OCSBasics

AN INTRODUCTION TO

INTERNSHIPS

OFFICE OF CAREER SERVICES

Harvard University
Harvard College and
Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Authored by: Paul A. Bohlmann, Dana M. Curtis, and Margaret L. Newhouse

© 1995, 1999, 2005 The President and Fellows of Harvard College

All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any way without the express
written permission of the Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences Office
of Career Services.

Office of Career Services

Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Harvard University
54 Dunster Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617) 495-2595
www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu
 An Introduction to Internships / 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

n WHAT IS AN INTERNSHIP? 3

o WHY DO AN INTERNSHIP? 4

p HOW TO FIND AN INTERNSHIP 6

q HOW TO FUND YOUR INTERNSHIP 10

r HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR INTERNSHIP 14

EPILOGUE: LEARNING AT WORK 19

INTERNSHIPS IN A NUTSHELL back cover

2 / An Introduction to Internships
 An Introduction to Internships / 3

n
WHAT IS AN INTERNSHIP?

H
ow was your internship? Are you going to get an internship? I
want a job, not an internship. With the term being used in so many
ways, it’s sometimes difficult to know just what people are talking
about. In fact, practically anything can be called an internship if it combines
learning with work. And it is this combination that makes an internship a unique
tool for career exploration.

Definitions
A few basics: internships can be full- or part-time, short- or long-term, paid
or unpaid, for credit (in certain circumstances) or not for credit, self-directed or
mentor-led, or any combination thereof. While there is no minimum or maximum
length for an internship, it does ordinarily require a sustained commitment over
a period of time. You might work for a few hours each week during the course
of a semester, or you might work full time for a month or more.
Whatever the arrangement, the essential characteristic of internships is that
as you are working you have structured and intentional opportunities to learn
about a career field from your environment. Those opportunities may include
some or all of the following: regular meetings with your supervisor; attendance
at departmental meetings; “shadowing” someone in the company; access to
colleagues for questions; coffee, or even lunch, with coworkers; specific
training; access to reading material; and a chance to try your hand at a first draft,
to begin the research for a project, to handle a specific project, or to otherwise
actually “do” the work.
Since organizations may have varied definitions of an internship, it is up to
you to find out just what their arrangements are. Unless you are creating an
internship from scratch, you will generally have to fulfill the expectations of the
organization, although you may have an opportunity to suggest changes to the
internship once you have started working. You may even encounter an organi-
zation that doesn’t really know how it wants to define the internship—and if you
are one of its first interns, you may be fortunate enough to help design the
dimensions.
4 / An Introduction to Internships

o
WHY DO AN INTERNSHIP?

F
or career exploration, an internship emerges as the clear winner over other
methods of learning. You simply cannot learn as much by reading or
talking to people as you can by actually participating in a work environ-
ment. It is firsthand experience that will best allow you to draw your own
conclusions about the potential match between you and a particular kind of
work. This experience may also give you job qualifications which you might not
have otherwise.

Career Exploration and Skill Development

Beyond what you can observe and absorb, you are also likely to have a
chance to develop skills that are relevant to your future career interests.
Examples include: using equipment that you haven’t had access to before, or at
least watching others use it; comparing your draft of a report with the final
version; learning the steps of a production process; interacting with clients or
customers; and learning new computer applications or lab techniques.
One of the most valuable aspects of an internship might be the opportunity
to talk formally and informally with practitioners in your field of interest. You may
be able to ask them about their career paths and what advice they might have
for people starting out in today’s market. A close-up look at their decisions,
actions, and accomplishments can help you imagine yourself in their shoes.

A Low-Risk Approach
A summer or term of exploration is a relatively quick and low-risk way to test
the waters of a particular field. It gives you a chance to “try out” your interest
in a field rather than committing to a job for a couple of years, or applying to and
enrolling in graduate school.
While you are likely to pursue an internship in a field where you have some
interest, you may find that there are critical elements of that field that you don’t
like at all. Remember that it is just as important to find out what you don’t want
to do as to find out what you do want to do.

