Internships for management students

The best management internships have a lot of responsibility and real feedback.

At the risk of stating the obvious, you’re probably not looking for an internship where you make coffee and copy important documents. After all, you could get that experience by working at Starbucks. You want to learn as much as you can, accomplish meaningful work, and set yourself up for a great job after graduation. To help with this goal, make sure that your internships meet the following criteria:* They give you responsibility

• They provide real feedback
• They involve working with experienced professionals (and/or students)
• They focus on projects that matter to the organization

While it’s hard to predict exactly what kind of management internship will best serve your goals and interests, knowing what to expect from a high-quality internship can help you find one—whether it’s in finance or marketing or another area!

Not all interns get the same experience. Talk to other interns or former interns.

It’s important to remember that not all interns receive the same experience. If you’re considering applying for a position, it is worthwhile to talk to other interns or former interns about their experiences.

Some questions you might ask:

• What skills have you developed?
• What are your managers like?
• What is the culture of the organization?
• Would you recommend this internship?’

Ask about how the internship has helped past interns get jobs.

• Ask about the hiring rate of former interns. This statistic is a good indicator of what to expect at the conclusion of your internship, provided you’ve done a good job and are hired by that organization.
• Ask if former interns are happy with their jobs after the internship. If someone is working in an industry they don’t enjoy or in an unsuitable position for them, it may not be worth it for you to work there as an intern.
• Ask if they are still working in the same field. It’s important to find out if your internship will provide you with opportunities that translate into career skills and ability to move up in your target industry, or if you would be better served elsewhere.
• Ask if they have been promoted since their internship. When interning becomes more than just temporary employment, it can mean big things for your future career prospects and advancement opportunities.

Internships are a way to test-drive your career choices — it’s OK to change your mind.

Internships are a way to test-drive your career choices. It’s OK if your identity changes as you get older and more experienced in the workplace. Don’t be afraid to shift directions if it will make you happier and help you reevaluate how you want to spend the rest of your life. There is no magic number of internships that will ensure you know exactly what you want to do with yourself, and there is no required age at which you should have settled on a career path. This can be difficult to grasp if those around you seem certain about their identities, but it doesn’t mean that something’s wrong with you—and it certainly doesn’t mean that something’s wrong with changing paths multiple times over the course of one’s life.

If you’re getting little experience, don’t be shy about asking for more.

It’s not uncommon for interns to get stuck doing grunt work. In some cases, this can be a good experience: You’ll make sure you never treat anyone on your own team like that! However, if the bulk of your internship is spent compressing PowerPoint slides and proofreading documents, it may be worth talking to your manager about getting some more substantive responsibilities.

One way to do this is to demonstrate how you could help make his or her job easier. For example, if your manager asks you to do research on competitors’ pricing strategies, also look into their product development and marketing plans—and then present what you’ve found in a way that could inform decisions going forward. Your insights might provide leverage for gaining more responsibility down the line.

Bad managers will assign you mindless grunt work — ask around to avoid those situations.

You’re embarking on an internship to gain experience as a management student, and you’ll likely be asked to perform tasks that can feel demeaning. Before you take an internship at a school or company that requires lots of grunt work, make sure it’s the right fit for you. While mundane tasks can teach you how to handle challenges and learn the ropes at your new job, if they’re all you are doing, they may not be worth it. Grunt work is often assigned by managers who don’t know how to assign meaningful work, or within cultures in which promoting juniors means increasing their workload rather than expanding their responsibilities. If your manager assigns meaningless tasks every day of your internship instead of finding ways for you to learn and grow, consider whether there are other places where you could gain more valuable experience. An internship with little room for growth is simply disappointing for both parties involved: interns will have less drive and enthusiasm than expected, and companies will receive less from their employees than anticipated (expressions of sympathy from friends aside).

Talk to other interns or former interns, and value your own experience in making the choice to work somewhere!

When applying for internships, it can be helpful to learn about your options by talking to other interns or former interns. You can reach out to people on LinkedIn and ask them about their internship experience. You can also ask the recruiter if they can connect you with any current or past interns. Be sure to find out what they were assigned and what they learned during the internship. You should also ask how they found the experience and if it helped them get their first job after graduation.

By learning as much as possible about your potential internship opportunities, you’ll be able to make an informed choice when deciding which option is right for you!