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Internship Tips: How to Succeed and Impress Your Boss

Learn valuable tips on how to excel in your internship, earn respect, solve problems, and make yourself promotable. Avoid common negative behaviors and make a lasting impression.

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Internship Tips: How to Succeed and Impress Your Boss

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  1. WARNING • These slides are not optimized for printing or exam preparation. These are for lecture delivery only. • These slides are made for PowerPoint 2010. They may not show up well on other PowerPoint versions. You can download PowerPoint 2010 viewer from here. • These slides contain a lot of animations. For optimal results, watch in slideshow mode.

  2. IT intern mistreated by boss [2013, Singapore]

  3. Someone who (apparently) made a pull request for Linux version 4.3 submitted networking code Torvalds didn’t like, and he went all the way off. Here are some stinging excerpts. Christ people. This is just sh*t, and it generates shit code. … A shiny function that we have never ever needed anywhere else, and that is just compiler-masturbation. … So I really see no reason for this kind of complete idiotic crap. … And it’s a f*cking bad excuse for that braindamage. … Get rid of it. And I don’t *ever* want to see that shit again. -- Linus http://thenextweb.com/dd/2015/11/02/linux-creator-linus-torvalds-had-a-meltdown-over-a-pull-request-and-it-was-awesome/

  4. Can those things happen to you?

  5. Can those things happen to you? Past CS2103 student got yelled at twice, and internship aborted prematurely.

  6. Internship Tips Hear from someone who has worked with more than 50 interns! 4 Nov 2016 • Sell your strengths to get in • Don't race to the bottom • Do small things right • Earn respect, then suggestions • Respond promptly • It's not about you • Respect others • Deliver visibly • Aim for peace of mind • Solve problems • Make yourself promotable Internship Tips Your Boss Wishes You Knew Strong language! Not prof’s/NUS views

  7. Internship Tips 4 Nov 2016 Common negative behaviors Easy to avoid • Sell your strengths to get in • Do small things right • Don't race to the bottom • Earn respect, then suggestions • Respond promptly • It's not about you • Respect others • Deliver visibly • Aim for peace of mind • Solve problems • Make yourself promotable Internship Tips Your Boss Wishes You Knew I’m not your prof Internship 5 years

  8. CV Java, C, C++, PHP, HTML5, JavaScript, CSS3, Perl, Scheme, XML, VHDL, Assembly, Ruby, … What are you good at? An extract from a Google internal document: … We feel that the actual coding language doesn't necessarily matter; what does matter is that students become proficient in the language they choose to learn and that they understand it fully. An issue we see frequently in Google candidates is that engineers know a little bit of a lot of languages but don’t know any one language well enough to really understand how it works or to fully express their ideas in code.

  9. CV In-depth: Java, {evidence} Also tried: C, C++, PHP, HTML5, JavaScript, CSS3, Perl, Scheme, XML, VHDL, Assembly, Ruby, … Better…

  10. CV School projects: Project 1 Project 2 Project 3 OK…

  11. CV My own work: Project 1 School projects: Project 1 Project 2 Project 3 Better …

  12. Object what?… no, they didn’t teach any of that. Uh oh…

  13. Agile approach … weekly releases … automated unit testing … coding standard … We use Scrum. Do you know scrum?

  14. Agile approach … weekly releases … automated unit testing … coding standard … …………………………………………………………………………….?

  15. Agile approach … weekly releases … automated unit testing … coding standard … Tell me about your experience

  16. Agile approach … weekly releases … automated unit testing … coding standard … Why do you like software engineering?

  17. Agile approach … weekly releases … automated unit testing … coding standard … Why do you want to work for us?

  18. Agile approach … weekly releases … automated unit testing … coding standard … Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?

  19. Agile approach … weekly releases … automated unit testing … coding standard … What do you think of technology XYZ?

  20. Framework this … framework that. … stuff like that… Uh oh…

  21. Internship Tips • [CV, interview] • What are you good at? • What did you do extra? • Sell your strengths to get in • Do small things right • Don't race to the bottom • Earn respect, then suggestions • Respond promptly • It's not about you • Respect others • Deliver visibly • Aim for peace of mind • Solve problems • Make yourself promotable

  22. http://doanie.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/mean-professor-tells-student/http://doanie.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/mean-professor-tells-student/

  23. You are being judged, all the time No final exam; everything is CA! Image: https://www.tbunews.com/bittorrent-users-are-being-monitored/

