Internship Evaluations

What do our interns learn?

How do they evaluate their internship experience?

Here are a few comments…

Jon Schneyer, Concord-Carlisle High School '08

What professional skills did you learn during this internship that you feel will help you further in college and in your career?

I learned many things that were business related that would be useful in college and in my career. One point that was stressed in a book I worked on during this internship is to create a goal that is realistic and obtainable within a given time. This is important because you will always know where to go, and it will help you plan what steps you need to take to get there. It is good to be able to do this because it will help me through college term papers and exams but also if I choose a career in business, then I would already be a step ahead.

Another thing I learned in this internship that will help me in college is to edit from the perspective of someone else. It doesn’t help to edit something if you aren’t going to think like the person who is going to read and evaluate what you have written. For example, I had to think as the editor when I reviewed articles and article blurbs. If I just checked for grammar, then I would have missed any holes in the article that an editor would see. The power of email is another professional skill that I learned to use. It eliminates phone tag and possible missed calls. Also, you can contact more than a thousand people at one time with a contacts list.

What career insights did you gain that you feel will help you be successful in your eventual career?

Well, from reading John McQuaig’s book, Parallel Peaks, I learned that to manage a business successfully. Everything he talked about can be related to any type of business. It helps to have a vision, a plan to get there, a good team and an excellent guide. Other insights that I feel will help me are how to “feel out” the good clients from the bad. Some clients you can tell right off the bat that they will be no good. They might say that they won’t be able to pay until such and such a time, which could be months after your services would be over or they do not reply to your emails for weeks at a time. It helps to be able to spot these things so that you don’t end up with a bunch of unreliable clients.

What did you NOT learn about that you wish you had?

There is one thing that I did want to learn about that I did not. I was and still am interested in an entrepreneurship and I thought that working in a small, local office would show me how that worked. Unfortunately, emerson consulting group inc. is very different from a local coffee shop or other small businesses and does not operate the same way, so I feel that I missed that part of business management, such as learning about inventory control, advertising your business and other more concrete business procedures.

What aspects of the internship did you enjoy?

What I enjoyed most about the internship was the work environment. It was very comfortable and relaxed. I was never so unbearably pressured to finish something that I collapsed, but I managed to complete everything at my own pace. There were no dress codes, no extra paper work, and I was able to work on things that I enjoyed working on.

How could this internship be improved?

Ironically, though I enjoyed the low-key work style, I feel that some people could use more structure. When you get to college and a career past that, there will be deadlines and there will be pressure to finish everything to the best of your abilities (not that I didn’t try). I know that a consultant position can be very structured when it calls for it, but I feel that this may have provided a false sense of structure in a work environment.

How could the office you worked in be improved in terms of working environment?

I didn’t find anything wrong with the “boiler room.” It has a fan to keep cool when it is too hot and I like the cold so the temperature never bothered me. There were tissues when I had a cold and there was plenty of desk space and just space to spread out if I had to do so.

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