Contacts
The people you meet may reappear later in your life in surprising ways,
particularly if you continue in the same field or the same city. For example, you
may find that a former colleague from a summer internship might again be a
colleague or even your boss, could be a customer or client, or might serve as a
mentor to you. Although you shouldn’t need a reason to be courteous to all of
your colleagues and to leave on the best possible terms, the fact that you might
meet them again in another capacity is a compelling one.
 An Introduction to Internships / 5

Mutual Benefits
As you are investigating a field and a company or organization, they may
also be evaluating you. If you decide that you would be interested in continued
work with that organization, your internship may be your proverbial “foot in
the door.” Many companies hire permanent employees from their intern pool
because firsthand experience allows them to learn more about a prospective
employee than they can in an interview. From your point of view, an internship
might allow you the opportunity to impress a potential employer with your
diligence, creativity, intelligence, enthusiasm, and other relevant qualities. It
also gives you a chance to assess the employer. Even if your internship
doesn’t result in an offer from that particular organization, your contacts and
experience will help you to look for jobs in that field.
Keep in mind that while you will learn a great deal from your internship,
it may not provide a definitive answer for your career search. Perhaps you will
need to arrange another internship in the same field to give you more
information, doing similar work in a different organization, or working with the
same kind of people but from a different perspective. Developing your career
is a cumulative process, and each internship or job that you have is a building
block.
6 / An Introduction to Internships

p
HOW TO FIND AN INTERNSHIP

O
nce you’ve decided to do an internship, the next step is to find or create
one. This process resembles that of finding a job, but it is different in
several ways: formal internship programs are rare, there is usually no
formal recruiting for them, they are usually short-term, and they seldom offer a
full salary, if any monetary compensation. The net effect of these factors is that
you will often need to be imaginative in your effort to find or create an internship.
There are some internship directories published, and all internship listings that
OCS receives are accessible online, but you will also find it useful to take
advantage of personal contacts and to think creatively about developing an
internship experience.

Internship Directories and References

When you set out to explore internship possibilities, you will find it helpful
to focus your search according to industry or field and the specific type of
experience you hope to gain. Let yourself dream a bit—you may not attain your
dream exactly, but it’s a good place to start. Think about what you want to do
in ideal terms, imagine what exactly you hope to learn through an internship, and
plan your search strategies accordingly. Most references that will help you in
your search are organized by field, and occasionally they are arranged geo-
graphically.
The OCS Resource Collection includes a number of published internship
directories to help guide your search. General directories, located in the Recep-
tion Area (Reception 1), include The Internship Bible, The Back Door Guide to
Short-Term Job Adventures, and Peterson’s Internships. More specialized
examples in the Reading Room include the National Directory of Arts Intern-
ships (C2), and Work Your Way Around the World (L3). These directories and
others like them identify internship sponsors and provide brief descriptions of
the internships listed, along with important information about eligibility, tim-
ing, and stipends offered, if any.
Trade journals and other specialized publications also frequently contain
announcements or advertisements about internship opportunities or competi-
tions. Examples include the Entertainment Employment Journal (shelf C5),
Chronicle of Higher Education (A3), The International Educator (L4), and The
Wall Street Journal (N5). There are almost as many trade journals as there are
fields, and you can find them in libraries throughout the Harvard system.
Each year Harvard students have the opportunity to participate in short,
intensive spring break internships across the country through the Harvard
Career Internship Program (HCIP), coordinated at OCS. Individual internships
 An Introduction to Internships / 7

are sponsored by alumni, and while the range of opportunities varies from year
to year, the program always represents a wide spectrum of fields and organiza-
tions. Watch the OCSNews for information in the fall.
Internships and other job postings are now also listed on MonsterTrak
(www.monstertrak.com), the most comprehensive online college and univer-
sity job listing service in the U.S. You can access MonsterTrak from terminals
in your room, your home, or the OCS Reception Area. Simply choose your
school affiliation and enter the first eight digits of your Harvard ID number as
your password, and you will have access to the most current internship list-
ings posted for you. You can search for internships by field or by location by
using keywords. Paper copies of these internship listings are also kept in
binders in the Reception Room for several months, unless the employers ask
us to remove them. Samples of new listings are in the OCSNews every other
week. (See www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/publications/ocsnews.htm to sign up to
receive the OCSNews by e-mail.)

