The BBA Career Services Office hosted a BHP Senior Panel on Wednesday, April 18. Six BHP Seniors—Michael Daehne, Sameer Desai, Eva Agoulnik, Anuj Khandelwal, Andrew Townsell, and Grace Kim— passed down wisdom to a group of BHP Freshman. The panel offered up some great tips for how to be successful in an internship. Here are five notable ones.
1) Figure out what your boss hates to do and become good at that.
2) Write down a list of everybody you meet. Record their name, email, personal information (wife’s name, kids’ names, alma mater, etc.), and your conversations with them. Use that information when you network and talk to them. It will really help you to stand out and build your network.
3) Come in early or stay late. When the office is quiet, you will get more uninterrupted work done.
4) Befriend the administrative assistants of executives and schedule lunch with them in advance. Try to meet as many people as you can. It will pay off enormously.
5) Make yourself comfortable with being uncomfortable. In ambiguous situations, ask a lot of questions. Keep engaging with your managers and peers with a positive attitude. Continue to ask questions about how things operate at the company. If you are genuinely interested in how the company is run, managers will notice, and it will reflect positively on you.
Ajun Desai, a senior BHP student organized the event with the BBA Career Services Office. “We put this event on for students because we felt there was a general uncertainty for students who are heading to an internship,” said Desai. “Being an employee is different from being a student, and our hope was to ease the transition into the professional world. Hearing from experienced students in informal, relaxed environment encourages some truly thoughtful advice to be passed along.”
We hope the students who attended and those of you reading this post find this information useful as you take on your next internship this summer!