Important Skills You Need To Be Successful In An Internship

Improving in these key areas will set you up for success in any internship:

• Self Assessments

• Emotional Intelligence

• Clear Communication

• Problem-Solving

• Learning Skills

The most fundamental skill you can develop is identifying your own strengths and weakness and then creating a game plan to grow and improve these areas. This applies to any internship, job, and life generally.

Can you answer these questions?

• What is your communication style?

• What is your personal brand?

• How does your culture influence your behavior?

• Do you have biases?

• How do you manage anxiety at work?

• Are you likely to burn out?

We are all unicorns (unique) but it's important to do an inventory of your skills regularly so you can be the best version of yourself!

Before your internship make a list of:

• 5 skills you have

• 5 skills you want to work on

• 5 skills you want to gain

Do the same at the end of your internship to see the progress you have made!

People skills are important in all fields. Collaboratively working with others makes you an asset! It is easy to undervalue these soft skills but similar to technical skills you can improve with practice.

Rate yourself using a score out of 10 for each skill below:

• Social Skills

• Empathy

• Listening Skills

• Adaptability

• Positive Attitude

• Self-Reflection

If you have a low score in any of these areas think about how this could impact your ability to be successful at your internship (and work on improving it!) 🤔

Are you comfortable sharing your ideas at work? Are you comfortable asking questions? Are you an effective communicator in virtual meetings? These are some of the most important communication skills that employers are looking for:

• Listening Skills

• Presenting Information

• Persuading Others

• Sharing Feedback

• Writing Tone

• Email Etiquette

• Asking Questions

• Virtual Communication

Perhaps an example of how not to communicate during your internship! 😅

Not all jobs require the same type of problem-solving but it is an essential skill for succeeding in an internship.

Picture these scenarios:

• A customer did not receive their order

• The website has been hacked

• You need to do a presentation on a new topic

What approach would you take? What are your problem-solving knowledge gaps?

• Root Cause Analysis

• Perspectives

• Creativity

• Process Thinking

• Analysis

• Brainstorming

• Time Management

• Critical Thinking

• Design Thinking

• Planning

What have you taught yourself to do in the past? What made it easy or hard? Do you like learning by reading, watching videos, or listening? Do you like learning in a classroom, on your own, with friends, or in a specific setting? Understand how you learn to create an effective plan and develop any skill!

Here are a few learning skill areas (but there are of course many more):

• Soft Skills

• Motivation and Focus

• Collaborative Learning

• Learning from Failure

• Goals

• Avoiding Perfection

• Reading

Sample plan for developing a skill

Skill: Be more positive

Steps to make it happen:

• Give people more compliments

• Think of 3 good things daily

• Ask a friend to point out when I am being pessimistic

Evaluation: Create a calendar reminder for 3 months from now to check in.

Create a learning action plan to improve your skill gaps!

Tackle a recommended Byte within this Byte each day until you have a collection of soft skills necessary to succeed in any field.

Which skill do you want to work on first?