Last week I had a chance to interview Lucia, our 2016 Marcom intern. Here is her perspective after working at Indium Corporation for 9 weeks:
Jim: It’s nearing the end of your Internship at Indium, has your experience changed the trajectory or focus of your professional goals at all?
Lucia: In the beginning I was really focused on gaining marketing experience because, other than what I’ve learned in class, I didn’t have any professional experience. The communications part seemed obsolete to me, at first, but I quickly realized that communications had an impact on everything that I was assigned here. As I’ve improved tremendously in this area over the past 10 weeks I now know it will not only help me in my career but it will also help in every aspect of my life leading up to that point.
Jim: Do you think your outlook of classes this next semester will change at all after having completed the internship?
Lucia: Absolutely, because I now have the knowledge on how to get assignments done in a real work setting. Before, I was only able to base my class projects and assignments off of the advice my professors would give. But, after gaining real experience, it will make every project much easier to understand knowing to always keep the goal in mind.
Jim: Did you make any assumptions about the internship which were different than you actually experienced?
Lucia: I initially thought that I would meet the other 9 interns on the first day and then wouldn’t see much of them throughout the rest of my internship. This was not the case at all. With our weekly lunch and learn and being able to work on the e-commerce project with a fellow intern, Lindsay, we were all able to spend a lot of time together during our time here - which I thought was great.
Jim: Can you share any valuable lesson you may have learned this summer?
Lucia: The best lesson I learned is that if you try to fit in and do everything the same as everyone else, you will never become a leader. If you want to stand out and get recognition, always determine a goal and, once you find it, make it a point to do things differently than everyone else is expecting.