With another season of internships wrapping up at Endeavor, I thought it’d be appropriate to outline a few things that all interns should be aware of.
1&2) Show up early. Stay late. This is probably the easiest way for an intern in any industry to make an impression. One of our Summer interns regularly stuck around for 13 hour days just because he liked being there. Not surprisingly, we asked him to start doing some part-time work with us in the Fall. Dedication goes a long way.
3) Don’t get too comfortable. This is a mistake I’ve made in the past. Depending on the internship, you may be surrounded by people around your own age (including your “superiors”). It’s okay to joke around every now and then, but certain topics about your extra curricular activities probably shouldn’t be brought up ever and a certain comfortable/familiar tone you should avoid using with your superiors.
4) Study your superiors. I use superior due to lack of a better term. In our industry, almost everyone has a blog. At Endeavor, I have my site, I write for Endeavor, and David Lasnier has his site. Our interns also know that both David and I read Eric Cressey, Mike Robertson, Mike Boyle, and Carson Boddicker’s sites on a regular basis (amongst others). Make it a habit to read everything your superiors write and try to follow along with the people that they’re reading too.
5) Try new exercises. If something isn’t familiar to you, try it. Become proficient at it. You need to be able to demonstrate every exercise to coach it anyway and actively jumping in to try an exercise shows you’re interested in learning.
6) Ask well thought out questions. One of my favorite things is when an intern says something along the lines of, “I was reading the book you let me borrow; I have a question about…”. Doing outside reading shows they’re passionate about the field and getting better. Asking questions shows they aren’t glazing over the text, but really trying to critically analyze everything. This can also be applied to questions you have about the purpose of certain exercises and/or why they’re included in certain parts of the program.
7) Ask for feedback. Feedback about your performance will make you better. This is true in any industry. If you don’t ask for feedback you may not get it. It’s important to learn what your strong and weak parts are so you know how to improve in the future.
To your success,
Kevin Neeld