Last updated on 2021/10/01
Go get me my coffee!
That is right, you, intern, are here to make my life easier and do all of the grunt work that I don’t want to do.
But you can start by bringing me my coffee.
Two sugars and 1 cream.
This sounds like fun, doesn’t it?
Whatever perceptions and expectations that exist in society, whether from badly scripted movie and tv shows or from horror stories from really bad places to work, an Engineering Co-op or Intern experience should not be lumped in with all of that.
A good intern experience should give you just that: experience.
You should be able to see and observe, work and contribute just like any other member of the team.
Sure, your knowledge and skills won’t match those of a senior Engineer.
You should also know that nobody is expecting that out of you.
The best co-op experiences give people the room to grow, experiment, and learn both the technology being used and the workplace experience.
These are the things that will result in the best outcomes for both the team and the intern.
Therefore, having had the priviledge of working with and mentoring many co-ops through a program in conjunction with a local Engineering college, here are seven things that any co-op or intern should look to get out of this time and experience.
You Should Get Paid
This one should be a no-brainer, but society always finds a way to screw people over.
It doesn’t take much google-fu to go find examples of people asking for help in the workplace from unpaid labor. Or to find influencers who are making it by getting free stuff for their personal brand of exposure.
Let’s be clear here – you should not be providing your time and talent to an organization simply for the “experience” that you will gain.
There are plenty of ways to get experience for free. Make a website. Write a blog. Develop a game in your spare time. Volunteer somewhere.
All of these methods are easy ways to build experience for free. Some might even net you a few dollars if you can find someone to purchase some of your output.
However, working in a professional environment at an unpaid internship is not something you should look to do. There are plenty of other opportunities out there where you can get the same experience and also walk away with some actual money in your pocket.
You Should Find Your Voice
It might seem like a co-op should be seen and not heard.
Who wants to listen to your thoughts and opinions anyways?
That attitude is crazy. In a workplace, people will adjust to you and to how you see your role. They will accept you as you present yourself.
So you can choose to present yourself as a meek, quiet, co-op trying to learn and you can struggle to get through simple tasks and objectives.
Or you can assert yourself as a member of the team and make your voice heard.
This is not a license to simply bully your way into stuff and it does not grant you the gravitas that years of experience provides.
However, it is encouragement to step up and present your ideas and to participate in group discussions. It is permission to make your voice heard.
Sure you may have some ideas that won’t get used, but we all have opinions and ideas and usually only one of them wins. It doesn’t stop everyone else on the team from throwing them out there.
Finding your voice and establishing your place on the team are valuable skills that a co-op allows you to explore without the ramifications of being in a full time position. These are valuable skills in learning how to build workplace relationships and communicate with others that will greatly help you in your career.
You Should Build Professional Habits
No, this one isn’t about learning how to make coffee in the company kitchen the right way.
This is the point where you need to watch and learn from others, and then start building your own habits that will help you to achieve success easier in the future.
How do people comment their code? Where do they go to find answers? What tools exist that make day-to-day functions easier?
This one is pretty easy to start. Simply sit back and watch a senior member of the team work. Ask them questions.
You don’t need to replicate their environment and toolset and mentality, but learning what all of those things are for another person will help you to understand the habits that you can start working to build.
Remember, success isn’t luck. Success comes from hard work and solid processes and recognizing the proficiency in the routines of others is one great way to start building your own habits.
You Should Know Whether This Career Is For You (Right Now)
Getting time in a professional working environment is like having your own personal laboratory for some awesome experiements.
This is where you get the chance to try out new things and learn. Hopefully, you will learn a lot.
One critical question that this learning should entail is a very simple one:
Do you even like doing this enough to jump into it as a career?
This is a very important question. Sure, you like coding, developing, engineering, or doing some parts of this role.
However, nobody will ever be happy with all aspects of their job.
Your goal in an internship should be to define the parts of the role that you don’t like very much and make sure that they won’t be deal breakers for you right out of the gate.
