OK, so you landed your dream marketing or advertising internship. Now what?
Do you have goals for your advertising or marketing internship?
A list of things you want to happen?
Things you want to take away?
If not you need to take 30-minutes to two hours before you begin and work on it. Go to a coffee shop and sit and look at your overall career goals (you do have those right?) and see how the job description of your internship fits in with those goals and what parts of it are going to directly contribute to your goals and what parts have some time in. Now look at what else the company or department does that you will be working in and see what they do that is not a part of your official internship description, but you would like to gain experience in. Also look at what you bring to the table that they may not be doing that you can offer to help get them started with (that may seem a little bold for an intern, but you never know and the worst anyone can ever say is “no thank you”).
Make sure to list these out. How detailed is not really that important as long as you have them recorded somewhere. Just stating goals or writing them down alone can help you achieve them.
Now take them with you on the first day of your internship. At most good internships you will have a meeting with your internship supervisor on the first day. This is the perfect time to go over your goals with her and she should ask you what those are, and if she doesn’t don’t hesitate to bring it up. Internship supervisors love enthusiastic interns and if they don’t it is better you found out early in the process so you can be aware and/or move on quickly. However, don’t be surprised if she tries to temper your enthusiasm a bit, but that is fine she doesn’t want you to have unrealistic expectations that the marketing or advertising internship wont’ t be able to meet. But at least now she is aware of what you want to do and when the opportunity comes up she will remember your interest.
If the internship supervisor does not mention it, ask if you can set up monthly meetings to see how you are progressing to the goals and if they have any advice to help you achieve them. Again a good marketing or advertising internship should have these already scheduled for you, but if the company is smaller or their internship program is new then this may be done on a more informal basis. But again just letting the internship director know that it is important to you will help in the long run.
Overall just remember to approach your internship as a vital part of your career goals, not just a break from class or not a real job. It is very important and may be one of the biggest advantages you have when school is over and the job hunt begins.
