Tips for an intern

Pupil

First time poster, long time lurker. I've benefited a lot from this site and finally decided to register. So, I will begin by saying thank you all for your contributions to this site. A lot of excellent content on here that I've taken advantage of to help me learn more about IT and land my first IT job.

About me. I am an IT student starting an internship next week. The position is for help desk. I was wondering if you had any advice or tips on making the most out of this opportunity and setting a good, lasting impression?

Thanks

Asif Dasl

Welcome first of all!!

1. Dress well.
2. Have 2 ears and 1 mouth i.e. listen more than you talk.
3. Speak up when you have a question - but not all the time.
4. Research anything which you don't know - which could be a ton of stuff but that's how you learn!

Good luck!

santaowns

The above is great advice. I would also say to not say you know part of your training until you know you can do it by yourself with the CEO over your shoulder. Second advice is to get to that point in your training as fast as you possibly can. Don't fake knowledge you either know it, or you will find out asap, there is I don't know in IT. Google is your best friend, Windows sucks so much that someone else has had the same problem years before and lucky for you Google can find it.most of all enjoy it learn as much as you can and good luck to you.

sigsoldier

Make as many connections as you can!

Jon_Cisco

Once your comfortable with the people you work with ask them to be exposed to new stuff.
Ask intelligent questions. If the answer pops up as the first option in Google you do not want to ask your coworkers.
Ask question about the process not the specific answer. You want to engage in conversation and convince someone you are worth teaching.

Good Luck!
Welcome to the site.

jdancer

1. Be the first one in the office.
2. Be the last one to leave the office.

jvrlopez

1) Be willing to learn. Don't put too much stock in your studies vs. the employees' experience.
2) Be willing to admit your shortcomings. Don't say you know a technology or skill if you don't just to save face. They'll be able to pick up on it. Had an intern say they were familiar with web traffic but didn't know what a GET or a POST was. Knew she was lying then.
3) Be graceful and thankful for the opportunity.

Follow the above and you'll be tasked to shadow for the cool stuff as opposed to fetching coffee and making copies.

Pupil

Great tips. Thanks for sharing.

Polynomial

jdancer wrote: »

1. Be the first one in the office.
2. Be the last one to leave the office.

I'd argue this is meaningless tbh.

NetworkingStudent

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DoubleNNs

jvrlopez wrote: »

1) Don't put too much stock in your studies vs. the employees' experience.

What do you mean exactly?

SteveFT

Polynomial wrote: »

I'd argue this is meaningless tbh.

I'd have to disagree with it being meaningless. In my opinion, you benefit from this twofold. Generally speaking, you get better at doing things by doing them more often. Also, people will take notice of your extra effort. You don't have to do this forever, but it is a good starting off.

I recently changed over to IT. I would show up an hour early and leave an hour late for my first six months. Those 2 hours of extra work a day greatly benefited me. I went from knowing very little, to being a fairly knowledgeable member of the team. I didn't stay late every day, but if I didn't, it was because I was home researching an issue.