PR pro Ron Culp does a great career guide blog for PR students and is always Tweeting out interesting articles about job hunting. He recently sent one on making the most of internships which I thought worth sharing with you.

Internships are time to learn and network

The piece notes internships are opportunities for you to increase your skills sets and also to show you if you’ll enjoy a chosen profession or career niche. Its advice for how to make the most of an internship includes principles I’ve touched on here and in my book. Chief among these is to take on responsibilities and projects to learn as much as possible while interning.

Don’t simply do the grunt work all interns get. Ask for more, seek it out and learn from it.

Another great piece of advice is to network while in the internship. “At first, develop an amicable professional relationship with your supervisor. He or she may recommend you or make you familiar with the vacancies in the company after the completion of your internship. As an intern, it may not be easy for you to talk to the company’s CEO directly. Still you can make this difficult job easy with the help of your supervisor.

“These connections can boost your career opportunities. They can act as a formal or an informal reference and acquaint you with suitable employment opportunities,” the piece states.

Intern season is just around the corner, time to nail one down and use it to always be job hunting.
John N. Frank