Big Sister Advice on Internships

Inside our internal team calls, you'll find a few girlies who LOVED our internships and rave about them quite often! On the negative side of that, we have lots of internships consecutively that we also want to completely forget about.

But overall, I think just about anyone who has completed an internship will say, for good or for bad, that internships are worth it! They are the ultimate learning experience, especially when you're fresh out of college/in college and finding your work style. You learn how you want to work, the types of people you want to work with, even the industries you love or hate, and of course, a deeper understanding of roles (because we know that job description isn't doing the trick!) Internships can build such a foundation for your future career, and can even shy you away from a career, too, if you're testing the waters. So, we thought we would share all our lessons learned, so you can be a step ahead if you're thinking about applying for one this summer!

Advice on Internships...

Variety, Variety, Variety!!!

Throw yourself into all kinds of different internships! Different industries, departments, roles, company sizes. Consider this your career trial run, you have to figure out what you love (and don't) in order to figure out what you want in the future.

Be choosy

Don't take an internship just because it's paying well (but tempting, we know!) Think about what you want to do long-term and challenge yourself to go out of your comfort zone. My favorite internships are the ones that I now know I would ever end up in. They pushed me to gain a better understanding of companies from a well-rounded perspective!

Don't be afraid of unpaid.

UGH! We know unpaid work is not something we want to be thinking about, ever. Actually, we'll be not the first to say — they do suck sometimes. However, we will add that the amount that you learn in many internships is something money can't buy. It's a different type of value! When it comes to unpaid internships, try to focus on the ones with fewer hours or part-time, because then you can squeeze in time for the work that pays the bills while you're taking on this role.

Ask questions!

Ask questions, even if you think they are stupid. You're new, you're learning, and it's completely okay not to be an expert in their company, industry, or client, and they don't expect you to be! Do you know how "blaming the intern" happens? It's because we are afraid to ask questions and make mistakes based on this.

Accept Mistakes

Looping back to making mistakes. Everyone has those days as Miley would say. You WILL make mistakes. And again, it's not a bad thing. You're learning and you'll learn more from those hiccups than you will from your successes. So find out how to cope with making mistakes and how to accept and pivot from them in the future.

Realize red flags.

There are lots of red-flag internships out there, we won't lie. Unpaid and overworked as an intern, no thanks! Ask a lot of questions about the role in your interviewing process if the job description is vague. If it's unpaid and they want you to work overtime? No! Just because you are taking an internship, doesn't mean that you can't have boundaries.

Know who you will be reporting to

This person is your mentor in a sense. Make sure it's someone you want to work with and learn from! What makes or breaks an internship is your leader because they are who you are learning the industry from. Ask in your interview who you are reporting to and working most with because this will be a huge factor in the role.

They aren't just for college students

Did you know that the average person has between 3-7 careers in their lifetime? Not jobs, careers! When we think about it, that's amazing! Why should you be stuck in one role if you are hoping to grow? But, with growth comes learning. Making those career shifts is no small task. If you aren't college-aged, that doesn't mean that internships are out of the question. They can be a great way to get a closer look into the career to see if you like it and also take away some key concepts to implement in new roles.

A Quick Therapy Sess....

We interviewed two of our team members on their best and worst internship experiences and here's what they said!

Jessica

My best internship was for a music production company on their social and PR team, and it was great because of the company culture. Their entire business is sort of run off of a big internship program (think 10-15 interns every semester) but they had a great onboarding process and taught me about the industry. We focused primarily on organic social media, PR outreach for the artists, and community building. It was great to learn simple marketing tactics that are still prevalent today - almost 10 years later. Oooof, I just aged myself.

My worst internship was for a personal brand/Author right out of college. I was doing EVERYTHING for her, I think it was an unpaid personal assistant role in disguise?! To make matters worse, anytime I would create anything marketing related she only provided harsh feedback but no clear direction on what to do. It was defeating and was a sign of poor leadership (and understanding of internships!) on her part.

Harmony

The best internship I had, I worked for with a great manager who focused on development. The onboarding process was long so I could learn about the brand (at the time, I just wanted to jump in, but now I realize how valuable this was!), I had to create a 30-60-90 day plan of the goals I wanted to accomplish (this taught me structure and goal setting), and she sent me a lot of articles and training to complete (from lots of different perspectives so I was learning beyond her). This was an unpaid internship, that was part-time during COVID, but even with all these factors, I still consider it the most valuable.

On the other side of that, I took an internship that I felt so great about because they hyped me up in the interview process. They loved my resume and were excited about me joining the team. The issue? I didn't learn anything. Instead, I was teaching them about things. At the time, I thought this was great and such a good confidence booster, but as I got older I realized it was a waste of an internship because I wasn't learning and growing in the right ways. I didn't have anyone giving me feedback, reviewing my work, or even anyone to report to in general.

There you have it, all our best big sis advice we can think of. We do hope you get out there and find your DREAM internship and we hope it lives up to all the hype! And even if it doesn't at least it's not your entire career, it's just a starting point! DM us if you have more questions on this, or just want to vent or share your experience with us!