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Your internship this summer will be action-packed and filled with introductions. Introductions to your manager, your fellow co-workers, the team you’re on, individuals from other teams you may have to interact with, and, of course, other interns! Depending on whether you are in-person or remote for your internship, the interns will either be in the same area as you or from all around the world. Regardless, as you plan to communicate with and get to know other students, keep in mind that you can actually learn a lot from these individuals. Ask questions that will help you see:
- How they ended up working alongside you, such as their interview process
- Their skillset
- What recruitment is like at other schools
- Tips on how to build your network and get access to their connections
- Their major(s) and how it relates to their internship now
- Ways to work on a project together and even get a chance to present to executives
- What your full-time competition looks like (since you are interning at the same place with hopes of a return offer) and what you personally need to improve
- Cool things about their culture if they’re from somewhere else
- Their past internship experiences
Your fellow interns are not just tools for your own professional development, they are people who have likely had far different paths in life and careers and can teach you a lot. Make sure to make time to get to know them in friendly settings as well, but as you get to know them and collaborate with them professionally, keep in mind that much of this information, you can use as you continue improving in your own career.
We can’t all do everything, so the best way for us to learn is from the experiences of others. Many interns will have unique strengths and weaknesses that you will see throughout the course of your internship, so it is as great of a time as any to consider that as useful feedback to reflect on your own personal goals and experiences while having fun and making new friends.