Networking
Career counselors and human resources officers often emphasize the
importance of “networking” to career exploration generally and to job searches
specifically. Networking simply refers to a process of exchanging information
among individuals, groups, or organizations, and it will greatly assist your
efforts either to find an internship or to create one of your own design.
The Harvard community is rich with networking opportunities. Your tutors,
proctors, teaching fellows, instructors, section leaders, professors, and deans
all represent an incredible collection of experience in their various fields. It’s
possible that some of these people will have heard of interesting internships, and
even more will know of organizations which might offer them.
Specialized research centers in the Harvard community may also prove
fertile ground for networking. Every year, these centers gather together
experts from all over the world, many of whom will know about internship
opportunities in their field. Examples include the Center for International
Development, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and the
Institute of Politics. Regional research centers, such as the Center for Middle
Eastern Studies or the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, will be
similarly helpful. Visiting fellows at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
and at many of the graduate and professional schools—such as the Bunting
Fellows and Nieman Fellows—possess a wealth of information about possi-
bilities within their fields.

In the same way, your peers are also a valuable source of information.
Roommates and friends, as well as members of their families, will often know of
interesting internships or of friends who have had them.
8 / An Introduction to Internships

Similarly, alumni who volunteer their services as Harvard Career Advisers

are an important source of information about actual internship possibilities or
organizations that might sponsor them. In partnership with the Harvard Alumni
Association, OCS offers access to Professional Connection, an online data-
base of over 14,300 alumni career advisers in the U.S. and overseas. This
database is searchable geographically and by career field.

Creating Your Own Internship

For the most part, this discussion so far assumes that you will be looking
at existing internship programs or positions. In fact, we hope that you will also
approach your search more proactively and creatively. You will certainly be more
successful if you do.
Essentially, this means that you need not feel limited by pre-existing
opportunities in established internship programs. If in the course of consulting
references and individuals you come up with an idea of your own, feel free to
pursue it. Student-initiated internships, especially unpaid internships, are
increasingly common. Many interns who report the most satisfying experiences
have created their own internships.
In setting up an internship of your own design, you would approach an
employer or organization not for a specific offer of employment or for informa-
tion, but to propose offering your time and labor in order to learn about a field.
In this negotiation, you would express your interest in a field or organization,
demonstrate how your skills match what the organization does, propose an
exchange of your time and work (and perhaps a specific project) in return for some
sort of formal guidance, and determine whether or not compensation is available.
The learning component is the key ingredient: any work experience will afford
you important hands-on education, but an internship is something you seek
specifically as a learning experience.
All of the information sources mentioned earlier can actually serve the
process of creating an internship. For example, if you are reading through a
biotechnology career directory and learn of a firm with exciting entry-level
positions, you might contact the firm to explore setting up a short-term internship
with them. You may be looking through Editor and Publisher and read about
a publishing house about to release a line of children’s books; this might prompt
you to approach the publisher to propose an internship. Or you may learn that
your best friend’s mother is setting up a new Head Start program in your home
state; you might be able to volunteer your services and structure the experience
as an internship.
Once you start thinking this way, you will become increasingly sensitive
to creative possibilities all around you. Local, regional, or national news may
trigger ideas. A Boston Globe article about a new construction phase on the
central artery might lead to a proposal for an internship with the project’s
 An Introduction to Internships / 9

management office, exploring engineering, architecture, urban planning, envi-

ronmental management, or public relations. A calendar listing in the Harvard
Gazette about an AIDS education project at the medical school might lead to an
unpaid internship with the project, building your knowledge of public health,
education, public policy, or medical research. If you’re interested in public policy
or politics, could you take advantage of public discussion of the federal budget
and arrange an internship with the Heritage Foundation or the Brookings
Institution?
Bear in mind that when you propose such arrangements, they will almost
certainly be unpaid. And you will want to clarify with the internship organization
some sort of learning component to distinguish it from an ordinary volunteer
position or a job.
10 / An Introduction to Internships

