I Love Being An Intern

For someone who has lived in the same state for 18 years, I don’t particularly like being stagnant. I like to consistently meet new people, do new things, and never stop learning.

That’s why I love being an intern.

I had an internship almost every year that I was in college and even if some of them weren’t what I thought they were going to be, I still loved having the opportunity to be an intern at a different company every summer.

Because what’s life if you’re not being taught new things all the time?  You don’t just leave school and settle with the information you have, you continue to yearn for more knowledge and skill sets.

I wish I could be an intern forever, work somewhere temporarily and learn a whole new field of work and business.  Then move on to the next one.  One of my biggest fears (as I’m searching for a career) is that I will get a job in a place where my learning will come to a halt.  Yes, I’ll be getting the necessary experience to move on to a second job eventually. But that’s not after a couple of months, it’s after a couple years with the same company where you’re probably doing the same thing.

I like being good at what I do and would enjoy to work for a company for a couple of years, as long as there will be growth in the long run.  As an intern, everyone around you is constantly pushing you to grow.  They are forcing you outside of your comfort zone and giving you a new experience.  Can I also find this in a career?

Whether it’s working in a huge corporate office or small business, whether you’re the only intern or in a group with others, whether you’re actually being productive or kind of just clicking around on the computer all day – having an internship can give you the ability to unlock a ton of knowledge that you just can’t learn in college.  And trust me, you won’t really learn what your future career is all about from the professors who are just talking at you in a classroom.

I love being an intern, but the real world requires me to work a full time job for the rest of my life.  So I’ll take my skills from each internship, call it years of experience, and try to get a big girl job as soon as possible.