Just started an internship? Wondering how to stay on top of your work or maybe build professional connections in the office? Well then, you’ve come to the right place! Welcome to the Plano Chamber’s “Declassified Intern Survival Guide”. My name is Venessa Odera, and I’m a Special Projects Intern here at the Chamber thanks to the sponsorship of JPMorgan Chase as part of the Plano Mayor’s Summer Internship Program. Through this blog, I hope to help any seedling interns navigate their experience by sharing the things that I’ve learned during my time here. Let’s get started!

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Staying “Linked-In” (get it?)

Want to create meaningful business connections? Whether you’re just starting an internship, or you’ve already been working for a bit, it’s always important to build connections with the people you meet. Each interaction that you engage in has the potential to positively affect you in the future, so I have compiled a few useful tips that I’ve learned to help you begin your networking journey as an intern.

• Be engaged.

When meeting new people, no one enjoys hearing plain responses like “yes”, “no”, “that’s nice”, or the conversation shattering “mhmm”, among others. Not only is it not conducive to building a genuine connection, but it may also cause others to view you as uninvested or disinterested. Instead, you should be an active participant in office conversations by making eye contact, asking follow-up questions, and keeping positive body language (avoid crossing your arms or slouching). As Morihei Ueshiba once said, “A good stance and posture reflect a proper state of mind”, and in my experience, even if you’re super nervous, the “fake it till you make it” method usually produces the best results.

• What’s in a name?

My personal motto is that “you don’t have to remember names forever, just long enough to add them on LinkedIn”. Because many office interactions are either brief or total one-offs, following up on these exchanges with a message on LinkedIn increases the chance that people will remember you and want to interact. Continuing these interactions outside of their initial context creates an opportunity to easily broaden your network. However, I would also like to stress that if you engage with someone on multiple occasions it IS important to remember their name in addition to any other things they share about themselves. By doing this you will be able to maintain contact with new people and build on previous conversations.

• Learn from your coworkers.

You may be working alongside other employees, but it’s important not to forget that your coworkers have much more experience. This is the perfect opportunity to learn about the profession you’re interested in from people who have been in the field for years. Not to mention, even if someone’s position doesn’t match your interests, you can still obtain a better understanding of their professional journey and the things they learned prior to assuming their current position. In the wise words of Harper Lee, “many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.”

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While my time as an intern at the Chamber has drawn to a close, I’m grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to share my experience and the lessons I’ve learned during my summer here. It’s amazing to see how much I’ve grown professionally in such a short amount of time as a result of this experience. I sincerely hope that these lessons I’ve learned will help you too as you start your journey as an intern.

Signing out,

Venessa Odera