q
HOW TO FUND YOUR INTERNSHIP

O
nce you have decided to pursue an internship and have begun to
identify possibilities, you will need to figure out how to pay for the
experience. Essentially, there are three options to explore, separately or
in combination: (1) your internship may provide some compensation, (2) you
may be able to fund it through grants or fellowships, or, more likely, (3) you may
be able to support yourself through other paid work. In terms of availability, the
first two possibilities are the least certain; there are always fewer paid internships
and grant awards available than there are qualified and deserving candidates.
The third possibility, with all its potential variations, is effectively fail-safe. In
any case, be sure to explore every funding possibility that will help make your
internship happen.

Paid Internships
With tighter organizational budgets a given in the late 1990s and beyond,
and with student-initiated internship and voluntary work arrangements prolif-
erating, formally structured and salaried internship programs are increasingly
difficult to find. Such programs do exist, however—for example, at the Academy
of Television Arts and Sciences, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum,
and Time, Inc.—and they typically provide an intense, structured exposure to
an organization or industry.
Identifying paid internships will ordinarily be part of the process of
identifying or creating internships outlined in Section 3. As you read through
directories and print resources, scan journals and bulletin boards, and contact
individuals or organizations, be sure to check for information on whether or not
the internships that interest you provide a salary. Bear in mind that such
opportunities are comparatively rare, and applying for them will be a fairly
competitive process.
Partly paid internships are somewhat more common. In these arrangements,
an organization may offer no compensation in the form of a stipend but may
nonetheless provide for housing or assistance with other living costs. For
example, you can ask whether weekly transportation or lunch stipends might be
available.
It’s also possible that you might transform a paid summer or short-term job
into an internship by talking with your employer about incorporating structured
guidance and regular discussion with your supervisor into your job.
In every case, be sure to explore the range of ways the internship organi-
zation may be able to compensate you or otherwise reduce your costs. Such
questions are entirely appropriate when negotiating an internship.
 An Introduction to Internships / 11

Grant Funding
Funding an internship with grants or fellowships can follow two general
courses: (1) you may apply for grants to support specific work at the grantmaking
agency, or (2) you may already have an internship in hand when you approach
a grantmaker, in which case you will have to demonstrate the special suitability
of that internship. Like paid internships, grants specifically for work experience
are rare, and applying for them is a very competitive process.
Even so, such grants do exist, and a number of them are unique to Harvard.
In exploring these options, be sure to consult The Harvard College Guide to
Grants and its Harvard-specific supplement. Section 3 of the Guide to Grants
details a number of grants for work and other practical experience in five broad
areas: arts and media, community service, the public sector, social and
behavioral sciences, and teaching and education. An appendix identifies which
grants support summer or other short-term projects, and a bibliography de-
scribes dozens of grant directories which might provide you with useful
information. The Guide to Grants and many other grant directories are available
in section B of the OCS Reading Room.
Organizations use different terms to describe grant opportunities. You
may find funding for a kind of work experience classified as an internship, a
fellowship, or an award, but it will mean the same thing. The Library of
Congress Junior Fellowships, for example, are actually paid internships at the
Library. Much of the grant funding you find will be of this sort—to support
a specific program at the grantmaking agency.
If you have already arranged an internship, or if you’re in the process of
putting one together, you will have to look for grants that are more open-ended,
using the same resources mentioned above. In these cases, you will need to
demonstrate the special suitability of the internship for you or your community.
Several such grant sources exist at Harvard. For example, the Institute of
Politics offers Public Sector Internship Stipends to support summer intern-
ships in government and government-related organizations in the U.S.
Weissman International Internships provide funding support for summer
projects overseas in any business or nonprofit environment. Harvard Clubs
Summer Community Service Fellowships support summer work or internship
experiences in non-profit agencies in host club areas. The Lowe Career
Decision Fund offers funding assistance for internships or other experience
which aid in career exploration. The Harvard College Research Program could
be used to support internships in which academic research is conducted and
academic benefit is derived; similarly, Faculty Aide Program funds might
support research assistantships with members of the Faculty of Arts and
Sciences.
In each of these programs, the potential for growth your internship will
afford you will be paramount to selection committees. Before you apply, be sure
12 / An Introduction to Internships

to discuss with program sponsors any questions you have about whether your
internship qualifies for support.

