How to put your best foot forward

Here’s the good news: someone said yes, and hired you! Whether paid or unpaid, now is the time to make your internship or new job a great experience for you and your employer.

To help make sure your boss thinks you are a good employee, we offer these three pro-tips.

1. Ask for help

Your boss will no doubt give you a series of assignments or projects to complete during the summer. Some of those projects will be simple to complete while others are more complicated or difficult. You may find you need help with the more difficult or complicated assignments. As soon as you realize you need help, go to your boss and ask for the help you need. Your internship is meant to be a learning experience and your boss is prepared and wants to help you. Remember it is never too late to ask for help (although the day before the project is due is an exception!)

I really struggle in asking for help at work. It can often feel like a defeat to have to keep going back for assistance, and when working for busy or high-profile employers, it can be daunting to interrupt them at work. However, it’s incredibly difficult to turn out a high quality project without some input from your boss. When I have a lot of questions on many different assignments, I try to stockpile them all into one list I can bring to my boss midday, so I don’t have to feel like I’m constantly interrupting.

2. Ask for more work

Once you complete an assignment or project, go to your boss and ask for additional work. Your value as an employee is based on how much you help your boss get his or her work done. The more you do, the more your boss will like and appreciate you. No boss likes to see an idle employee so ask for enough work to keep yourself busy throughout the summer.

As we advised bosses in “How to Prepare for Summer Interns” many employers tend to underestimate the amount of time it takes an employee to finish an assignment. Your boss may not understand that you are capable of more, and may in fact be delighted to assign more projects. It’s boring not to have enough to do, and while it’s tempting to work on personal projects or take a break, putting your best foot forwards means asking for more.

3. Don’t “delegate up”

Every employee receives assignments that are seemingly too difficult, boring, stupid, or time-consuming to complete. I have seen many interns choose one of two options when this happens: A) they buckle down and figure out how to get it done, or B) they find a way to tell their boss they can’t or won’t do it. Option A is obviously the right choice—just get it done! I call option B “delegating up” and no boss likes it. Never refuse or give an assignment back to your boss for any reason. Even if you consider it the most boring or menial task you have ever been assigned, get it done and do it well. If you are stuck, see #1 above – ask for questions before you give up. You get big bonus points for completing tasks that are difficult or time-consuming.

As an intern, it’s incredibly tempting to return a project to your boss. Maybe he asked you to do research, but the best articles are on Lexis Nexus which you don’t have access to. Or maybe she asked you to call fifty clients to gauge their interest in a project, and the calls are so dull that you want to return the unfinished list to your boss at the end of a day. But your boss gave you this project for a reason – he or she is busy, and she needs you to take care of it. Putting it back on your employer’s plate hurts both of you. So as annoying as it may be, do the work – you’ll both be rewarded in the end.

Enjoy your new position – best wishes for a productive and meaningful experience.

APW & NW

Your Success Is Our Success