  24. Sometimes you will be misjudged!

  25. Be punctual So you think your time is valuable than everyone else’s? At least have the decency to fake some urgency I was not punctual as a student. I wish my prof yelled at me earlier. Photo: www.kelownanow.com

  26. Care about variables names, comments, etc.

  27. Follow instructions } ‘Drive-by reading’ is not enough It’s not just you, but you can be better

  28. Internship Tips • Sell your strengths to get in • Do small things right • Don't race to the bottom • Earn respect, then suggestions • Respond promptly • It's not about you • Respect others • Deliver visibly • Aim for peace of mind • Solve problems • Make yourself promotable • You are being judged all the time • Pay attention to variable names, comments, etc. • Follow instructions

  29. Flexi hours > 8 hrs/day 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 8am – 5pm 9am – 6pm 8pm 10am – 7pm 11am – 8pm 9pm 6pm – 8pm 10am – 4pm

  30. Don’t arrive last, don’t leave first 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 8am – 5pm 9am – 6pm 8pm 10am – 7pm 11am – 8pm 9pm 6pm – 8pm 10am – 4pm Photo: theclassicswingband.com

  31. Don’t be the reason for new rules New rules: Everybody must use slack, Everybody must be in by 10am, Don’t bring outsiders to company workspace, … No, you did not manage to ‘get away with it’! Internship ≠a move from school to workplace, with minimum change Photo: http://www.gig.com/blog/2015/07/01/5-ineffective-benefits/

  32. Internship Tips • Don’t arrive last, don’t’ leave first • Flexi hours > 8hrs/day • Don’t be the reason for new rules • Sell your strengths to get in • Do small things right • Don't race to the bottom • Earn respect, then suggestions • Respond promptly • It's not about you • Respect others • Deliver visibly • Aim for peace of mind • Solve problems • Make yourself promotable

  33. STFU and do the given tasks first Phase 1: ignore instructions and make a mess Phase 2: try to be a smart ass You imply “I’m smarter” You don’t know why You don’t know who did it Prove yourself Find why Propose gently This code is stupid. There is a much better way to do this LOL…

  34. Don’t be a cry baby This product is boring This technology is old I don’t like this language

  35. Don’t overuse frameworks Wah… so many cool frameworks/ libraries /platforms! Bugs Changes Performance Constraints License Learning curve Be VERY cautious in using 3rd party stuff for production systems.

  36. Internship Tips • STFU and do the given tasks first • Don’t be a cry baby • Don’t overuse frameworks • Sell your strengths to get in • Do small things right • Don't race to the bottom • Earn respect, then suggestions • Respond promptly • It's not about you • Respect others • Deliver visibly • Aim for peace of mind • Solve problems • Make yourself promotable

  37. Be contactable Image: http://www.thevetinetwork.com/group/studenttips/forum/topics/top-10-tips-when-using-email/

  38. Respond to emails You: Hi, how are you? Me: …. Who can come on Saturday? -boss Hi James, can you come on Saturday? -boss Hi James, please document feature X. -boss

  39. Do ad hoc tasks ASAP by default Where’s the report I asked for? Sorry, I was doing other work Photo https://hypnothai.wordpress.com/tag/stress-management/

  40. Internship Tips • Sell your strengths to get in • Do small things right • Don't race to the bottom • Earn respect, then suggestions • Respond promptly • It's not about you • Respect others • Deliver visibly • Aim for peace of mind • Solve problems • Make yourself promotable • Be contactable • Reply to emails • Do ad hoc tasks ASAP by default

  41. Don’t be a cowboy coder

  42. Don’t expect ‘fun’ work Customers don’t pay us to have fun. Mostly they pay us to automate their boring work. We can make work more interesting.

  43. Don’t expect freedom to choose My internship was great. They let me make all the decisions.

  44. Don’t choose based on self interests I chose that one because I wanted to learn it Photo https://www.trustedchoice.com/professional-liability-insurance/computer-programmer-it-consultant/

  45. Internship Tips • Don’t be a cowboy coder • Don’t expect ‘fun’ work • Don’t expect freedom to choose • Don’t choose based onself-interests • Sell your strengths to get in • Do small things right • Don't race to the bottom • Earn respect, then suggestions • Respond promptly • It's not about you • Respect others • Deliver visibly • Aim for peace of mind • Solve problems • Make yourself promotable

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