The Keys to Positive Internship Experience

START EARLY ! ! !

You should begin preparing for your Internship as soon as possible. It is ideal if you can have all the arrangements made for your Internship Site before the semester in which you plan to do it.

THINK ! ! !

The first step is an introspective one. In five years or ten years, where do you hope to be? What do you plan to be doing? For many students, this is a difficult question. You need to think about where you’re going. If you haven’t settled on a single career direction, make a short list of three to five most likely possibilities. Then you can use your internship experiences to find out about at least two of these. The skills and activities can be an important part of your resume.

PLAN ! ! !

Once you have developed your short list of career possibilities, you should begin to locate sites that do the kind of work you’re interested in. You can do this in a number of ways: talk to family, friends, faculty or other students; use the phone book; or look in the Erie County Directory of Community Services (contact Dr. Welborn, HB 304, 878-6428 or 882-9239).

PREPARE ! ! !

When you have located a number of potential sites, make contact with the organizations and set up interviews with them. It is good to actually talk to more than just one. You should treat this like a professional job interview. When you talk with them, make sure you are clear about the details of what you would do with their agency.