Concurrent Employment
Because paid internships and grants for unpaid internships are relatively
scarce, most people pursuing internships will have to rely on a more certain
source of funding—usually another job. If you are seeking an internship in the
first place, the experience your internship will give you is likely to be your main
focus, and you will want to consider it your primary obligation. Any job you
secure to support yourself during your internship will ordinarily be a means to
that end. In other words, the main factors you will look for in concurrent
employment will be flexible work schedules and earnings or savings potential.
It is extremely rare for students to arrange both a prestigious internship and a
glamorous, high-profile job simultaneously. You increase your chances for
success if you set your sights accordingly.
You may find it useful to start by coming up with a realistic budget for your
internship period. Knowing how much money you actually need to support
yourself will help you plan the whole experience effectively. Housing, food, and
transportation costs are likely to be the major components of your budget;
students on financial aid may also have to factor in their summer earnings
requirements.
Flexible job opportunities abound in practically every community. Tempo-
rary employment agencies are the most obvious place to check. Some agencies
can tailor experiences to your work preferences, and nearly all will include listings
for jobs with high hourly wage potential, such as word processing and data
entry. You can start some of this exploration at the Student Employment Office,
which lists short-term jobs locally and around the country. Students doing
internships in Boston or Cambridge should check for part-time work opportu-
nities at Harvard Student Agencies. The advice in OCS’s Harvard Guide to
Summer Opportunities will be applicable to your search for secondary employ-
ment.
Students can support themselves during unpaid internships with paid
occasional work of all sorts: waiting tables, private instruction, catering, lawn
or house work, caring for children or the elderly or pets, housesitting, phototype-
setting, part-time office or bank positions, translating texts or documents, part-
time security, painting, part-time work in a store. This list is only a beginning:
the key is to imagine arrangements that give you maximum flexibility. Students
eligible for work-study support should check with potential employers about
whether their jobs might qualify.
Logistical problems may require you to seek some sort of flexibility at your
internship, too. For example, you may find a good word processing job from 4:00
p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and have an internship that expects a 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
 An Introduction to Internships / 13

commitment. Similarly, you may find a good part-time job giving tennis lessons
on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, but have an internship commitment on
Monday through Thursday. Or you may want to do thesis research in late
August and early September and find that this conflicts with a three-month
summer internship. In such situations, you should explore scheduling flexibility
with all parties involved, explaining your financial situation frankly. Internship
supervisors are usually willing to accommodate you, especially if you are
volunteering your time and are clearly committed to your internship experience.
Seeking out ways to save money is also an important strategy. For example,
a housesitting job offering no salary will nonetheless eliminate housing ex-
penses from your budget. An evening job at a restaurant may eliminate a portion
of your food expenses, as might a weekend position taking care of children or
an elderly person. Being a proctor at Harvard’s Summer School gives you room
and board for the summer term, as well as permission to work away from the
program for 20 hours a week—and the residential component is great teaching
experience. Be on the lookout for arrangements offering payment in kind. They
offer many advantages, one of which, typically, is flexibility about time.
Group housing can also help reduce your rent expenses, just as pooling
grocery purchases can help reduce food expenses. If you hear about other
students going to the same city for jobs or internships during the summer, give
serious thought to sharing an apartment with them. Many students rent college
dormitory rooms during the summer. College housing offices will often have
listings of short-term rentals, as well as lists of people looking for roommates;
local and neighborhood newspapers will also carry this sort of information in
their classified advertising sections. The Harvard Club in your community may
be able to provide housing referrals, and word of mouth from friends and
roommates is also a valuable source of information.
If you do end up supporting an unpaid internship with an extra job, be aware
that your situation may be stressful. You will effectively be working two jobs at
a time, and you will have to think constantly about budgeting your money. Your
extra job may not last as long as your internship, in which case you might have
to look for a succession of temporary jobs to support you. And you will probably
also have to sacrifice some of the comforts you associate with a good paying
job or with being at home or school. You can minimize all of these pressures by
keeping focused on your primary objective—your internship and the valuable
experience it can afford you. Keeping that focus clear will also help you make
the most of your internship.
14 / An Introduction to Internships

