Entering the Workforce — Succeeding in Your Internship or Full-Time Role

4 min readJun 3, 2021

For students entering the workforce for an internship or a full-time role, it can be difficult to transition from your school schedule to a work setting. This rings especially true for those who are working for the first time. This article provides tips on how you can set yourself up for a positive workplace experience and how you might be able to prepare before starting your new job!

Before the Job

Reach out to manager or previous interns who have had the role and ask about how you can prepare
Most of the time they will tell you to not worry, maybe give you a chance to introduce yourself to team members — sometimes they might provide materials to look at (e.g. books, research sources, especially for technical jobs)
Take a look at job description, familiarize yourself with requirements/what they expect from you
Nothing wrong with feeling underprepared or impostor syndrome (which can linger after you start) — this is normal and expected, and shows that you’re in a position where you have many opportunities to learn!
Your recruiter may reach out with forms related to background checks and work authorization

Starting Your Job

Most jobs will commonly have a 9–5 or 10–6 schedule with a lunch break, might take some adjustment, but try to adapt yourself to your team’s work schedule so that collaboration is easier
If it’s an internship, don’t force yourself to work too long and stay a comfortable amount of time — enjoy your internship and have fun (events, making friends)

During the Job — Building Relationships with Coworkers

Common to have boss schedule 1-on-1s with you, good opportunity to ask for feedback or just talk about anything/socialize (updates on work, ask about life, discuss tricky situations regarding work)
Consider scheduling chats with teammates and other people within the company. Some companies have mentorship programs for interns and junior employees — if not, try to schedule ‘coffee chats’ on your own! You can also set up chats with people in different positions or teams around the company. Most people are really excited to help! Keeping yourself accountable to having one coffee chat per week is a good goal.

Post from Scotiabank regarding coffee chats: https://www.scotiabank.com/careers/en/careers/blogs/posts.the-anatomy-of-a-successful-coffee-chat.html

Connect with coworkers on LinkedIn, maybe social media, to keep in touch
Attend company events, and try to participate in ERGs (Employee Resource Groups) — kind of like clubs, but for company employees

During the Job — Getting Work Done Efficiently

Separate large tasks into sub-tasks and try to tackle them one at a time.
Get good at prioritizing tasks and keeping in sync with your manager/mentor. Both of you should be on the same page, and there should be no disconnect as to what tasks are important/what the deliverables are — ignoring this often ends up in many wasted hours.
If you start struggling, don’t feel ashamed to communicate that to coworkers or your manager — they’re the ones whose job it is to help you out!
Take advantage of team/project management software (e.g. JIRA, Trello, Asana) if your company uses it. It’s a good indicator of what is top priority for you and whether there is any work in the backlog that you could potentially take up. You can also pitch ideas to your manager and ask for opportunities to work on new projects or shadow them in meetings if you’re interested in learning about something new!
Never stop yourself from asking questions — the whole point is to ask questions so you can learn and improve. It can feel scary at first to ask questions in a team meeting, so you can also message or chat with your manager about your questions during a 1 on 1 too.
Have a feedback session with your manager (usually around mid-term, but can be more often if you would like) to understand what they feel you can improve

Finishing Your Work Term

Try to hold onto contact information of friends, coworkers — might come in handy some day to keep in touch
Ask about return offers/future positions within the company with recruiters/manager when you have the chance
Have a feedback session with your manager at the end of your term to understand what they feel you can improve
Update resume with your job position and the skills you’ve learned within your role. Congratulations on completing your term!

Resources

Here are some resources that you can take a look at:

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