Playbook: Internships Guide

Internship Workshop

In this workshop, Navid covers the following areas:

1. Creating your internship “CRM”.
2. What companies look for when hiring.
3. Strategies to find companies and engage them.

Checklist:

After you get the internship:

How you should be thinking

• Proactive: Take initiative. If you have free time or you feel your work isn’t adding value, say something. They won't be able to tell since you're at home. You need to speak up and take initiative.
• Exceed Expectations: Try to exceed expectations when possible. Impress them. Don't settle for average.
• Crush everything: it doesn’t matter how small the task is, CRUSH IT! Do everything really well. Impress people on the smallest of tasks. It doesn’t matter if you think something is important or not, crush it.
• Be on-the-ball: If you’re supposed to do something, get it done! Don’t forget tasks. And if you’re working on a task, make sure to proactively give updates to people so they know the status of the task and they know that you’re working on it. Don't expect to be reminded. Build a good to-do system for yourself.
• Be early: Arrive to zoom meetings 2min early. Don't join late!
• Be helpful: have a “how can I help” mindset. Constantly be asking people how you can help them. It doesn’t need to be people directly on your team. Even if it’s something small like cleaning the table, to something big like a project they’re working on. Since you won't see people in person, msg them on Slack or email them. They will appreciate it.
• Be engaged: always be asking questions and participating in the conversations. Show that you’re super engaged with the work you’re doing. Bring energy into the [virtual] room.
• Don’t get comfortable: every day you should be pushing yourself to make an impression. The summer isn’t a long time. Each day is valuable and you should be growing. Don’t slack off, don’t get comfortable. It's easy to get complacent working from home, especially if you don't have a large workload.
• Show progress: Make sure people see that you’re doing stuff. Don’t assume they know.
• No second chances: once you lose trust the first time, it’s very hard to get it back. Don’t mess up. If you mess up, it will be because you fell into a bad mindset. Stay hungry!
• You might have more free time on certain days/weeks. Make sure to be proactive and communicate. In the meantime, learn stuff yourself! Take online courses, build a project, and learn about things you're interested in.

Valuable skills to have

• Writing: be a great writer. Read over your emails, proposals, and everything you write. This isn’t school. Get feedback and iterate.
• Quality Video Calls: Make sure you have good lighting, framing, and audio in your video calls.
• Clear communication: Structure all your communication very clearly and concisely. Use bullet points, numbers, short sentences, and bold important things. Make your communication (written and verbal) easy to understand.
• Clear emails: This is part of communication, but you’re going to be writing a lot of emails. Make sure you get good at sending clean, clear, and concise emails.
• Nice visuals: make sure anything you build looks good. Don’t use fuzzy pics and ugly colors. Be legit. Replicate the best. High standards.
• Get stuff done: Constantly be getting stuff done and updating people on it. Don’t just get stuff done silently. You want to give updates so people know you’re getting stuff done. Just quick updates on your progress and results.
• Organization: your emails, folders, desktop and workspace should all be super organized. If you’re messy, they’ll see you as a little kid.

Have good vibes

• Be likeable. In your video calls: dress well, do you hair nicely, wear make-up if you want (not too much), smile, laugh, and show enthusiasm! This is so important! You won't see them in-person, so the video call is the main way you can make a personal impression.
• Be friendly. Smile!
• Be authentic. Don’t be overly professional and fake.
• Be trustworthy. Don’t do stupid things. Be honest. Don't lie. It's way better to tell the truth.
• Work hard! If someone is asked if they think you work hard, they should say “hell yea!”
• Have boss mentality. Ask questions, meet people, don’t hold yourself back. Engage with everyone and be part of the team. Have confidence in yourself.
• Make an impression. Everyday you should have made an impression. This should be your #1 goal.

Internship Tips

• Smart people > titles.
• Be clear on what success means in your role.
• It’s only 8 weeks.
• Go 100% everyday.
• Make an impression.
• Don’t relax, if you feel yourself not going 100% that’s a sign you’re doing something wrong.
• Spend time learning at the beginning.
• Don’t jump into things. Ask questions first.
• People expect you to ask questions and get advice.
• Setup meetings!!! With everyone!!!
• Develop relationships! Everyone should know who you are by the end of the summer.
• Setup as many meetings as possible at the start of your internship.
• Don’t worry about the work during the day (do this at night). During the day you should be in meetings talking to people.
• Trust me on this. So important. Minimum 4 meetings per day if possible.
• Don’t mimics others.
• Grind harder. Communicate more. Learn.
• It’s their summer. They will be chill, but you shouldn’t be!
• Over communicate. Send updates on your progress and results. That will show people you’re on the ball and getting stuff done.
• This builds trust and shows you’re hardworking.
• Dress well on video calls. Build your optics.
• Build relationships with EVERYONE.
• Position doesn’t matter. Don’t just care about the CEO.
• Don’t judge people on if they’re smart or can add value. Develop relationships with everyone.
• Be nice, be kind, and be helpful.
• Don’t be transactional. Get to know them as a person.
• Ask for feedback.
• Be coachable. Show that you’re taking their feedback and implementing it.
• Apply feedback ASAP.
• Establish a cadence (eg. once/week)
• Never be late.
• Never miss a meeting.
• I can’t say this enough… BE ON THE BALL!
• Don’t burn bridges.
• Be careful how you communicate and treat people.
• Show gratitude.
• Everyday you should remind yourself that no high school kid gets this kind of opportunity.
• Feel gratitude, and EXPRESS gratitude!
• Figure it out, then ask questions.

PRO-TIP: END OF INTERNSHIP