Undergraduate Blog / Career Development

From An Internship To An Official Job Offer

Being an intern is a two-sided activity: it is your opportunity to gain experience in a specific field, but also an opportunity to be hired at an enterprise. Personally, I acquired a lot of experience (more than what I thought I would) at Koga, and I would love to work there in the future. However, the question is how to become an employee at an enterprise where everyone seems to have everything covered. The answer is simple: make the enterprise need you, from all people, by differentiating yourself from others.

In order to make an enterprise need you, you have to demonstrate true interest at work and be proactive. For example, ever since I started working at Koga I asked thousands of questions about my job and the one of others. I liked the job of a co-worker named Paola so much that I ended up having a coordinator role at one of the events she organizes. I actively participated in her department even though it was not related to my job, and ended up having a job offer for the position of coordinator that I took by the end of the first month.

Second, you should not be afraid of making changes. In my second week of internship, I proposed to change the content of a social innovation exchange program that was created a year ago by a co-worker. I explained to her why I wanted to change parts of the agenda and worked with her in order to create a new one. After that, my boss came to congratulate me for changing the agenda. Now that the exchange has finished, my boss offered me a job position as the coordinator of the exchange program.

By demonstrating proactivity and true interest, I received two different job offerings within two months. If you would like to work at the place of your internship, do not forget to make the enterprise need you!