they mostly involved going from SF down to Mountain View. I made the trip once to visit somewhere and its too much of a hassle for me to have wanted to do on a semi-regular basis[3]. I spent the time around the city and met a bunch of other people instead. Still had a blast. 1. Just "Added this and that feature, fixed this and that bug that were assigned as well as a few others that I ran into," not anything that takes time to prepare. 2. Even if its just "Yup. Sounds like a good plan" or "I'm not sure. This feature/bug might take a bit longer to fix." 3. Off-topic, but, I don't know how people do this commute. I had to do something similar, from Long Island to NYC two summers ago, and hated doing it every morning and evening.

by Wilduck 16y ago

Zev 16y ago

Wilduck's post pretty much hits the nail on the head. Especially the first two points and the last paragraph. While the third point is important, it doesn't have to be a full presentation. Just have the person talk to everyone on the team for a moment or two[1] about what (s)he did in the previous week, and how (s)he thinks the next week will come along[2]. Maybe a quick demo, if anything big was done. For the fourth point, I can't really say. I was the only intern at the company this summer. I was told about a few programs to get interns from various startups together, but they mostly involved going from SF down to Mountain View. I made the trip once to visit somewhere and its too much of a hassle for me to have wanted to do on a semi-regular basis[3]. I spent the time around the city and met a bunch of other people instead. Still had a blast. 1. Just "Added this and that feature, fixed this and that bug that were assigned as well as a few others that I ran into," not anything that takes time to prepare. 2. Even if its just "Yup. Sounds like a good plan" or "I'm not sure. This feature/bug might take a bit longer to fix." 3. Off-topic, but, I don't know how people do this commute. I had to do something similar, from Long Island to NYC two summers ago, and hated doing it every morning and evening.