Setting Internship Goals

As you are placed with different organizations, institutions or employers you should be thinking about what it is that you hope to take away from your experience. Earlier I asked for you to write on the back of a time sheet what you hoped to gain from the time you are spending in pursuit of learning outside of school. I am now asking you to be specific with what you want to learn from your internship and how you hope to be enriched by the experiences. Not to minimize the career related experiences and developing contacts, there are other goals for you to attain.

1. Learn more about the chosen industry or field - realize that there is vocabulary that is very specific for each occupation.
2. Apply theory to real life - For example, what you learned in Forensics class here at Bio - does it translate to what you are doing at PC? Does your understanding of engineering translate to a familiarity with what is happening in your industry?
3. Become more knowledgeable about general work functions such as - safety, employee benefits, research and development opportunities, promotion within the organization, contracting for services, finance, organizational hierarchies, procedural guidelines, etc.
4.Investigating organizational culture - the unwritten rules, power structures, degree's of formality, dress codes, communication styles, rituals, etc.
5. Learn career related skills - abilities related directly to job responsibilities - public speaking, writing articles or communiques, interviewing, publicizing events, handling complaints, administrative tasks, record keeping, interpreting, instructing, designing, presenting.
6. Performing a positive public service - e.g. - many of you are serving in capacities that are sorely needed to enable the organization to function, yet go unfilled. Service organizations and institutions are always in need of people to help out. Everything you are doing should ultimately help in making things better for people served as well as the site.
7. Polish communication skills that are needed in the workplace. Listening, speaking, questioning, confronting, giving and receiving feedback, dealing with criticism and praise. Gain experience dealing with different communication styles in a workplace, among clients or employee's.

I have also emailed all of you an excerpt from a book related to time management. I want you to provide 10 goals you have for your internship experience. For the few of you who have not yet started going out, you are still able to write these goals as well. Due by the end of class on Friday.