A simple journal (just like this one), blank pages, simple journal, is exactly
what I used to document my internship experience while I was in college. And I
don't even consider myself to be a regular journaler. Is that a word?
Journaler? Besides the point. I did keep a journal, though, during each and every
one of my internships. And it was one of the smartest things that I did. These
journals have been a catalyst for a lot of professional connections that I've
made, and success that I've had throughout my career. And in this video,
I'm going to give you an inside look into how and why I documented my
internship experience, and why you should too. Hit that like button if you're ready
to learn more and be sure to subscribe for new videos every single week on this
channel. 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! If you watched
this video, then you know a bit about my internship journey. I covered a little
behind the scenes of my internship with the Chicago Bulls. And guess where I got
a lot of the details from in order to create that video for you? My internship
journal. Because I'm not gonna remember everything from 2006. But the Chicago
Bulls internship was just one of four internships that I had in college. They
all helped to teach me what I did, and more importantly did not, want to do
after I graduated. And they opened up doors in my career that I had never even
dreamed of. Bottom line, I am a big fan of internships over here. Shocking, I know.
But even more so, I am a big fan of using internships to create future
opportunities for yourself. Because it would be a shame to have a lot of great
internship experience and nothing to show for it. I want you to use internship
experience to expand your way of thinking, build your network, open doors
for yourself and take control of your future. And keeping an internship journal
is a simple tool to help you do all of those things. So what do I mean by
keeping an internship journal? And how do you keep an internship journal? And why
should you keep an internship journal? And finally,
what are some examples of how my internship journals paid off for me?
Let's dive in. First off, an internship journal is not anything fancy. It's just
a normal notebook. A journal that you document your internship in. We are not
going to be reinventing the wheel here. So how should you document your
internship experience in an internship journal?
Well, for starters, I want you to do it daily. Only documenting every few days, or
just when you feel like it, isn't gonna benefit you in the end.
So document your experience daily and kickoff each entry in your journal with
the date. The second thing I want you to do, is within each daily entry write down
all of the people that you met for the first time that day. And this will likely
be more of a thing in the first week or so of your internship, because that's
when you're gonna meet a lot of new people. And it's probably gonna fizzle
out a little bit as time goes on. But there may be company events or client
meetings later on in your internship where you meet new people as well. For
example, I met a ton of new people during the NBA Draft week as an intern with the
Chicago Bulls, and NBA Draft week happened towards the end of my
internship. So I made sure to capture all of the names and titles of people that I
could remember so that I could go back and reference them later. The third thing
I want you to do is write down everything that you did that day. These
are tasks both big and small. And this may seem completely unnecessary to write
all of this down, but I promise you that as time goes on you're not going to
remember everything that you worked on. And it's pretty cool to be able to
reflect back at the end and just see how far you've come. Or even in my case,
reflect back years later (over ten years later), and see how far I've come.
Number four, I want you to take a step back and look at everything that you've
done for the day. So you've already recorded all of these tasks (both big and
small), and from all of that I want you to ask yourself are there any specific
lessons, wins or ideas that came from those tasks. If yes put an L next to the
item for a lesson that you learned, put a W next to the item for a win, or put a
star if it's an idea that you have. Something that you want to come back to.
And if you need to elaborate on any of these in order to give yourself some
more context (for your future self), then sure you do that. And the fifth and final
thing that I want you to make sure that you're recording in your daily entry are
follow-ups. Are there any things that you need to follow up on? Maybe it's a
question that you have for your manager (or your internship supervisor) tomorrow.
Or maybe it's a person that you met that you really want to add as a connection
on LinkedIn. Or maybe you were introduced to one of the company's clients that day
in a meeting and you want to make sure that you're doing more research on them
before you have to interact with them the next time. Okay,
so those are five things. That's it. Pretty simple. Five things that I want
you to record in your internship journal each day. And if you're filling it out as
the day goes on, it really doesn't take you that much time at all. So why should
you bother keeping an internship journal? We've talked about how you should do it,
and what you should be including in it, but why should you bother doing this? You
may have picked up on some of the benefits already as I walked you through
how to fill it out -- like just helping you keep track of follow-ups and
professional connections that you've made -- but here are some of the other
benefits to keeping an internship journal. Number one, if you are earning
course credit for this internship through your school, then there's a chance
that you also have some assignments associated with earning that credit. For
example, at Ohio State I was required to write an essay about my internship
experience and submit it to my academic advisor in order to actually get credit
for the internship. So having a full journal, full of information that I've
written down during my internship as a reference to go back to, made writing my
essay that much easier. So much easier than if I just had to go back and try to
recall everything from memory. The second reason why you should keep an internship
journal is scholarships. So just like writing the essay for my academic
advisor in order to get credit, the same thing goes for scholarships. I also used
this internship journal to pull specific accomplishments from my internship
experience when I was writing an essay for a scholarship that I was applying
for. Being able to reflect back on my internship, with so much detail, made for
some really great material when I was writing this essay. And I got the
scholarship. Because you guys, scholarships aren't
just about when you're first applying to college and trying to get money for
school. The more experience that you add to your resume as time
goes on, and the more relevant experience to your major, that can actually win you
some new scholarships. You might be eligible for new scholarships that you didn't
used to be eligible for. So having this internship experience documented in an
internship journal really helps you out when you are trying to apply for things
like new scholarship opportunities. And it could put some money in your pocket.
