How To Manage Your Fall Internship

How To Manage Your Fall Internship Photo by moriza on flickr.com Practice time management Time management is essential to any internship, but especially fall internships when you’re likely to have a number of different responsibilities and obligations to maintain. You have to ensure you make time for everything without sacrificing your physical and mental health, so be certain to plan your schedule ahead of time. This might include scheduling down time in addition to your internship and classes, so you will definitely have time to relax around your busy schedule. Balance your internship with your studies What you take in school is important not just for satisfying course requirements, but for maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Since internships can run the gamut from relaxing to demanding, pair the classes you take with the rigors of your work. If you’re internship involves a lot of busy work, you’re probably better off taking less intense classes on the days you’ll be interning. Supplement your internship with classes Most students apply for internships without having much knowledge of the field they’re trying to gain experience in; in fact, that’s often why some students apply for internships in the first place. Just because you’re going into something unfamiliar doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to do your homework literally: Consider taking classes that will increase your knowledge of the field you’re interning in. For example, if you’re interning at a law office, a political science or even a philosophy course might give you some valuable insight into the field. Be flexible Internships can be unpredictable; you might sign on with certain expectations or duties, only to find that those have changed by the time you begin. In other cases, you might advance in your internship to acquire greater responsibility. It’s important you be mindful about how this will affect school, your schedule and all of your other obligations. You have to be flexible. Though most fall internships require less time than their summer counterparts, they might still make demands of you that your schedule might not accommodate. Be sure to negotiate time for your work before entering into any agreement. Bio: Harrison Kratz is the Community Manager at MBA@UNC, the accredited online mba program offered through the University of North Carolina which also some of the nation’s leading executive MBA programs. Harrison also sticks to his entrepreneurial roots as the founder of the global social good campaign, Tweet Drive.