Also, don’t worry about things down the line. You will almost certainly change roles throughout your career. Your likes and dislikes and amount of patience for the things that you do or don’t like will certainly change.
The goal here is not to try and answer whether you would be ok doing this 20 years from now.
Instead, try and make sure that 20 days from now you won’t be worn out and feel overwhelmed or super angry at that one irritating thing.
You can always change careers later, just try and make sure that you can stomach the experience now in the short term.
You Should Get Actual, Real Experience
No co-op or intern should be expected to stand up next to the senior developers and deliver mission-critical solutions during their time in the role.
However, no co-op or intern should be relegated to fetching coffee, performing basic QA, and writing basic documentation for their entire rotation either.
You are there for a purpose. Remember how you need to find your voice? This is where you should use it.
Ask to be part of actual projects. Ask to be included in planning meetings. Even if you are there as an observer, this is where you will start to see how the sauce is made and the real work is done.
Ideally you will also find a way to contribute to these projects. Even if it is only in writing small bits of code and doing a bunch of QA you will still be working on an actual, live project.
So don’t be afraid to do some of the grunt work here. The thing to remember is, it shouldn’t all be grunt work.
You might have to fight to carve out your own space where you can do the same work as others.
However, this is where you will learn the most and level up faster than anywhere else.
So don’t be afraid of jumping in the deep end on your internship. The experience gained from doing so will be invaluable.
You Should Start Making Contacts
One mistake that a lot of co-ops make is that almost all schooling teaches you how to do most of the work but they don’t teach how to exist in the workplace.
This co-op or internship may be the first time that you encounter workplace drama.
It goes by many names. Teammate interaction, office politics, survival of the fittest.
In some ways, working for an organization is no different than it was in high school. There will be instances where people form cliques and some people will get opportunities that others won’t.
However, being in an intern or co-op role provides a relatively safe space to explore office relationships.
This is not saying to go try and date people in the workplace.
The goal here is to find ways to communicate with people that you otherwise wouldn’t talk to. Have you even spoken to your bosses boss? How about the nice person in HR? Have you talked to them beyond your first day onboarding seminar?
What about the CEO with the open door policy? Hint – that person is human too and most likely won’t mind chatting for a few minutes with you.
You never know what people can help you on your journey later on. Even if you don’t get a job at this company once the internship is over, the contacts and relationships that you build during this time can create far-reaching ripples that can help you later on.
So with your newfound voice, go have those conversations. Find ways to talk to these people. Make some new friends.
You Should Get A Job Offer
Finally, you should walk away with a job offer.
Now this last one isn’t guaranteed and there is a lot that could impede this event from occurring.
The company could be going through a down year. A global pandemic might occur and hiring might freeze for a while.
Set all of this aside for now. The biggest variable here is YOU.
You should work this co-op like you want to spend the rest of your career at this organization. You should try to become invaluable. You should strive to be highly regarded and complimented by your teammates.
This doesn’t mean that perfection is required or that the most challenging projects need to be tackled. Remember, anyone just starting out isn’t expected to learn it all in a day.
However, teammates and managers know when someone is pulling their weight and is fitting in with the team.
As a manager, I am much more interested in someone that jumps in, becomes part of the team, contributes in some meaningful way, no matter how small, and achieves success than I am by someone tackling our biggest problems and not making any headway.
Doing the work needed to be offered a position at the end has so many benefits for you as you start your professional career.
Not only are you walking away with an offer in hand, hopefully you have a little money in your pocket, you know how to speak up and make your voice heard, you have started to build good habits that will lead to success, you understand what is involved in doing this work as a professional career, you have actual real experience to put on a resume, and you now know people that can vouch for you and refer you to others.
Additionally, with an offer in hand now you are in the drivers seat. You don’t have to accept. The world is open to you now.
The best part here? Even if you don’t receive an offer, if you worked hard and kept learning, then all of those other benefits listed here are still in your back pocket and you are ready to face the world.
Nothing is ever easy – but at least you have the knowledge and practice needed to start making those next decisions. That is the real value that you get out of a co-op experience!
Thanks for Reading!
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