Do you want to kick your nerves and walk into day one at your internship with
confidence? Keep watching. Hey there, I'm Jenna Rein from theinternhustle.com
and this is Initiative Muscle Monday. Helping you to start each
week with an intentional step toward a successful future.
Let's do this! I know how you're feeling I had all of the nerves heading into each and
every one of my internships and I had four internships in college I mean
walking into an NBA teams training facility for the first time and trying
to convince men twice my size that I know how to teach them in the proper
back squat not possible without preparation and confidence let me tell
ya or walking into the sports agency I'm day one feeling like I was just going to
get in the way of the fast-paced high profile culture how could I keep up and
not ask stupid questions and impress them again I had to prepare every one of
my internships was different than the last every summer I had to learn to
adapt to a new setting culture and colleagues and I managed to do it
successfully so I'm gonna walk you through my internship prep tactics so
that you can do the same with every one of your internships and by the end of
this video you're going to know exactly what to do in order to feel a lot less
overwhelmed and a whole lot more confident for day one at your internship
here we go first impressions are everything and that starts with how you
interact with your employer before you show up on day one so asking the right
questions and in the right way before day one is super important is there a
wrong way to ask questions yes there absolutely is the wrong way is shooting
your internship coordinator and email every time you have a new question come
to mind the right way is taking the time to sit down and consolidate all of your
questions so you can send them one thoughtful email here's what I want you
to do right now pull out a notebook or open up a word doc and jot down all of
the open questions that you have about when where and how you need to show up
on day one to get you started here are some examples of things that you may
want to confirm now after you watch me run through these examples I want you to
pause this video and take a moment to brain dump all of the questions that you
may have let's cover the basics first you want to confirm your first day and
start time as well as the last day of your internship now you're gonna want to
know the last day for planning purposes and I'm gonna talk more about this later
in the video so make sure that you stay tuned for that next I want you to
confirm the office location like actually confirm the address a lot of
companies have multiple office locations so you want to make sure that you show
up to the right place on day one and even if they only have one office
location we all know that information can be outdated online so the best
practice here is to always confirm the address before you show up and while
you're at it confirm where exactly you should report to once you arrive at the
office on day 1 and if you're driving to the office it's always best to ask where
you can park is there a company parking garage on site do you need a parking
permit for that or is there free street parking that you can take advantage of
and if they haven't shared this with you already be sure to confirm the office
dress code it could be more casual than how you showed up for your interview it
likely is I wore workout clothes to my first couple internships because I was
training athletes all day but no matter how casual they claimed their dress code
to be do not show up looking like a slob do you know if you need to bring a
laptop with you small companies may require that you bring your own laptop
to the internship and larger companies may have very strict policies around
personal laptops and forbid that you use one for work now if that's the case
they're typically going to assign you a company laptop to use over the course of
your internship but either way just make sure you know if you need to have one
with you when you show up on day one now how about are there any specific
documents that are required for onboarding that you should bring with
you if this is a paid internship you may need to provide your passport or your
Social Security card on day one so that the employer has what they need for tax
paperwork and something that I always recommend ask if there's any pre work
that they would like you to complete in advance of day one it shows that you're
proactive and that ready to hit the ground running once
you've confirmed all of this information with your internship coordinator over
that one nice consolidated thoughtful email there
are a few more prep steps that I want you to dig into on your own first of all
get all of the confirmed details onto your calendar your start date and time
the location and that last day of your internship and then set some reminders
on your calendar as well so that you don't miss anything and that you make
sure you show up on time on day one I mentioned earlier that you would want to
know both your first and your last day at the internship for planning purposes
now that you have that information take a look at your calendar and check for
any conflicts that you may have over the course of your internship like a family
wedding that you may have to leave town for early on a Friday because when you
show up for day 1 at your internship you need to have your requests for days off
ready to go so that there are no surprises down the line
let your internship coordinator know up front and work it out with them ASAP so
that you can go to the wedding or whatever else you may have and not break
any commitments that you have with the company overall you should treat your
internship like the privilege that it is and commit to taking off as little time
as possible during the internship now while you're looking at your calendar
you should also plan out your daily schedule during your internship how
might you need to rework your schedule to integrate your internship into the
mix make sure that you've practiced things like your commute to the office
or at least understand how long a typical commute is during business hours
and plan accordingly for your first day so that you arrive on time and you're
not in a rushed panic and if you need to add to your professional wardrobe
schedule some time to shop prior to starting your internship stay below for
a link to an Instagram post that I shared a while back with some
professional dress attire options that I laid out by budget and then plan out
your budget and financial situation before you even start your internship
because you don't want to be stressing over this once you're busy as an intern
if you need to plan for a part-time job alongside your internship in order or
really make things work and get by then get ahead of it now and if you happen to
be relocating to a new city for your internship there is a lot more that goes
into that so I have an even more thorough video for you on specifically
relocating for an internship and tips go along with that to make it a
successful move be sure to watch that video on how to relocate for an
internship I will link to that in the description below and then grab the
checklist I created to go along with it and with all of the logistics out of the
way one of the most important things that you should do before day 1 at your
internship is your research if you have seen any of my videos on interview prep
then you know I talked about research a lot and I want you to go back to your
pre-interview notes and review what you wrote down about the company the culture
the team members and their clients has anything changed since you had the
chance to interview for this company position and get to know them a little
bit more and are there any big company announcements that have happened since
your interview study as much as you can before you go in on day one so that you
feel prepared and confident having conversations with people in the office
I always suggest studying people on LinkedIn as well because this really
helps you put a face to the name and you can learn more about people's
backgrounds so that if you happen to have lunch with them you can ask them
specific questions and really show an interest in them personally this is how
you're gonna build these great relationships at your internship which
is the most important thing and most definitely make sure that you know who
the CEO or president of the company is as well as the key leadership team
members I have witnessed interns have conversations with the CEO in the office
kitchen and not even realize who they were talking to don't be that person you
could potentially say something to the CEO without realizing it's them and wind
up quite embarrassed about it later so what do you think does all of that give
you some better direction headed into your internship let me know if you're
feeling like you have the knowledge now on how to feel more prepared and less
overwhelmed by writing confident in the comments below
and if you want more of my internship advice and exclusive tips on how to
operate like a pro be sure to sign up for my email newsletter by heading over
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confidence boosters with you there again head over to the intern hustle comm
slash intern in SPO that's info short for inspiration to sign up for my free
advice or just click that link description below and as always if this
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miss out on future videos in support of your hustle I'll see you next Monday