First Impressions as an Intern for CampusB x Insper 2020 Virtual Summer Internship
I was highly skeptical about this internship program like some of the students in the article. I had preconceived notions of what an “internship” was primarily from peers who have internships in the tech industry. While they were making big bucks, not only was this internship unpaid, we had to pay a fee to even participate. Nonetheless, I took the time to ask a lot of questions (as I feel many should before committing themselves) to the program coordinator. After learning more about it, I realized that this internship will allow me to “get my feet wet” in the professional world. Given that I’ve never had a job before let alone work under the supervision of a company, I had little to lose. In addition, I had the privilege to receive a scholarship by U of I in order to fund the program. It’s a real shame that these kinds of experiences, like many other ones in life, are locked behind financial barriers that prevent students who are less fortunate or lack access to resources from participating.
In terms of my goals for the semester, they revolve around making the most out of the situation we are given. Although I would love to go all out and become a working machine doing all different things, I realize that the future is a big ol’ question mark and you have to learn to be flexible with your plans. I’m involved in student organizations on campus and we’ve put in a lot of work to come up with novel ways to execute events. However, it’s ultimately not up to us whether they can be done in the way we had hoped.
A typical working day at my internship will be to monitor the progress of the group project assigned by the Brazilian company as well as attend virtual events by CampusB. The main focus of the program is to experience the creative process of developing a product/service, from its most preliminary brainstorming process to its presentation. On the first day of our internship with the company, we were given vague instructions and it was very irritating to me. After my program coordinator explained his approach as a way to maximize the productivity of the brainstorming process, I realized something about myself that I’ve never really put much thought into. I’ve always been comfortable and confident when given tasks that have detailed instructions and clear steps, but that only works against you in the world of innovation. As a future doctor (hopefully), it might be important to follow “textbook” procedures to the step, but doing this internship has given me a greater appreciation for more “creative” career paths that consistently tread the unknown. In addition, given that a huge goal of this internship is intercultural collaboration, it’ll be really interesting to see how this goal can be accomplished virtually. I’d like to see how social skills learned through virtual interactions will transfer to conventional social interactions once things return to “normal.”
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Comments
I appreciate the fact you were skeptical about the internship. This trait will suit you well in medicine! Blinded idealism- while it suits a purpose- doesn't necessarily ask a set of questions that are productive to understanding (and ultimately, answering) the question- why? The entire concept of internships is fascinating to me...I agree- it would be better if they were paid0-many are not- and yet they require time and effort and cooperation from other working people to fill in as mentors and professional guides to said intern...I think this also speaks to some larger issues with USA society and the value we place on work and the relative void of mentorship that happens in the work world (unless it has been commoditized as internships have).
I like the goal - to make the most of the summer-what does that look like? (you can think of this more next assignment) - because there is certainly more to life (as a whole) than everything-career-related (I would hope :) ) I get the impression you're involved with SROs on campus and various event planning. What are some of your goals there? I also see that flexibility is featuring large in everyone's life (how could it not?). The fact you are giving this internship a shot as well as learning how to coordinate events on line for your campus orgs is also a testament to the ability to move with a set of circumstances not of your own making (as you have alluded to).
I lifted this out as something to think about throughout the remainder of this course: "I realized something about myself that I’ve never really put much thought into. I’ve always been comfortable and confident when given tasks that have detailed instructions and clear steps, but that only works against you in the world of innovation. As a future doctor (hopefully), it might be important to follow “textbook” procedures to the step, but doing this internship has given me a greater appreciation for more “creative” career path" - Keep this tucked somewhere accessible throughout the internship- check in with yourself and gauge how you are doing with this! Also- I share your curiousity regarding how virtual formats can work for intercultural correspondence and communication (I am skeptical ;)). - Kate Abney
I would agree with you. I feel like mentorship should be taken into account in any job and be almost an expectation when you are hiring someone. I get that their mentorship might be a cost that the company has to cover, but if they are interested in potentially hiring them for future careers beyond the internship program they should incur those costs for the talent they would be getting later on. I would totally agree with you on that summer point as well. My summer was not all career-related. I learned a lot more about myself after having to spend a majority of the summer locked up at home (not necessarily a bad thing), learned a lot about the world (through the tumultuous yet important BLM movement), and a lot of personal development for me.
My goal for the RSO planning is to just get as much done and think ahead. We made a lot of contingency plans and now that some of the new campus policies are being released (though it's still very vague and yet 1 week from quad day), it's become more clear that our events will mostly be online this semester. While this is a bummer, I think it's the best in order to prevent an outbreak on campus. I've looked at the bright side of things and just working hard this past couple of weeks to think of innovative events that could be really interesting and engaging despite these setbacks (which I've had a lot of experience now from the internship :))
Also, with regards to my previous comments about my hesitation about the unknown, I felt like this is where I've grown the most and I was happy to be able to experience the entire innovation process in my internship. It's made me more well-rounded now as I am not as flustered when faced with vague tasks as the one assigned to me during the beginning of my virtual internship. Though I think my detail-oriented nature will still predominate and be my strong-point, I think the creative skills I learned from this internship will also help me in the long run. It’s also important in general to be aware that people have their strengths and weaknesses. If you have the mindset to want to improve, I believe you will go out of your way to observe and actually achieve your goals. - Josh
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