She Strengthens

Rethinking the Internship Experience

The New Career Ladder

For our generation, internships have become an essential step in the career ladder. We’re constantly reminded that our degrees are no longer enough to guarantee success in today’s job market. As a result, internships have become the new norm, offering tangible work experiences that academia cannot provide.

My Experience

I never questioned the value of internships. In fact, I saw them as a necessary requirement for success, much like my college education. So, when I entered university, I enrolled in a co-op program that allowed me to gain paid work experience in my field. With a liberal arts degree in International Relations and Economics, I knew my post-grad job prospects would be limited compared to my peers in other fields. The co-op program was my way to gain a competitive edge and amplify the worth of my degree.

Unmet Expectations

However, my actual experiences didn’t quite live up to my expectations. Despite accumulating 16 months of paid work experience by graduation, I found myself bored and uninspired by the tasks assigned to me. I had expected a stimulating work experience, but instead, I was doing tasks that didn’t challenge me or illuminate anything important about the job itself.

The Nature of Internships

Perhaps this is just the nature of internships – they’re entry-level and not meant to be particularly stimulating or challenging. Maybe supervisors are limited by what they can assign to interns. But these excuses didn’t sit well with me. I felt guilty for not being grateful for the experience, and I cringed when friends congratulated me on my internships, knowing how trivial my assignments were.

The Importance of Challenge and Growth

It wasn’t until my last work placement that I realized what opportunity meant for me. I told my supervisor that I didn’t feel challenged, and that’s when I understood that opportunity and growth stem from being challenged. Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, notes a similar principle about growth and challenge in her memoir, Lean In. She writes, “reduce your career spreadsheets to one column: potential for growth.”

Taking Charge of Your Learning

With internships, we sometimes don’t have the luxury of choosing which ones we can do or what assignments we’re given. However, we can still choose how we respond to our current path. By expressing my desire to work on projects that challenged me, my supervisors passed on projects I otherwise wouldn’t have gotten. This experience taught me that challenge and growth aren’t always clear-cut, and sometimes we have to take the initiative to find them.

Transforming Your Internship

If you find yourself bored and disengaged at your internship, don’t be afraid to vocalize your concerns while maintaining a sense of gratitude and humility. Take charge of your learning and development by asking for more challenging work, offering your assistance on bigger projects, and keeping your mind open to different ways you can stretch your internship experience. Remember, your growth and development are what matter most. So, take reign of your internship and transform it into the learning opportunity it’s meant to be.