Wrap it Up: What to take away from your internship

It’s at the time where a lot of internships are nearing their end. Final projects are being presented and everyone is saying their goodbyes. As the time wraps up, do some of these things to help you take away something important from your internship:

Do the MOST!

Even if a project appears to be small or insignificant, find a way to add innovation or take it a step further than what is expected. You will surely be impressive if you take a small task and turn it into something of great value. Also, when you find a problem, find a solution. A lot of people can point out problems, but not a lot of people think about the solution. It’s more than just realizing it too - you should try and see how far you can get the solution to go. Make sure that before you go, you really solidify your ideas with some direction.

Keep up the relationships!

Hopefully you networked through out the many weeks of working and made good connections. DON’T LET THEM GO! Just because you are no longer going to be in the office, does not mean that you have to stop talking to the people you met. Those are relationships that you will want to keep up with going forward more times than not. As the business keeps moving, these are the people that can help you keep up with the direction of work. Keep them updated on what you are doing and let them know how they played a role in where you are.

Work on your skills!

Don’t let the skills you learned over the summer fade. Pick a skill or two that you enjoyed doing and work on being really good at it. When you go into an internship, you had a particular set of skills (thanks Liam Neeson) that fit the position. Heading out, you will have completely new talents and skills that you acquired. It’s not enough to just put them on your resume - practice and work with the skill and find new ways

to generalize it to other roles.

Learn something you didn't have time for!

Your internship should inspire you to maybe try a new skill you never had time to work on. So for example, let’s say you saw people using this analytics software, but you never had time to mess with it. Spend some extra time in the coming months learning and working on that skill. This will add some more greatness to your resume, along with something new in your locker. Win-win.

Keep track of your projects!

There’s a fantastic “projects” section on LinkedIn that allows you to store files or projects that you’ve worked on. Take all of the projects that you are proud of and put them on there. Everyone wants to see the tangible things that the internship left you with, so make sure that you can deliver. Don’t let your assets go to waste - put them on display for all to see.

Really think about your future!

Internships are a lot about what you want to do, but it also involves learning what you don’t want to do. Make notes about what you think you learned, where you think it’ll aid your future, and how you’d like to pivot (if you do). Too many people just let the internship live on their resume. Your time should provoke thought and help you on your career journey going forward.

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As our internship wraps up, our blog series will also be wrapping up. Words cannot express how fun it has been to meet new people, embrace new thinking, and learn new things. You guys have been amazing with the series, constantly commenting and reaching out about our posts. At the beginning of the internship, we didn’t know each other at all, and will now walk away as amazing friends. This whole experience at Cisco has changed our lives, and will always be a part of our professional career going forward. When it doubt, just remember, the YoPros know.