Insights from 2 years of Successes and Failures in Internships
During university I had the opportunity to do five different 4-month co-ops (internships) in capital markets, management consulting, and strategy. Let me begin by saying that I was not a superstar intern. I made mistakes and always had room for improvement. I was constantly learning, being challenged and believe that I could have done more given what I know now.
With that being said, from my experience managing dozens of students at both an extracurricular and full-time level, as well as the evaluations I received from my 2 years of internships, I would like to lay out six qualities which I believe compose a superstar young professional.
The summer internship programs have kicked off (even though some firms have pushed back their start date or cancelled all together) and I hope this guide will help you to significantly exceed expectations in the internship and be ahead of the pack.
In general, I’ll be writing from the perspective of the manager, to facilitate the wording.
1. Vividly paint the big picture
I started out my internships not really thinking about the big picture. I treated each project separately, not trying to proactively marry their relationships or understand why I got asked to do them. For example, if I was asked to do an analysis of a certain subject I would get narrowly focused and dive into the data without tying it back to the main case objective.
If you just memorize the algorithmic steps to finish the task using your academically trained way of solving problems, you are likely to be both less efficient and less effective. Following a checklist can lead to two key problems:
- Missing out on innovation: you cannot innovate the current process if you don’t fully understand why you are doing it.
- Missing shortcuts: you cannot improve the current process without compromising quality if you are only focused on following a tightly knit path and don’t consider the end result.
Make sure to understand why your manager wants you to do something, and how it fits into your team’s overall goals. Do not memorize steps and mimic a given guide like a machine.
Tip: whenever you meet with a manager, take notes on the steps but focus more on the goal we want to achieve and the underlying principles behind the goal.
2. Always take notes
When I delegate you a project, I am expecting you to take notes on my verbal instructions, and, ideally, challenge me along the way. I openly welcome questions as I’d rather spend extra time helping you understand instead of receiving an inaccurate work product because I failed to teach you what we actually wanted.
Red flags are raised if you come back later on with questions about items I already explained to you, but you forgot because you didn’t take notes. It is incredibly easy for me to tell if you really understood what our team is striving to accomplish.
Tip: playback the instructions in your own words to see if you fully grasp the concept and clearly comprehend what you were asked to do. If you were asked to build a powerpoint slide, roughly draw out the framework, even on paper, to receive pre-approval and confirm we are aligned.
3. Check for spotless work
In an ideal world, I would accept your work without any review because I implicitly trust your work quality.
Top two tips:
- Always review your work and do a sanity check to see if it makes sense. Don’t just blast out an email because you have finished the analysis, but rather tie it back to the big picture (tip 1) to confirm everything syncs. Raise concerns or contribute your thoughts on why the result didn’t turn out as expected.
- Implement reconciliation checks throughout the work to ensure data is being processed correctly. It is extremely important to make sure all the numbers tie together. The last thing you want is to present a wrong fact to the client and later go back to fix it.
4. Consider managers might be wrong
As an intern (and now as well), I never agree to do a task unless I agree that it helps us to reach our end goal. I challenge everything that comes my way, as managers can also be wrong.
Managers don’t always have the time to think thoroughly about every step of the project. As an intern, you will maximize your value if you can take ownership of your work and do the thinking for your manager.
As an intern, it is your responsibility to make sure you understand what we want to accomplish, challenge the suggested method proposed by your manager, and not be afraid to suggest an alternative process altogether if you believe it’ll be more efficient and effective.
I’ve found this to be a truly defining characteristic in student talent. When I asked what makes a great intern the one advice that really stuck to me was “try to make your manager’s life easier”.
Tip: try to follow this principle.
5. Raise solutions, not issues
If you find an issue with your project, think it through and see if you can resolve it yourself. If you can’t and need to raise it with me, try to at least come up with a few possible solutions. This shows that you’ve critically thought it through.
Tip: Show your manager that you have tried to tackle an issue yourself. This will make it easier for them to guide you along and resolve the problem, saving everyone valuable time.
6. Don’t be afraid to ask questions
I would prefer to spend a few minutes of my time to advise you on how to get around a roadblock than to have you spend hours trying to figure it out for yourself.
This was a big mistake for me as an intern. I was routinely evaluated as an intern who took ownership of the work and didn’t ask many questions because I figured it out for myself. However, it often took me much longer to figure it out than if I had just asked my manager directly. Although I felt proud that I challenged myself and was able to do it all alone without any help, in hindsight I should’ve asked more questions.
Tip: Remember you are also being evaluated on teamwork and resourcefulness.
Final thoughts
You don’t always need to be a super star intern to convert the internship into a full-time job, so try to also be social and have some fun. Attend company events, join team socials, and try to take on other initiatives if you have capacity.
Jason Oh is a Senior Consultant, Strategy & Customer at EY with project experiences in commercial due diligence and corporate strategy planning. Previously, he was a Management Consultant at Novantas with a focus on the financial services sector, where he advised on pricing, marketing, channel distribution, digital transformation and due diligence.
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