The most awkward parts of an internship are certainly the beginning and the end. In the beginning you’re excited, hopeful, and ready to take on any challenge your bosses might throw at you – but you don’t know anything or anyone at the company. You feel awkward asking how to use the scanner and weird when you’re wandering the wrong way down the hallway looking for the bathroom. By the end, you’re a little more experienced, a little bit smarter, and you have something cool to put on your resume. But, you also might be ready to say adios! to your unpaid work-ethic. Or, you might have had a good experience but are ready to move on to yet another unpaid (or gasp paid) internship the next semester. So how do you wrap up your internship in a way that your bosses will want to stay in touch? Well, for starters, be polite.
Give Notice. Even though you’re unpaid and work only part-time, you’ll want to give your bosses plenty of notice of when your last day is. Most do not expect you to work through finals week. The end of classes generally coincide with the end of internships, but with so many schools in Boston and interns coming from all over, you’ll want to make sure you give them a heads up.
Connect! If you had a good relationship with your supervisors and you want to stay in touch (either personally or professionally), make sure to connect with them! Get their office number (or cell number if they give it out), as well as store their email in a safe place. Connect with them on LinkedIn so they can follow your progress and you can follow theirs. Make sure to double check this trusty site before you call them up asking for a job in two years; there’s nothing more embarrassing than calling to see if they’re hiring when they no longer work there.
Send thank you notes! Even though it may seem they should be thanking you for all of the unpaid labor you did for them all semester, you must always remember that you are the intern. They are taking you under their wing to teach your something about the real world, so you want to make sure to say thank you to them for doing that, whether they wanted to or not.
Be honest. If they ask you to come back for another semester, and you either don’t want to or have another opportunity lined up, just tell them that. Don’t be mean – but give them honest feedback. They are competing against the other internship programs in Boston for the best interns, and they will want to know how you felt about your experience – good or bad.
At the end of the day, regardless of how your internship goes, you are sure to leave a little bit wiser. If not about marketing/PR/social media/finance/accounting/whatever, then at least about life. Keep calm and intern on, Collegiettes!