r
HOW TO MAKE THE MOST
OF YOUR INTERNSHIP

W
hen you have secured an internship, the single most important thing
you can do to assure that it will be a positive experience is to take
responsibility for making it so. This may sound simple, but it has
numerous implications, which can be condensed into three basic rules: (1) clarify
your goals and set realistic expectations; (2) adopt positive, proactive, and
professional attitudes and actions on the job; and (3) reflect regularly on your
experience and be prepared to adjust or change the situation as necessary.

Goals and Expectations

Ultimately, the disappointments and frustrations we feel stem from a gap
between our expectations and the reality we encounter. For you to minimize the
possibilities for disappointment, then, it is critical that you clarify as much as
possible both your own and your supervisor’s expectations and goals for the
internship, to determine whether they mesh sufficiently.
Ideally, before accepting the position, you would: (1) gather as much
information as possible about the organization and (if there is one) its formal
internship program, both from written material and from others who have
interned there; (2) think realistically about what you want to get out of the
experience and how you want to contribute to the organization; and (3) clarify
who would actually be your supervisor and have a forthright conversation with
that person to detail the nature of the internship.
Your goals must be realistic. You likely will not be welcomed, let alone hired,
by a potential employer whom you expect to take you to lunch every day or to
entrust you with vital projects or decisions. How much responsibility and
substantive work you can expect from an internship is a delicate issue. Keep in
mind that you can learn a lot from simply being in a particular work environment
and from the seemingly trivial work that is part of virtually all internships.
Moreover, you may have an opportunity to gain responsibility as you “prove
yourself” during the course of the internship.
Once you’ve thought about what you want and can reasonably expect, talk
with your supervisor about the hours you are expected to work, your work space,
special projects you might undertake, the results the organization expects, and
the kind and frequency of supervision you will receive. This is the time to make
known your desires regarding these and other factors, including chances for
observing and training elsewhere in the organization and negotiating time
flexibility if you need to accommodate a paying job on the side. It is better to
 An Introduction to Internships / 15

voice these desires up front—in an exploratory, nondemanding way, since the

sponsor may be quite willing to oblige or negotiate. Even if this flexibility proves
impossible, you will enter the internship with open eyes—if you decide to take it.
If possible, have this conversation on site, so you get a feeling for the
chemistry between you and your potential supervisor and for the culture of the
organization. It doesn’t have to be a perfect fit, but you shouldn’t have a sinking
feeling that you’d be miserable. If you can’t have an interview in person, plan
to have a reasonably long telephone conversation. Failing that, make sure you
are explicit in your correspondence. And, in any case, follow up a visit or phone
conversation with a letter that specifies your understanding of the internship.
By going through this process, you will not only be clarifying your own goals,
but also be prompting the organization and/or sponsor to think through their
expectations and responsibilities, which can only make for a better internship
experience on both sides.

Attitude and Actions: Positive, Proactive, Professional

Taking a positive attitude toward the internship will guarantee that you
make the most of it—and that you make the best impression. Remember that
whatever advantages coming from Harvard may confer upon you, the only
reputation that matters in the end is the one you develop while working there.
Specifically, this means that you should:

; Commit yourself fully to the experience. Do your best work, even with
mindless and mundane tasks.

; Keep your eyes out for additional work to be done and offer to do it in
a way that is appropriate and helpful to others. Use every opportunity
to assume responsibility. This might include creating a special project.

; Take responsibility for your own learning—ask good questions, and

seek out learning opportunities. For example, pay attention to what
people are reading and discussing, which trade publications are lying
around, and what conferences people attend. In short, observe and
analyze the environment.

; Meet regularly with your supervisor to get feedback on your work and gain
information about the field, organization, and substantive issues pertinent
to them. (“Regularly” will mean different things to different supervisors.)

