Looking back into the past months in International Advisers, I have grown a lot and acquired precious experience and skills. Working in a legal company without a full-time communication specialist was challenging at the beginning. I had to figure out how to launch and manage the Chinese social media account for this international company from the sketch. All my tasks required a high level of attention to detail and multiple skills. For example, in order to produce more appealing media content, I’ve taken online classes to learn format design and video editing. Due to the absence of a communication specialist, I also had to do lots of research and self-learning to perform and complete my communication-related tasks, such as content production and website management.
However, I would not recommend doing an internship in a company without any communication specialist. Though it can be a fruitful process where you could own autonomy, as well as knowledge and skills via self-learning, it is still difficult to conduct tasks without guidelines or help from other professional people. As the internship is regarded as a process of learning, I believe a good mentor will facilitate personal growth in a more efficient way.
The following are some tips I would like to share with you all.
- Start your internship after the graduation project.
I would recommend starting the internship after completing the Graduation Project and there are two advantages.
First, after learning all the bachelor’s courses in the past two years, it was actually difficult to allocate, refresh, and organize the knowledge and skills in your mind. However, it is mandatory to utilize and reflect on those learning outcomes during the internship. Most importantly, you also need to conduct research by using all the knowledge, as well as research and analytical skills. Remember SPSS? Can you still remember how to choose the right analysis, tick the correct boxes and interpret the output tables？ Trust me, you can pick all these things up by going through the Graduation Project with the guidelines and help provided by the lecturers. Moreover, you can also learn how to prepare, organize, and conduct entire research. With all the knowledge refreshed and new skills acquired, your process of writing the internship report and conducting the research will be much smoother and easier! Honestly, I cannot even imagine how much extra effort and time I would spend if I haven’t learned from the Graduation Project.
Second, if you are lucky and perform well in your tasks during the internship, you might be offered a chance to continue work as an official employee. In this case, if you still have the Graduation Project left to do and need to back to classrooms, the situation will be pretty awkward if you actually want the job. Therefore, it will be better to finish all the mandatory courses first and then take the internship as a possible base for your future career!
- Ask!
A simple but extremely useful technique that everybody knows but may not be able to use properly. This tip can be applied throughout your whole internship.
First thing first, DON’T just isolate yourself and try to find an internship through the small laptop screen. Sure, the internet is so convenient nowadays and there are hundreds of job-hunting websites out there, but your EXISTING NETWORK might do you a big favor by the end of the day. Do not hesitate to ask your acquaintances for help or recommendation for an internship. Especially for the acquaintances who are already working, their experience and information could be very useful for you to find an internship.
As an intern, you lack experience and knowledge about the company, the industry, and even the most basic workflow. In this case, you must just accept that “you know nothing, John Snow” and ASKING will be your most useful to avoid mistakes and perfect in your tasks. Keep in mind that there is no stupid question and ask questions is much better than doing things wrong.
Wish you all good luck in finding a dream internship and enriching yourself!