Internship Over, Now What?

Thrivent Financial, Mayo Clinic, Target Corporation, and General Mills, just a few of the great organizations students in the Full-time UST MBA class of 2014 interned with this last summer. 97% of this year’s full-time MBA cohort completed an internship. Business cards were shared, happy hours attended, but days in the office are turning into days in the classroom. This should signify a shift in thought for many, but each student can now apply many new business practices learned through direct experience.

The skills you gain in an internship can be be what sets you apart from the rest in applying for a post-MBA job. In order to capitalize on that though there is a lot to do during the school year. Below is a quick to-do list to ensure you fully utilize the experiences you had this summer.

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What to do after the internship:

Update your résumé, LinkedIn profile and all other professional platforms.

Obtain a job description from your interning role, but go beyond what is written on that page.  Think of daily minute tasks, as well as large projects you were a part of.  Provide results for what was accomplished, and remember to quantify where applicable.

Create and foster connections.

Send thank you letters to each of your direct supervisors and team members.  Connect with all the people you had contact with, and even a few you may have just seen on a daily basis.  Include thoughtful or unique messages within each of your online invites.

Follow up with supervisors, mentors or coworkers throughout the school year.  Send relevant articles, request updates or send ideas for projects you worked on, and always keep them informed of important activities with you (i.e. graduation, case competitions, etc.). Sending invites to Open 4 Business, Master’s Connection, Master’s Pub and other events is also a great way to keep those connections alive and maintained offline.

Now might also be a great time to ask for additional work.  Part-time helpers come in handy when deadlines approach. Your willingness could be the difference between a fulltime job or another summer without a paycheck.

Discuss your experience with fellow classmates.

Firsthand experience is better than anything written on glassdoor.com.  Ask colleagues what they liked or didn’t like, as well as questions regarding work – life balance, company culture and management style.  Your classmates are now insiders who have direct experience, but also a whole new list of connections.

Be open, but diligent.

While it may have been stated that a job offer will be coming your way shortly, or within the next few months.  that, by no means, allows you to stop your job search.  Not only have your qualifications grown significantly, so has your professional vernacular.  Increase your options by continuing your job search.  Waiting for one offer is easy, creating multiple offers is smart.  Start the career search early, continue to apply, and keep your options open, thus ensuring you have the career path of choice.