Internships are all about gaining experience, making connections and learning new things. They involve a lot of work and learning, but if you’re able to have fun in between all of this, you know you picked a good one. Whether it’s the work you’re doing or the people that surround you, there are so many different things to love about your internship.
If you love your internship, consider yourself one of the lucky ones. It’s often difficult to find an internship that you absolutely love.
Do you love your internship? Here are 5 signs that you do:
1. Work doesn’t feel like actual work.
There’s a big difference between doing work that you’re assigned and doing work that you enjoy. If you find each task or assignment to be dreadful like a chore, then you aren’t enjoying yourself. On the other hand, if you find each task exciting, fun or easy to do, chances are, you love what you’re doing.
2. You have actual conversations about things other than work with your coworkers.
If all you and your coworkers do is talk about the company, assignments or other work-related topics, then you aren’t really bonding. Knowing things about your coworkers enables you to establish relationships. For example, if you know your coworker’s dog’s name, their favorite sport to watch and play or their favorite TV show (which happens to be your favorite too), then you have formed a real connection. When you have people at your internship to talk to about things that aren’t work related, you’ve created a memorable relationship. You have not only a coworker but a friend as well.
3. You get excited to go into the office.
Because of a combination of #1 and #2, you want to go into the office to work and chat with your coworkers. If you don’t dread getting out of bed in the morning (unless you didn’t get any sleep or you are sick,) don’t find yourself coming up with excuses to work remotely or don’t feel unproductive throughout the day, then you actually enjoy the whole internship experience.
4. You find yourself learning new things everyday.
The entire purpose of an internship is to gain new skills and apply them to real tasks. An internship is like a crash course of working in the real world. You’re learning from hands on experience instead of a classroom lesson. Whether you learn big things or little things, at a great internship, you’ll be learning constantly.
5. You compare any future job, internship or work experience to it.
Basically, you can’t stop raving about it. Maybe you love the coffee shop across the street or bagels on the first Wednesday of every month–you always find yourself comparing any and everything to it. Will anything ever measure up?
First, congratulations! It’s difficult to find an internship that resembles what you want to do in the future, but you were able to do that and more. Doing something you love is so important.
10 years down the line, you don’t want to find yourself stuck at a job that you don’t enjoy. When you find an actual job that you love to do, you know you’ve hit the jackpot. Enjoy your internship! Continue working hard, and continue communicating with your supervisor–you never know if the internship could turn into a potential job post-grad.
