After a hectic spring you landed some form of an internship and you’re more than halfway through. You are heading back to school in a few weeks but you still have more time to get the most out of your internship experience. But how will you spend the rest of your time?
With a few weeks left, now is the perfect time to assess your progress, and identify what to do with the remainder of your internship. To help move you forward, I’m going to share four important questions you should ask yourself and answer before you finish your MBA Summer Internship.
Question 1: What have you learned and gained so far, and what else do you want to learn before you leave?
Internships are designed to be learning experiences. The learnings and lessons from these opportunities give you feedback on whether what you are doing can be something you can see yourself doing in the future, or perhaps not. Furthermore, since internships are short and finite, you want to make sure you get what you want out of it before you leave, so don’t forget to identify anything you haven’t done, and make a plan to do it before you leave.
Question 2: Who are the most important people you’ve met, and how will you stay in touch with them?
Over the course of the summer, you’ve probably met a fair share of people, this question helps you keep track of all the people that you met and helps you think about what they’ve taught you or how you’ve built a relationship with them. Furthermore, the great thing about these relationships is that they don’t have to be the end, they can be the beginning, but only if you choose to build and grow it. Ask yourself how you will commit to staying in touch with these individuals after your internship is over, so you can continue to grow your network
Question 3: If you didn’t get to work here ever again, what else would you want to do before you leave?
This is a great question to ask especially if you don’t plan on returning to this company, or if you are on the fence already and thinking about potentially looking for other opportunities. Furthermore, asking this question right now, is a much better time to ask the question than after you leave the summer internship, and have regrets about the opportunities you didn’t pursue, or the chances you didn’t take.
Question 4: What are your goals, and how are you progressing against them?
Hopefully you set some goals for your summer internship, but sometimes its easy to get focused on executing and doing the task at hand, that you lose sight of the chance to reflect on how you are making progress. Goals should certainly be aligned to what’s expected of you in terms of performance, but they should also be unique to you, and what you hope to achieve from the experience. If you find that you haven’t set any goals, its not too late too start. In some other cases, you may have forgotten to put metrics to measure your goals, and this is a great reminder to put some to hold yourself accountable. Regardless, this question helps center you around what you need to prioritize moving forward.
Question 5: What feedback have you gotten about your performance, and how are you actioning against it?
At this point, you’ve had a mid-summer check in, or feedback checkpoints, where feedback was given to you about your performance. The goal for this is to make sure that whatever feedback you were given, you are actioning against it. Ask yourself how you have taken the constructive feedback, and either changed your behavior, or taken an action that demonstrates you are progressing toward a desired outcome. When you can demonstrate that you are listening and responding accordingly, you demonstrate your work ethic, ability to develop and grow, and willingness to listen, all great qualities of a top intern performer.
With a few weeks left, there’s still time to make the most of your internship experience. Asking these questions will help you think through how you can truly make the most of your internship experience.