Undergraduate Blog / Career Development

Reflecting on my Internship Goals

As of today, I’ve spent two months at MainStreet Hammonton, and I’m more confident in my role than ever. Earlier in the week, my supervisor asked if I felt as though my internship has met my expectations before starting. Truthfully, my somewhat vague expectations were thoroughly surpassed. Because MainStreet is such a small organization, I didn’t exactly have an interview process or training like other Babson student interns. My internship wasn’t posted anywhere with a role description, so I had to piece together what I thought my internship would involve based on my past involvement with the organization. Regardless of the uncertainty, I still set goals for myself to achieve throughout the summer. Not only does today mark two whole months with MainStreet, but also my last two weeks left. I believe it is important now to reflect on my goals, measure how I’ve worked on them, and what I should do to work on them for the rest of my time here.

  1. Improve my Excel skills
    • I’m genuinely happy with how much my Excel skills have improved, just by completing my tasks and fiddling around on the program. I use Excel every day to keep track of donations, documents, and various other information. I think the next hurdle I will face with Excel will be advancing from basic to intermediate program user. To get to that level, I’ve begun to watch some YouTube tutorials and also asked friends to teach me some of the tricks they know on the program. I look forward to using what I’ve learned during the school year.
  2. Improve my leadership style and skills
    • About a week or two after starting with MainStreet, my supervisor asked me to work on one of the town’s up and coming events, the Hammonton Peach Party. I worked as the vendor chair, organizing vendors, their documents, and information, in addition to other assignments. This was my first leadership experience outside of a school-context and I quickly learned how to delegate tasks on the day of the event. I learned how to work with the volunteers, offer any assistance they may need, and trust in them that they could get the job done. I loved this opportunity and hope I’ll be able to help with other events before I leave for the summer.
  3. Learn from industry leaders in the town
    • I believe this is the goal I’ve best exemplified while at MainStreet, meeting over a dozen leaders in the town. More specifically, I set the goal to meet and keep in contact with five town leaders. I’m proud to say that I’ve met and surpassed this goal! I’ve met those working in engineering, finance, education, arts, and more. I’ve made a good first impression with many of them, and have been offered training in their fields should I be interested. The next step is to continue to stay in contact with these leaders and meet more throughout my internship and beyond.

My time with MainStreet was a great way to learn how to set measurable goals, while also gaining the experience to meet said goals and expectations. I’m enjoying my time at MainStreet so much, and while I’m going to miss this organization, I can’t wait to see what’s next for me.

Photo from the 6th annual Peach Party!