I’m a second-year Communication Science student, finishing up my internship at The Next Web (TNW). Coming into a TNW as an Events Marketing Intern, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The dogs running around the office and the infamous snack box were both introduced to me on my onboarding the first day overriding the warnings of pre-event chaos and unpleasant admin work.
The TNW Events team lives and breathes just one thing: TNW Conference. It’s their flagship event that takes place every year in June. All tasks were related to serving this mysterious looming, with every marketing meeting a reminder of how many weeks there were left to push ticket sales.
My first few weeks were quite defeating, with every project I was assigned held back by endless rounds of feedback. I felt like I was doing everything wrong. I couldn’t capitalize the right words or format links properly. But after continuous attempts, such little details became an automatic reflex. More importantly, I learned what I was good at and what I liked due to all the different tasks I was given. I think overall my internship was a great personal learning experience, with 3 takeaways I think can apply to anyone:
- People have low expectations of an intern
When I first started, I was given very menial tasks, and the ones I did complete were constantly proofread. That made me realize that people didn’t really believe in my capabilities, I was of course just an intern. These low expectations can work incredibly in your favour. First, no one expects you to know anything, which means you have permission to ask about pretty much anything. You’re there to learn and have the lowest responsibility out of anyone in the company, take that to your advantage. Secondly, because no one expects much from you, you have a great opportunity to impress by showing dedication to your work. The threshold is for great performance is not as high as a regular employee.
- Offer help to your coworkers
When I would find that I have nothing to do, or my manager was not giving me any big projects, I would ask my coworkers if they need help with anything. This was so useful because I proved my abilities and established a stronger professional connection with them. More importantly, though, it gave me the opportunity to try a wide variety of tasks. As each coworker is a part of a different project, I got an idea of which areas I like and don’t like by helping them out.
- Just be there
I think a really important aspect of building your network is just being present. I found it difficult in the beginning because my coworkers seemed so close to each other, and this was obviously because they had spent a lot of time together. So I put in effort to make sure I came to the office, and that I stayed afterward for company drinks. You don’t have to be super charming and personable, sometimes being there for the team-building moments is enough to establish a relationship.
I still have some ways to go in my internship journey. The Conference is coming up in 2 weeks and I will keep working over the summer. So I hope to learn even more than what I have so far!