; Ask colleagues who seem interesting and amenable to have lunch with
you to discuss the field and their careers. Develop other mentors besides
your supervisor, if possible. Seek help and advice.
16 / An Introduction to Internships

; Be friendly and conversational with your coworkers, including support

staff. Be respectful of the talents and experience of others and sensitive
to possible resentment of your special status as an intern.

; Be professional. Dress and act according to organizational norms; put

in the expected hours, and arrive on time (this does not exclude taking
time off for educational activities, with permission); do not engage in
office politics, gossip, backbiting, or complaining. Refrain from helping
yourself to office supplies, postage, photocopying, faxing, or long-
distance telephone privileges, unless these are clearly permitted for
personal use.

; Stay positive, cheerful, and polite, even in periods of stress. Keep your
sense of humor. Find antidotes and outlets for stress, frustration, and
discouragement.

; Approach the internship with an open mind, and be open to surprises

and serendipities. Look for opportunities in disappointments, difficult
circumstances, setbacks, and even failures you experience. Believe it or
not, these can provide your most potent opportunities to learn.

Reflection
In order to get the most out of your experience, set aside time regularly
(ideally, every day) to reflect on what you are observing and learning. Keeping
a journal of observations, experiences, analyses, speculations, and evaluations
will greatly enrich your current experiences and record reflections for your future
reference. Here are some questions to help you get started:

; What do I like and dislike about the work that I’m doing or others
are doing, about this organization and work culture, and about my
colleagues and clients? What am I best at? How do I define “good
work”?

; What is the typical career pattern in this organization or type of work?

What are the psychological and other requirements of this work or
career? What are the costs and rewards? How does this work mesh with
my own interests, skills, values, and objectives? How has this experience
affected my career goals and plans?
 An Introduction to Internships / 17

; What are the mission and goals of the organization or department, both
stated and actual? Do they conflict? How does it try to attain these
goals, and how successful is it? Are there ethical issues raised by these
goals and their implementation? How is the organization financed, and
with what advantages and disadvantages?

; What is the culture of this organization? Take a look at informal social

and power structures, communication and friendship patterns, politics,
demographic characteristics, value systems, and unwritten codes of
dress and conduct. How do these de facto patterns compare with official
authority structures, policies, and values? How is conflict resolved?

; Who are the customers or clients of the organization? How do they

perceive and respond to the organization, to my personal efforts, and to
those of my colleagues? How am I reacting to customers and their needs?
How well does the organization respond to their needs?

; What other issues regarding work have I encountered—for example,

discrimination, harassment, other ethical issues, workaholism and
burnout, and functions and implications of the technology employed?
What substantive issues relate to the content of my work? How do they
both draw on and modify what I have learned in academic courses?

Adjustment to the Workplace

Of course, any experience—even the most carefully planned and struc-
tured—requires adjustment as it unfolds. Your systematic reflection should
enable you to see more clearly and objectively where you need to adjust to a
situation and where you need to try to change it. Adjusting to a situation could
mean deciding to ignore or minimize sporadic or unimportant irritants, or to adjust
your own expectations and behavior to accommodate small frustrations. In
contrast, when the irritants are pervasive and central, or when they violate your
values or code of ethics, you may need to seek more active solutions.
If your internship is not working out well despite your best efforts, here are
some steps you might take:

; Share your concerns as a reality check, and analyze the situation with
someone you trust outside the work environment.

; Clarify the nature of any issues as you see them, and think of some ways
to improve the situation, including ways you might change.
18 / An Introduction to Internships

; Meet with your supervisor and calmly present your assessment of the
situation, emphasizing how the situation is not working from your
viewpoint and avoiding accusations and blame. Determine whether your
supervisor perceives it similarly. If so, brainstorm ways to improve it,
offering your suggestions as well as listening receptively to your
supervisor’s. If not, arrive at a consensus before trying to resolve the
issues.

