Housekeeping

Let’s talk about a few basic things to get right in your first few days.

Dress Code

You want to be spiffy, it’s always better to be overdressed than underdressed. The actual dress code will vary based on the industry, location, and role so show up well dressed and tone it down over the next few days if you have to.

Dressing well will instantly make you seem more professional and naturally boost your confidence.

Introductions

This is going to set a tone for everything else that follows so lock this down as best you can. I’ll give you a few frameworks below.

Tried and true: Name, college, year, major, team you’re working on, the kind of stuff you’ve done in the past.

A bit more original: Name, college, year, major, 1 liner of what you do (I do X, in the context of Y, to get Z results), what you’re passionate about outside of work.

Stand out: Name, something personal people can latch on to, tie it back to your role, college/hometown

Events Galore

Your entire first week will be filled with events which can range from amazing networking opportunities to incredibly boring slogs.

Networking Sessions

These events where you get to mingle with all the other interns and senior leadership are some of the best for putting yourself out there and getting a feel for the company and your cohort.

If you’re pretty social, these will be right up your alley but for those of us that are a little more shy, it’s totally fine to stick to the same person you sat next to at orientation but I challenge you to do just one of two things:

• Go around the room and introduce yourself to at least 5 groups. Just a simple “Hey, I’m X and I’m gonna be on the [team]. Some sort of compliment (I just wanted to say all of y’all are so well dressed OR y’all seem to be having a good time). Where are y’all gonna be working?”. Chat with them for a few minutes about where they’re staying, what they like to do, etc. And for when you want to leave, you can easily do so with a “I have to get back to a friend but I’d love to see y’all around”

• Go find the other introverts around the room and start chatting it up with them. This is super low stress for you since they’re probably nervous too. Any opportunity you see to make someone feel included, take it!

When it comes to talking with the leadership, the best advice I can give is to not be scared. They’re there to talk and to get to know you so just go for it and introduce yourself with a bit of originality.

Faceless Zoom Meetings

The other half of your time in the first week will be spent listening to recruiters and upper management talking about all the amazing things about the company.

To be fair, some of these can be helpful but for the most part, they’re just going to be echo chambers hyping the company up. So… what better time to start knocking out those endless onboarding modules. Don’t worry, it’s perfectly fine to do this if the meeting isn’t providing any value to you. And plus, you’re just building up a skill you will definitely use in the future.

Meet the Team

Your team will likely have a lunch or happy hour in the first week to acclimate you into the team but in case they don’t, try to get lunch with your manager and mentor in the first few days to get a feel for what’s expected of you, the opportunities you’re gonna have, and to tell them what you want from the summer.

Take the chance to grab a bite with a colleague, maybe your desk mate, as well to understand the team dynamics and who to go to for anything you might need.

You’re also going to want to set up a time for weekly 1-on-1’s with your mentor and routine meetings with your manager.

Email Management

Final thing I want to leave you with is when it comes to managing your inbox, less is more. You’re gonna be flooded with emails in the first week and you should just delete all the generic, meant for everyone, meaningful to none sort of emails as you see them and only keep the ones of import.

And here’s a few tricks on Outlook that no one told me initially:

• Find meeting times that will work for everyone

• Add an email signature with your name, role, and team

• Ignore those reply-all email chains with a single click

That’s it’s for week 1, thanks for much checking this out and I’m sure the tips here will make your first week go by so much smoother.

See ya next time!