What you need to learn that your internship won’t teach you

Whether we enjoy our internship or not, we do what we’re told and learn what we’re asked to. I think this is acceptable and is a sufficient challenge on its own. However, I’m more interested in a better experience — for myself. In this article, my focus is off what my employer wants me to learn, and on what I need to learn. These two objectives do not have to be contradictory. We just have to remember to do both. You may or may not gain valuable skills from your employer’s curriculum, but you will certainly benefit from learning about your strengths and work style.

In this article, I chiefly apply ideas from Peter Drucker’s Managing Oneself. In this Harvard Business Review Article, Drucker asserts that we all have fundamental strengths and weaknesses, and should focus on developing our strengths. Drucker finds that,

“It takes far more energy and work to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence”.

Know your Strengths

An internship provides an opportunity to unearth your strengths and hone them by gaining relevant skills at work. In addition to the skills our employer says we need on the job, we must seek out skills and responsibilities that build our strengths. If you have an aptitude for numbers and data, prioritize picking up tools like Tableau, Excel, or whatever the industry practice is. If you are a strategist and planner, then take the initiative in team meetings and projects to organize and suggest ideas for the project goal. You will know your strengths better if you seek, and are open to feedback.

Know your work style

An internship is an ideal time to learn about your work style. It is difficult to find comparable opportunities for students to get realistic simulations of work-life. Moreover, understanding your work style ties back to Drucker’s argument about leveraging your strengths. Working in conditions that are ideal for you, allows you to be at your best with more ease. Here are some questions to help you reflect on your work style:

1. Am I a reader or a listener?

Drucker maintains that very few people are both. Perhaps being a listener means it is especially important for you to not pull out your phone in a meeting so you can absorb more and save time later. Or a reader may take notes they can review later.

2. How do I learn?

People learn in a multitude of ways. Four popular methods are auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and reading/writing. Use your knowledge of your learning style to optimize how you learn. As a kinesthetic learner, watching your manager help you resolve an issue should not be the end. Do it again yourself, because that’s just how you learn!

3. Do I work better alone or in a group?

We live in a world where collaboration and teamwork are valued because they lead to innovation and progress. Hence, the ability to work with a team is almost a requirement. However, if you prefer to work alone, then take on responsibilities that are less interdependent on your teammates’ tasks.

4. Big organization or small?

It is difficult to identify this through a single internship. Yet, you can still note what factors make you enjoy or dislike the experience. Did you enjoy having a well-defined role and task? Did you dislike the bureaucracy in the way of performing your role?

Know your team’s work styles

Self-awareness is not sufficient on its own. We must also consider the work preferences of our teammates. This is the next step in effective interdependent work in a team. In the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey explains that there are 3 levels to manifesting effectivity. Level 1 is dependence. I equate this to relying on your employer to determine what you gain from your experience. Drucker explains that our age of knowledge workers requires individuals to manage their own career development. This is because workers now outlast organizations and are very mobile (remote). Level 2 is independence. This has been our focus thus far: knowing your strengths and work style.

Level 3 is effective interdependence. No one can independently achieve all they desire. We make progress through collaboration. In fact, the interdependent habits in 7 habits are “Seek first to understand and then to be understood”, “Think Win-Win”, and “Synergize”. So knowing whether your boss is a reader or listener will help you decide whether it is better to send a long detailed email or request a 15-minute meeting with them. Knowing that many members of your team are visual learners can encourage using spaces with whiteboards that you can simply draw on. Drucker encourages us to be brave in asking our coworkers about their working preferences: “Whenever this is done, the reaction is always, ‘Thanks for asking me. But why didn’t you ask me earlier?’”

Take Action

I think we can all benefit from being a bit more proactive in our internships. We should learn about our strengths, our working style, and that of our coworkers. However, we should accompany these with action. Knowing our strengths should inspire us to gain skills that develop that strength. You should not keep your work style preferences to yourself, but share them with your team and manager. Only you can advocate for the best way you work. Finally, understanding our teammates’ work styles will help us show more empathy and understanding, so we can bring out the best in each other.