How to turn an internship into a full time job

Internships can either be a drag or a blessing -- it’s up to you to decide if you’re just going to endure it until the bitter end, or if you’re going to make the experience so golden that not only will you thoroughly enjoy yourself, but you might be offered a full-time job because of it. It happens all the time. While there are several ways to find internships according to Forbes, here’s how to make turn that internship into a full time job:

Follow the leaders

Every office has its leaders and followers, no matter what their official titles and duties might be. There is also an office culture that exists everywhere, seen and unseen. Your job as an intern is to discover those leaders and those rules that have led to success and satisfaction in that particular environment. Once you have nailed those people and those ideas down, adapt them to your own situation as an intern. The more you walk and talk like one of the company’s valued employees, the easier it will be for the managers to see you as one -- and make an offer. This worked very well for Andres Wiest, a student intern at Utah based Nanohydr8. He started as a social media manager and worked his way into a full time job within 6 months as a marketing coordinator.

Be serious with your work

Take care of your work and your work will take care of you. Maybe you think what you’re doing is just busy work or grunt work, but it serves a purpose for someone and for something, and you can bet that someone is keeping an eye on how well and how fast you do it. It can be hard, but if you can manage to interest yourself in the low level work you probably will start off with, you may be offered something more interesting and important -- which is a sure sign that the managers are getting interested in your future possibilities for their company.

Be a Cheerful Charlie (or Charlene)

You’re going to be initially given work you probably won’t like. That’s how an internship works. If the work were amazing and fun the company would reward their own employees with it, not you -- an outsider. So learn to smile and, if you have to, fake a positive and cheerful attitude when you’re at work. Maybe you’ll discover you loath the company and all the people that work there, so just think about how lucky you are that at some point in the near future you won’t have to ever see them again. Strangely enough, people who fake a positive attitude can often become infected with it, so that it turns into the real deal.

Look for extra work

Interns get dumped on all the time. Everyone seems to think of them as the appropriate victim to bring their unwanted and boring assignments to -- dump it on the intern’s desk and forget about it, seems to be the popular mindset. Well, here’s the upside to that. The more work you actually do, the better acquainted you get with the company and the better you’ll understand how it works and what it is the people do (or don’t do) there. This is invaluable knowledge to display if and when you are called in to interview for a permanent position.

Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do. Pele

Always remember, many permanent employees have become trapped with a negative attitude about their jobs and do whatever they can to avoid doing anything extra. Show that you are just the opposite and ask for more work -- after they get over their surprise, the managers will definitely start considering you for a permanent job.

About the author

Hello I am James I am a business man, journalist and social media expert from SocialQ.co.uk. I am very approachable and love to share good quality content. Always looking to explore new opportunities and help where he can.

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