If you are not able to resolve the issues, we hope you will feel free to
discuss your situation with a counselor at OCS. Experience suggests that an
incompatible internship can be negative for both parties—a student may be
turned off from a particular career field or organization, and an internship
sponsor can be discouraged from offering internships in the future, either to
individuals or to their college.
If problems on an internship do end up seeming intractable, see whether
you can move to another part of the organization. Be as up-front with your
supervisor as you can if you make such a move. If leaving the organization
is your best solution, try to leave on terms as good as you can arrange.
This scenario is very unlikely if you have followed the advice in this
booklet, and you should be sure to consider it a last resort. As in other work
situations, your ability to keep focused on the experience your internship can
give you and your willingness to take responsibility for making that experience
positive will all but guarantee your success.

Saying “Thanks” and Keeping in Touch

When your internship is finished, take time to thank the people with and
for whom you have worked for their various contributions to your experience.
A letter of thanks to the sponsor and important mentors is perfectly in order.
If it seems appropriate, discuss the possibilities of returning to work there at
a future time. Be sure to get a letter of reference from your closest supervisor
or supervisors, and keep in touch regularly with your new network.
 An Introduction to Internships / 19

Epilogue:
LEARNING AT WORK

One Person’s Experience

The actual experiences of a graduate student in the government department
highlight the benefits of internships for career exploration. While finishing her
dissertation, she has been working in two internships, with a total time commit-
ment of about 15 hours a week, to explore alternatives to academic careers. One
internship is in development at the Fogg Museum, and the other is in editorial
work at Harvard Magazine.
“It’s been really great,” she says of her experience. “This is a terrific way,
without much investment of time, to learn about a new field, or a field you’re
interested in, without lots of prior experience. You get a good idea of what people
in different organizations are like, what they care about, where they’ve come
from, and where they’re going.” While her responsibilities have varied, she has
found it possible to make meaningful contributions in each environment, and her
editorial internship has given her clippings for her portfolio. “In a brief period
of time,” she explains, “each internship has given me a realistic picture of what
the field would be like.” And in assessing what she has liked and disliked about
each experience, she has found her career exploration acquiring new focus and
moving in new directions.
“I’m now applying for work in development or magazines in New York,” she
continues, “and it seems I’m in the running for a job with a small, special-interest
magazine—and that’s based largely on one year’s internship experience here.”
To get the most out of an internship, she recommends, “Express your interest
in career exploration aspects right at the outset, and start any process with self-
assessment. Once I started thinking about alternative careers, it was just
overwhelming to discover how many opportunities exist right here at Harvard
for exploration.”

Long-Term Benefits
An internship gives you an opportunity to learn from an organization or
work environment in a highly focused manner. The reflection you undertake
while exploring the aspects of a profession or field that interest you will ensure
that your experience is essentially educational.
Ideally, we hope that this focus will translate to other jobs in which you will
eventually find yourself. Internships or experiences like them can be valuable
tools of career exploration at any point in your life, provided you commit yourself
sincerely to them and do not violate any obligations you have to a current
employer.
Similarly, the same true commitment to self-assessment, learning, reflection
20 / An Introduction to Internships

within your work environment, and honest communication which will help
ensure a positive internship experience will also point the way to making the most
of any subsequent employment, at whatever level you find yourself. If an
internship can help teach you about this process, as well as about a specific field
or organization, then it will also contribute to your lifelong dedication to learning
at work—and that’s a great bonus!
An Introduction to Internships / 21
22 / An Introduction to Internships

INTERNSHIPS IN A NUTSHELL

; An internship is a work experience that includes structured

and intentional opportunities to learn about the career field.

; The benefits of internships include career exploration, skill

development, making contacts, testing a particular field, and
being evaluated for a future job opening.

; To find an internship, consider using directories, trade

magazines, articles in the newspaper, and word of mouth to
identify companies and organizations. Networking can help to
open doors, but you don’t have to know anyone to ask if they
have internships. Consider proposing one of your own.

; To fund an internship, first do what you can to decrease

expenses. You may have to find a flexible paying job on the
side, you may receive some money from the place where you
are interning, or you may secure a grant.

; To have a successful experience, you’ll want to clarify your

goals and expectations and those of the employer. Be
positive, proactive, and professional on the job. When it’s
over, take the time to write thank-you notes, keep in touch with
those you met, and reflect on what you have learned.