The third reason that you should bother keeping an internship journal (another
benefit of keeping a daily journal), is that you're in tune with what is working
and what may be lacking for you in this internship. Is there something that you
really wanted to learn that you haven't even touched on yet? Now that you are
aware, because you've been keeping track of all this stuff on a daily basis, go
talk to your supervisor and see if you can make it a priority before it's too
late and your internship is over. The fourth thing I want you to take into
consideration on why an internship journal is so beneficial for you (and
this is one of my favorite examples of how the journal really benefited me in
my own professional career -- well beyond my internships), is how I was able to connect
the dots between people I met at the internship and then turn what would have
maybe been a cold call at my first job out of college into a warm one. Let me
explain... I met sports agents and other people in
the sports industry through my internships that later led to sales and
new business for my first company -- my first job out of college -- which was a
private sports performance facility. These are connections that my boss and
co-workers did not have, but they were ones that I made at my internship. And
because I kept track of them in a journal, that ended up benefiting all of
us as a startup company. I had connections that I had made when
interning at the sports agency that helped me get in touch with the right
people to land us an apparel sponsorship with adidas for our brand new sports
performance facility. So this got us clothing for staff and athletes as well
as Olympic weightlifting shoes that we used with the athletes every day. So as
you can imagine, all of this made me look really good in front of my first boss at
my first job out of college. And it was all because I wrote these people down in my
internship journal and then used them as connections further along in
my career. And the fifth benefit of keeping an internship Journal that I
want to highlight, is specifically related to remote internships (or virtual
internships). All of the other benefits apply to remote internships as well, but
if you're working remotely then documenting your internship experience
becomes even more important. When you are not physically working in an office with
people every day, it's really hard for them to know what you're working on, and
how much you've achieved, and where you may need extra help. If you keep a
journal, you have something to reference when you touch base them virtually and
it keeps your internship on track and productive for everyone involved. And
it's also just a great place to document virtual meetings that you have with your
co-workers. And I talked about this a bit in this video. If your internship was
recently transitioned from an in-person to a remote opportunity, or maybe you
just had a remote internship lined up all along, I recommend doing virtual
coffee chats with your co-workers. And they don't need to be anything more than
15 minutes. But by asking a variety of people in your office to connect with
you for short virtual coffee chats, you're helping to fill that void of not
being in person in an office with the ease and accessibility to develop strong
professional relationships with people. You're missing that face-to-face if
you're not in person. And building real relationships with people, and growing
your professional network, is one of the best things to come out of internships. I
digress, but all of this is to say that you should be keeping an internship
journal during your remote internships. Document all of the same things that I
already touched on, and use it to keep yourself and your manager on track. So,
are you convinced that keeping an internship journal is a smart move? I
don't see why you wouldn't do it after everything that I just shared with you.
It takes very little time and effort on your part, and you have a lot to gain
from it. Plus, it's really fun (and sometimes funny) to look back on your
internship journal when you're old like me. Makes me a little nostalgic to read
all about my internship experience today, and what a journey I had on my own
intern hustle. Now, as I showed you, I used just a basic journal (with a corny quote
on the cover). But it was blank pages inside, and I documented everything just
using those five things that I shared with you earlier in this video on how
you should document your internship experience. But if you're someone who
just likes a little bit more structure to your journals (just to help you stay
on task and achieve your goals), then there is a journal that I recommend you
use and it's called the Self Journal from a company called BestSelf.
I am not sponsored by BestSelf, I just really like their journal. And I've tried
a lot of goal-setting and productivity journals, so for me to be picking one to
point out to you guys means I really like it. And I will link
to the Self Journal in the description below this video if it's something that
you're interested in checking out. You should understand that the Self Journal
doesn't exactly line up with all of the prompts that I gave you to document for
your internship journal, but there are spaces that you can repurpose to capture
the names of people you've met, and the follow-ups that you have, and your tasks
throughout the day. But what I really like about this journal is that it
already has a place for you to capture the daily lessons learned and your wins.
And that's one of the things, if you remember, one of the categories that I
want you to capture were lessons learned, wins and ideas that you have. And
this journal also encourages you to write down things that you're grateful
for each day. And studies show that a daily gratitude practice is an excellent
way to improve your mental health, and just really help you show up as your
best self each and every day. So I'm a big fan of this journal. Again, I will
link to the Self Journal below if you're interested in grabbing one. But like I
said, you don't need to have a fancy journal. A simple, plain notebook, or even
typing up your internship journal in a Google Doc, will also do the trick. The
important thing is that you are documenting your internship experience.
If you liked this video, and you want more advice like it, then this video on
my channel is a great one for you to watch next. And if you did gain some new
insights today, then please give this video a like and share it with
a friend or two. Hit that red subscribe button below so that you don't miss out
on future videos. In support of your hustle, I'm Jenna from theinternhustle.com,
and I'll see you next Monday.