The interns are coming
Insider tips for turning your internship into a full-time offer
The end of May is, to me, the Thursday of the year: the days are long and getting longer; texts from my east coast friends emit a palpable buoyancy; and it’s perfectly acceptable to take an early summer vacation so you can justify another one, three months later, in August. The best is yet to come.
The end of May is also the beginning of Intern Season, the ~ten week period when herds of college students descend on offices nationwide — sometimes arrogant, sometimes impressive, often hungover. If you live in New York, Intern Season tangibly changes the urban landscape: downtown bars are swarmed with twenty year olds cosplaying as investment bankers, and customers lining up at Sweetgreen check TikTok, not Outlook. Some full-time workers find Intern Season annoying, but I find it fun. It reminds me of when summer was sacred and thrilling, and I like being surrounded by students enthusiastic for new experiences.
Internships are a unique opportunity that shouldn’t be taken for granted: you can broaden your network, test different roles, temporarily live in a new city, and have a fun summer romance. In today’s job market, internships are also one of the best ways to secure a full-time offer after graduation. In the spirit of the season, I reached out to several people who’ve managed interns for their best internship advice. While these managers come from diverse industries, their suggestions are consistent: take initiative, ask questions, be reliable, show up on time. So to all the .edu emails on my subscriber list (I know there are many of you!), read on for tips on how you can stand out this summer.
The Contributors
Managers who contributed to this feature come from Big Law, Big Tech, and Big Four Consulting, among other companies and industries. Their resumes are prestigious and impressive, so you should trust them. They all asked to remain anonymous.
What’s the first word that comes to mind when you hear “intern”?
“Learn”
“Impressionable”
“Unpredictable”
“Young”
“Trainee”
“Fresh”
“Ambitious”
What’s one thing an intern can do to stand out?
Contributors agree on some core things interns can do to stand out:
Be proactive: Instead of waiting to be assigned tasks, spot problems and show initiative and ownership.
Be reliable and responsible: Treat the internship like a real job. And critically, be on time.
Take advantage of the opportunity: Speak up, ask questions, and network with as many people as possible (who can hire or refer you later).
“Go above and beyond. Be an owner not a renter.”
“Speak up and share your insights. You were hired for a reason, and teams appreciate interns who contribute thoughtful, well-researched ideas. Don’t hesitate to make your voice heard. Your input matters.”
“To me, and in any industry that’s fast paced and matrixed, the best way to stand out is to be reliable. That means anticipating the team’s and my needs before we have to assign it, and it means doing high quality work. If I can rely on your work output with minimal edits or supervision, you’ve already won. As reductive as this might be, people want interns who will learn fast and alleviate the team’s burdens.”
“Make the most of your time by connecting with other interns and leaders you admire, and be intentional about maintaining those relationships after your internship concludes. They become lasting sources of support and mentorship as your career progresses.”
What’s one thing an intern should never do?
Managers agree on several intern faux pas:
Acting uninterested or unmotivated: Treating the internship like a temporary position, showing up late, or doing sloppy work will not earn you a return offer.
Acting arrogant: College students tend to think they know everything, but usually they know very little! Managers don’t want interns who think they’re “above” the work they’ve been assigned.
Doing the bare minimum: There’s a difference between doing what’s been assigned to you and moving things forward proactively.
“Sending me unfinished work. Yes, interns come to learn to do the tactical work that they don’t learn in the classroom but sending me work that has a lot of errors and that is unfinished is a no. Especially an issue if a team is strapped and relies on you to pull through.”
“My caution is for interns who at times confuse confidence with arrogance, becoming visible for the wrong reasons. I’ve seen an intern who had strengths to go far but was not well liked by other team members, directly impacting their chances of receiving an offer. One intern would reiterate my counsel to more senior people but either remove my email from thread or pass it on as their own counsel. We will see those things — and so will the more senior people you want to impress. Which brings me to another point: very senior people seldom remember an intern; the people who will help them make a decision about your future are those closer to you in rank.”
“Too often interns treat jobs as an opportunity to get paid to do nothing/do college homework. That’s okay in some campus jobs but rarely in an internship. I always expect interns to ask for more work when they’re done — and after making sure their current work is perfect. (Also too often interns rush through things — I once had an intern put together a memo about John Legend for a very important client and say that the movie Selma was a documentary…)”
“Behave in a way that gives off signals that they aren't interested or are ‘above’ the work that they've been given, especially for new software engineers who tend to be overconfident in their first few weeks about the quality of their work.”
“Be complacent or a task monkey. They should think how to move things forward, even if they don’t know what they’re doing. They have a unique lens.”
Intern horror stories:
Don’t make these mistakes.
“There was a story of an intern on my team (before I myself joined it) where they were obsessed with magic tricks and literally would schedule time on executive's calendars for 1:1 meetings in an attempt to show them magic tricks. After the first one, they were warned that they should not be contacting high-level people in the org for non-business reasons, but they kept doing it anyways, and eventually got fired. It was the only intern I have ever heard of who got fired before their internship officially ended anyways (even the worst interns will complete the full summer because it's literally easier to have them work 12 weeks than trying to terminate them early). Anyways they also weren't really working very much and would skip many days in office (this was 2017 before WFH was a thing) and their host found out later that their dad who worked at Microsoft had been completing a ton of their code for the intern, which is why they would skip showing up some days - they were using their parent to get their work done for them. Lots of crazy behaviors from this person. I don't know what ended up happening to them after that.”
“One time an intern got too comfortable and was not aware of how they came across. I can’t exactly describe the behavior but I will say it like this: leave the theatrics elsewhere and remember that while being at corporate space can be fun ‘corporate vibes,’ it’s still a business and not a Hulu series.”
Intern success stories:
Follow their lead and make a movie, or hail your boss a cab.
“One intern made a short presentation and movie at the end of their internship and presented it to the c-suite. It was informal but funny and we even used it for marketing material!”
“I once worked with an intern who went above and beyond to help me hail a cab in the midst of Times Square so that I could get to a hearing on time. Clearly that was not a part of the job description. He realized how vital it was to be punctual and he helped me at the moment beyond document preparation. A few years later, he was hired as an attorney at our firm.”
Thanks for reading and happy Internship Season. If you’re interning this summer, I’d love to hear from you. DM me or reply to this email.