This article was originally published on.cultbyRandy Tolentino.
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During these months, theyd gain firsthand experience of life at a large, global tech company.
Personally, Ive always been impressed by the interns, mostly because of their energy.
From what Ive seen, they carry themselves with an obvious excitement for learning.
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One morning, I came into the studio a little later than normal.
I had a car appointment at 7 AM and didnt get in until about 9:30.
When I walked in and got settled, I noticed a new person sitting at the empty desk.
Ah… must be the intern,I assumed.
Manuel joined our team as a product designer but also had an engineering background.
But in the meantime, hed dedicate his summer to helping our team in IBM Security.
For the first few days, Manuel ramped up through the teams onboarding process.
He learned about our products, our design language, and how the team worked.
As a first step, we helped him get situated in our area.
His new desk was right behind mine.
He brought over his laptop and his backpack, and began to get situated.
Alright, heres your monitor… we just have to find the cords.
Thanks, Manuel said.
Well find em… somewhere, a teammate told him.
Dont worry about it, its okay, Manuel replied.
He organised the rest of his workspace, then continued with his work.
I thought to myself,why didnt you plan ahead so that hed have everything in place before arriving?
At the end of the day, I started to pack up.
I spun around again.
Hey, Manuel!, I said quietly.
Youre gonna take my monitor.
No, Randy you need it, man!
Nah, Ive already decided… besides I want a more minimal desk anyway, I pretended.
Randy, you sure?
Yup, Im sure.
When you come in tomorrow, itll be on your desk.
I owe you a burger.
Haha alright, sounds good… Ill see you tomorrow, dude.
The next day, I came in early and disconnected my monitor.
I wiped down all the cords, cleaned the screen, and cleaned Manuels desk.
When he came in, his monitor was good to go.
Thesegrowthmetrics typically measure everything from sales and customers to project-level deliverables like features, bug fixes, or optimizations.
This all makes sense, we work in businesses.
At the same time, we have responsibility for thegrowth of people, especially as hosts for aspiring professionals.
This is a great opportunity for us who work for companies that have internship programs.
Whats his design process?
But forget skills for a second.
Its important that we take a step back and remember that theyrepeoplefirst.
Theres so much value in knowing people for who they are and not just as resources on a project.
We should help them make the most of this amazing opportunity.
Lending these perks out to interns is only temporary.
On theteam cultureside, you might also attend team lunches, after-hour outings, or other social events.
Instead of just having interns focus onheads-downwork, give them a chance to have all these experiences.
Create a real checklist and ensure that theyre time on your team includes all of these activities.
Remember, they chose you
I love the analogy of comparing ones career to a journey.
On these journeys, we encounter challenge after challenge while learning to master many valuable life-lessons.
I think this way when thinking about interns because it gives a deeper meaning to the context.
While there are hundreds of other programs they couldve applied to, they decided to join your companys program.
This is an honour.
Let them experience all of it.
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