Undergraduate Blog / Career Development

Walking Away From My First Internship

Throughout the school year, I was in search of my first internship and my first real-life experience into the business world for the summer. When I got the internship at ISlide, I was relieved and excited about the opportunity to learn and grow. Now that the internship is soon coming to an end, I am grateful for the experience that I had.

Here are some of my takeaways from my internship:

Willingness to Learn-

Any work experience requires you to delve into unfamiliar territories and do things outside of your comfort zone. I came into my internship thinking that I would only be doing analytics for the company. However, I ended up exploring more of the marketing aspect for the company and how data ties in with marketing. Being willing to learn new things will expand your knowledge and allow you to see more areas of business. During my internship, I asked questions and did my own personal research to learn more about Shopify and how the company uses its platform. If I wasn’t willing to learn, my experience here would go to waste, which is why I made sure that I was able to make the most of this opportunity.

Adjusting to New Environments-

Working for a company is completely different from working on a course project. The ability to adjust to a new working environment is crucial in the business world. For a small company like ISlide, the environment is very fast-paced and staying on top of the trends is important. Compared to projects at Babson where you can procrastinate, it is a complete change of pace. I was able to adjust and complete projects on time or early. In addition, I would ask my manager for the next assignment and communicate with him on my progress. Anywhere you work, you will have to adapt and adjust because the company will not adjust for you. My first internship was a great first step for me in my future career.

Staying in the Moment-

Sometimes weeks get long and you find yourself looking forward to the weekend. That’s normal and it has happened to me. What I learned from this experience is to stay in the moment. I realized that projects are assigned for a reason and for a small company, it can have a large impact. If I just look forward to the weekend every week, I forget the purpose of having this internship in the first place. Ask yourself if you’re working just to get by or if you’re working to learn and prepare for the future. The work that I do has a greater meaning at the end of the day.

Working Smarter-

People say to work harder, but after this internship, I learned that working smarter is so much more efficient. For example, I’ve been working with a lot of data in Excel during the internship. Realizing that the way I’ve been using Excel took too much time, I found short-cuts to make my work more efficient. For presentations, I have templates saved so that when I have to create a new one, there is already a template specifically for the company. Finding ways to be more efficient and getting quality work out quicker is something that I’ve been working on.

These takeaways can easily be applied to school, life, and future jobs. I will never forget my experience at ISlide and will walk away from this internship a new person.